Luscious Fibers, Food and Family

reunion weekend round-up

Last weekend, Dana and I headed to Mystic, CT to meet up with high school friends John and Robin.  The four of us try to get together at least once a year to laugh, catch up, laugh, hang out, drink, laugh and enjoy a weekend away together. During this visit we recounted our get-togethers over the last 10 years and realized we've seen each other 20 times, which surprised us all. So apparently we see each other more than once a year! However, the last few years have brought us together a few extra times to happily celebrate weddings and birthdays.

This past weekend, we not only enjoyed spending time together but we also had some fun seeing the Counting Crows, walking along the beach, strolling through a huge arts festival and a smidge of casino time. It was absolutely fantastic weekend and I never laugh as much as when the four of us are together. I'm lucky to have such great friends in my life for as long as I have.

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a little r&r

Grant and I are away this weekend at the mountain cabin we rented for a week last year. We loved spending time here so much we decided to come back this summer, even if only for a couple days.

We arrived yesterday and were welcomed by a huge thunder and lightning storm, but also by a temperature that was about 15 degrees cooler than DC...thank goodness!  The storm was a little scary at times but fun none the less. We managed to grill out a great meal between storms and we enjoyed a couple cocktails as well.  The evening was spent reading, talking and listening to public radio...a fantastic way to start the weekend.

This morning I actually slept until 10am which for me is unheard of. This last week at work has been very stressful and I had not gotten much sleep so I guess I made up for it today! For breakfast we made strawberry pancakes and Grant grilled some apple sage sausage. We enjoyed our brunch out on the deck before it started to get too warm.

Today has been much of the same, reading, puzzle doing, talking and the most exciting for the day, bird watching. So far we have identified three birds we have never seen before...

• purple finch
• indigo bunting
• eastern towhee

It's been a great day and we're looking forward to grilling out again tonight and enjoying an evening of sitting on the deck. Oh and we're excited to try some fresh peas we picked up at a farm stand on the way here.

Here are some pictures from our weekend so far...

red delicious strawberries

Last weekend I made one of my favorite summer pies - Strawberry Pie! The recipe comes from Kittee and it's just fabulous. I love how the pointy strawberries poke their way out through the glaze. There's also a layer of tofutti cream cheese hiding under all that strawberry goodness. It's a keeper!

Here a few pictures for a little catch up. These were taken at the cabin last weekend. We had a nice weekend away.

a mini fall getaway

Grant and I drove to West Virginia or Maryland on Saturday (I actually think we hit both states) so that we could look at the leaves and I could drop Grant off for a bike ride. He rode along the C&O Canal and met me in Shepherdstown, WV where we had a nice dinner at a funky little place, the Blue Moon, and then relaxed in our hotel room for the evening.

Even though it was kind of rainy part of the day, there was still nice leaf peeping and Grant had a good ride...though he was covered in mud when he arrived at the hotel.  Today, Grant has headed out for day 2 of his ride and I'm going to check out Shepherdstown. There is a darling downtown that I'm looking forward to exploring. 

My pictures from yesterday are below and Grant took great shots while on his ride.

Impromptu camping trip

The weather in DC was beautiful (unheard of in August) so Grant and I packed up and went camping. We had a nice evening by the fire. We had hotdogs and salad for dinner. We both slept great and this morning we're enjoying oatmeal and tea. We're heading out soon because it's hitting 90 today. Welcome back to DC weather.

a nice weekend away

Grant and I went away to our friend's cabin on the eastern shore for Memorial Day weekend. We always have a wonderful time when we go there and this weekend was no exception. We spent the time away relaxing, talking, grilling out, bird and animal watching, reading and a little bike riding (well a lot for Grant who went on a 52 mile ride on Sunday!) As I mentioned in my previous post we went to Delaware to see the Red Knots (thank you for correcting me Emily) but we mostly saw Ruddy Turnstones (in breeding plumage), and sanderlings. However, upon closer inspection of one of my photos, I do see the couple red knots in there!  Oh and we also saw Great Crested Flycatcher at the cabin which was a special treat.  You can check out weekend slide show here and I've posted a few favorites below.

Horseshoe crabs all around

Grant and I got up early to go to the Deleware shore hoping to see the migrating Red Nut Red Knot who stops in to feast on the horseshoe crab eggs. We had no idea that we would see thousands of horseshoe crabs inthe process of laying eggs. It was pretty incredible. We of course went on a crusade to flip all the up turned crabs. We flipped many but there many more left either get picked up by the tide or become bird dinner. We think we saw the red nut, but can't confirm until we get home. We are headed back to the cabin (a tech free zone) and i'll post pics when we return to DC.

camping, dc style

As many of you know, Grant and I are camping at Greenbelt National Park this weekend. We're home for a little while to feed the cats and get out of the heat!  I've made a slide show of some pictures I've taken so far, but here are a couple of the red-bellied woodpecker family that kept me entertained most of the morning.  The female is inside the tree, sitting on eggs I assume, and the male visits her often, especially when she calls him.

More pictures and news to come.

looking for alligators

Grant, Grant's mom and I just left the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. It's a favorite place to visit when we're in town. Today we saw many beautiful birds and 4 alligators sunning themselves. One interesting thing I noticed when I was looking at one of the alligators with binoculars, less than a foot away from the alligator, just hanging out next to it was this good sized brown rabbit. Yes a rabbit and it was alive. We thought we might witness some national geographic but the rabbit did hop away, at least for now...thank goodness.

hotter than a witch's...

Grant and I are riding in the snack car because our car is bloody hot. There's a bunch of us in here taking a break from the steamy, snore-filled car. I'm pulling an all-nighter. Gotta love the train...