Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Snow Day

We got out to the cabin for a little while.
To cold to stay long for the time we had.
















But we did get to make a snow man.



















And Sunday we did get to go Sledding and snow angel making.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Life list 12/22/10

 No excuse, it has been a while.
But at least I come back with beer.
Two more for my beer life list.
The first is Olde Suffolk English Ale.
I really enjoyed this one, very smooth and clean.
And very refreshing. I would be happy if my local carried it,
but would not necessarily drive a long way just to find it.
It would be a good sitting around the evening fire with a book beer.

The Second one is an IPA, Scottish Joker IPA.
I usually like an IPA and this one proved to be no exception.
Again, very smooth, but with more of a hoppy taste.
I would gladly except a keg of this one, but again, would not drive a long way just to track it down, unless the pub I was in wasn't carrying any thing very good.


The good thing about both is they come as real pints.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Something a little different.

About a six months or so before my dad had his stroke, he and I started looking into his war record with the RAF during WWII.
We had a lot of fun doing it.
His time in service was always something special to him and he had great memories about his time served.
He had his war record book, but his memory wasn't good enough or enough time had passed where all the abbrevations no longer were clear to him.
Luckily, while doing research into his squadron's we found someone in Belguim that was keeping a site for one of his old units, 350 Squadron.
With his help, and another Englishman's, we were able to fill in most of the details.
We sent to Belguim (not hard with email) a photo we had of dad in uniform, and a nice piece about dad was added, along with the picture, to the 350 web site.
Here is the picture.



















The 350 web site has in it's gallery lots of photos of the unit, but most are of the Belguim flyers and crew.
Well, once we got all dads info set up, emails back and forth with a little Bio. on dad, the web master thought I would be interested in a DVD of all the pictures he had for the unit.
I said sure, I would love it.
I wasn't expecting much, and thought we had all the pictures we would ever see of dad in uniform.
When the DVD arrived, I popped it in.
Low and behold (do they say that anymore?) the second picture to come up was this one. . . .













The crew member on the wing on the right sure looked like dad!
I showed the picture to mom and brother, because there were no names of the ground crew on it. And both agreed it must be dad. The markings on the plane were for an exercise that took place during the time dad would have been with the 350.
We were able to find out the name of the pilot, but not the other crew member.
Dad always loved the Spitfire, even still has a tool for working on them in his workshop.
He was with the unit for about 18 months, even working with some of the Eagle Squadron on occasion.
Below is a link to the site if you are interested.
http://www.350sqn.be/

Monday, November 8, 2010

Missed the fall colors. . .

but it sure was nice out at the cabin this weekend, with temps in the upper 50's.
Did some fall cleanup stuff and kicked back.


Friday, November 5, 2010

Back to my onceeverytwoorthreemonths tree picture of the day

Wow, has it really been a month since I posted!
Here is a tree I did today, and I like it.
Kept it real simple.













Will try to get busy again, I promise.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

England Day 19 - July 31st. Leave the coast and goin' home

We had to get up early to close up the cottage and get on the road.
Robin hiked up the hill and brought the car down so we could load up and be on our way.
On our drive we were able to negotiate with the car rental place to keep the car for half a day more and take a drive into the town where I was born, Selby, Yorkshire.
Selby is a mid to large market town with much of its early industrial history based on ship building because of the river Ouse and the Selby canal.
Henry the first was born there, as well as John T. the first.
My first home, which I remember nothing about, is number 2 Abbots road.
My mom and dad lived here taking care of mom's parents till we moved to America.
The Street.





]





The House.















The Door.



















As you can see, Emelaine was not to impressed.

We then drove around and located where my mother grew up.
Number 16 Douglas street.















My mom use to talk about how far it was to the out-house, especially on a dark cold night. Having to walk through the narrow alley all the way to the back of the yard, near the church wall. And this was with no lights. She said it was even worse when an old man next door was in the alley smoking.
On my first visit to this house, I had to check out the alley and out-house. I had expected it to be a long way away at the back of a long yard. I reality it was about 20 feet away in a very small back yard.
What our kids memories remember.



















And you can see, Emelaine is still not impressed.

We then drove past Selby Abbey where I had my baptism.



















After viewing these early Foster (actually Cryer) landmarks, we drove to York and had a little time to wonder around the old part of town and see the Shambles












and the market square












before catching the train at York Station for London.












We had a good ride back to London on the train and found our way to familiar ground and Barbara's apartment.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Monday, September 27, 2010

Life lists - 9/26/10

We all have life lists at some point in our lives, right?

Louis L'Amour kept one of all the books (thousands) that he read.
I keep one of the rivers I have done kayaking.
Some times we keep these lists of things we have done, and some times of things we want to do.
During my process of trying to loss some weight (I did), I started cutting back on how often I have a drink of beer.
I have always considered myself a little bit of a beer snob, and with not drinking as often it allows me to be even more selective on what I drink without actually spending any more money.
So I have decided to start a new life list called the ‘Friar Tuck list’.
This is how it works; Friar Tuck’s is a mega store that offers thousands of different types of adult libations.
So what I have decided to do is make a pilgrimage through their entire beer stock (sorry, still refusing to do Anheuser-Busch), one bottle at a time and rate and review each one.
At about 600 different types of beer, doing one to two a week (my limit) I am looking at several years at my new hobby.
One good thing about this new hobby, it is not something I will always have to do alone.
I started this new list Saturday, after unloading brush out at the cabin (and I did not try any mushrooms before deciding).

The first beer I tried was called Hobgoblin by Wychwood out of Oxfordshire England.

It was called a ‘dark English ale’ and came in a one pint, point nine oz bottle.
Although this beer would not be one you would rave about, you could find yourself enjoying a few pints at the pub.
It would not especially be one you would try to hunt down again, but I would not refuse one when offered.











The second beer was from ‘Fullers’, again out of England, founded in 1845 near London.
I have liked just about everything Fullers puts out. Their beers are usually of very good quality and taste, and very smooth.
The ‘1845’ is a strong bottle conditioned beer. And although still of high standard and smooth, I was not to my taste. It wasn’t the fact that it was strong, like a porter or stout, but very, to me, strong on a chocolate taste. Some strong Belgian beers are served with chocolate, but I don’t like the taste in the beer.
I don’t know if they actually have chocolate in it, but that was the taste.

Hope you enjoy my new list and, well. . .

Cheers!

Fundamentally Fungi - 9/25/10


I don’t get to spend much time out at the cabin it seems here lately

















And even less getting to walk around our 100 acre woods (actually 16).
But this past Saturday I did.
After running a load of brush out to our brush pile I spent a little time relaxing and enjoying the woods.
The afternoon clouded in a bit, and it was cool, so I decided to walk back to the big creek that runs through to property.
I also discovered a new rapid on the creek.

















And soon fall flowers.













And these guys looking for warmth. . .





And I did not have to venture far before I started noticing all these wonderful (by wonderful, I mean looking, not tasting) mushrooms, in a variety of colors, size and shape.