Sacred Fires of Summer

As a last family occurrence for this summer, Amy, Arron, Jim and I took down the MayPole. It always represents winding up the harvest time and we took in the last of the pole beans and packed the car with the last of their belongings before driving them back to NYC.

Here are some random photos of our summer and many of the fires that we shared.

The Fam!

Jim near the Tobyhanna.

Arron & Amy near the Tobyhanna.

Amy & Arron at Seven Mt.s Winery.

Terri & Jim at Seven Mts. Winery.

Heat Shield Garden!

Belleville Famrers Market.

Mercutio in Tokyo.

Amy outstanding in her field.

Dad & Mom @ Alan Seeger.

Alan Seeger picnic with the Trapps.

Visiting Grace.

Live Pro Wrestling Gables... LIVE!

Camping near Little Poe Mt.

Arron on the roof.

Picnic at Alan Seeger.

Hiking down Little Poe Mountain.

Hiking out Little Poe Trail toward Boiling Spring.

Arron's Nutty Chocolate Chippers.

Eating Crunchies.

Across the field, single file.

Another evening in our backyard.

Amy's first solo fire building.

Daredevil!

Catching a breeze.

Sad until their return.

Puzzles and Cookies

We are having a great visit with Arron and Amy! We are also glad they can be with us while NYC get pounded by a bad storm, puzzles and cookies are better than reading the evacuation maps any day.

Busy Summertime!

After celebrating the first harvest feast and the wheel of the year turning again, I am finally getting time to give an update on a few of my adventures.

Sadly, running has not really been on my list of adventures since June, the pain I had been having in my foot has turned out to be a heal spur. Any marathon aspirations for this fall are out. I have an appointment coming up to see if I can cope with it. I have been able to sneak in a run or two but the pain always comes back and can be pretty severe.

Jim and I enjoyed parts of the arts festivals when they came to town mid-July. A fun addition to the downtown festival was an interactive Kashi tour. After we exited we saw something that was quite exciting, the banner our family had submitted years ago was still being used. The batiked background was all faded but the acrylic sun and moon still stood out!

Without running being part of my life right now (I miss it terribly), I have turned focus to another enthusiasm of mine, writing and blogging. That will shock readers who have recently said they missed my blogging. I am excited to share that I have taken the time to consolidate many of the past posts that were food related and feel I have added enough new ones to finally share my vegetarian foodie blog, Bacon is NOT an Herb.

The title is inspired not from the local meat emporium, Herwig's, but the many times I have had bacon atop what I have been assured is a vegetarian salad. Also inspiration includes good friend whose brother is a vegetarian that eats bacon and all the vegetarians that go back to eating meat for... bacon.

I have shared the blog with some non-veggie folks who all smile and say, "I LOVE bacon!" So they like that it's a vegetarian blog that recognizes bacon as a special kind of meat. Many may love bacon but it's NOT an herb!

As a blogging host, I decided to give Wordpress a try. It's been difficult trying to figure out the ins and outs of it all and I do miss Blogger but don't like always being stuck in the Google universe.

The cats are all doing well and now that nights have cooled off they are active and demanding, at 3 AM. That was great when Arron was in LA or Tokyo and maybe we could connect via the Internet but he's home now and their nocturnal tendencies are forever.

This past weekend we toured the Gamble Mill micro brewery. It's one little room with just a couple of tanks. Mike Smith, the brew master, fielded all of our questions with kindness and enthusiasm.

I am sure eventually Jim and I will review The Gamble Mill from a vegetarian perspective, subscribe to Bacon is NOT an Herb and get the updates, but Sunday was to tour the brewery and sip a few cold ones. Lew Bryson and Ken Hull were also there and we all talked beer, books and blogs with brew master Mikes Smith and local photographer Chuck Fong.

The clientele was pretty testosterone heavy, Mr. Bryson's attitudes toward my beer choice, comments and questions bordered on misogynist but things leveled out in the long run. Bryson left to speak at Otto's Pub Club meal and the topics drifted to art and travels and the gender ratio in the place evened out.

So, the summer rolls on. We look forward to a visit from Amy & Arron in a few weeks and I am sure to have a lot more exciting things to share!

Dewy Bamboo-ee

Sunny Treats!

Happy Summer Solstice/ Litha to you all! To stay with the sunny theme I have made some broiled corn tortillas with oilive oil and a sprinkling of garlic powder and salt to go with a chilled soup for lunch.

The one looks like it has a sun spot!

Summer's End

A quick trip to take A&A back to their home after a long and wonderful visit in PA. We went to the Jekyll & Hyde Club as opposed to the pub we went to a few years ago. Good times then a run in the park along side the ING New York City Marathon Tune-Up racers in Central Park the next morning.










Above are photos of the trip but the outstanding memories of the summer include:
toasting with pickles on a stick
the scent of wet bamboo in the bathroom
spinning on a single point trapeze
coffee in cat mugs
Jimbo the driving king!
watching flourishes added to juggling clubs
Casie's little butt, "rarrr!"
Apricot Wheat running out seconds after we sat down
birthday songs, short and long
Trevor... "..., keep the peace."
hot sauces; meek, firey and foaming
biking & DDR
limes
Shia LaBeouf's head
"I NEED this!" (glowing razor)
a new ab regiment & a way to attack a "let down"
crackerfuls (one in the drawer made me tear up this morning)
the evil un-Queenly Queen
Arron doing Harry doing Paul... "belittling you! hah hah hah!"
feather boa (you gonna just sashay outa here with that?), lavender wand, diva compass and butterfly tiara ("AUGH!!"<<< Birbanto)
Chef Jim serves up another meal of perfection - corn bread in a skillet, Uncle AB would be proud (oui chef)
Cracker Barrel(hehe - Macaroni Grill) & Waffle House!
Miles in every bag
Mr. B being busty and scared
Mooch hissing!
fairy floss for breakfast
garden offerings and a harvest's end
our best friends

Summer Runnin'

I am adding some photos and videos of a couple of great runs I participated in this summer. Yesterday I finally shaved my 5k time under 30 minutes and average pace was about a 9:23 mile. Not too bad from having just started in January. See captions below each photo for description. I will add them as I can.

NYRR Women's Mini 10k
Central Park
June 12, 2010

My corral for snails pace runners. Next year I will maybe be in the 5,000s!!

A little warm up jog down to the port-a "janes." It was a women's only race don't -cha know.

Central Park West before the rush of womanity.

Here come the racers!

Ravenboy and RGBisMe cheered me on as I ran by. I fit right in!



Juniata River Rampage
Lewistown, PA
July 3, 2010

We decided to go for the patriotic costume prize and vowed to run together. We made a flag when we stood side by side.

The very beginning. 90 runners was the smallest race we had ever been in. You can see Jimmy "the eye" starting his watch as we cross the start line. He is in red and white striped and right of center in this pack.

We had about .25 mile to go when we had to hop up onto the sidewalk for the final push. We were really focused on the footing here.

"Run like a Kenyan" I managed to wheeze out just feet before the finish line. We could see the clock would have us under 30 minutes and I was excited. Grace is in the lower left corner cheering us on!

We did get the trophy for the best costume and I got a bronze medal for having the 3rd fastest time in my age category for women. You gotta love small town races!