At 132 Front Street, Greenport, NY 11944, Greenport Wines and Spirits is the most complete and knowledgeable source for fine wines for every budget. Mon-Thurs 10am-7pm, Fri-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun Noon-6pm.
Open later during the holidays.
Phone 631.477.6701 We deliver.
We have an idea. It goes past putting on that happy face for the season, but goes to doing something good "first". For the next little bit, be the first to say hello on the street, to open a door for someone else (m or f), to offer a compliment, to smile, etc.
That's right. Just do it first. How can it hurt?
We are very serious about this. These nice things shouldn't be just at this time of year but why not start now? Please, thank you, thanks a lot for that, you look great, what a nice day, how are you....get the hint.
Try it for a day or two. See if the shoe fits better.
There is one Christmas Carol that seems odd compared to the Joy to the World types. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? One idea is that someone wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning:the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember. * The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. * Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments * Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. * The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. * The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. * The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. * Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit - Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy. * The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. * Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit-Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. * The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. * The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. * The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
Well there you have it. OR NOT. Who knows. Nice story though. Merry Christmas
No fooling. We kept trying to figure out what is so valuable about a goose that lays an egg other than gold and our 12 days of Christmas has 6 of them - not golden..but that would keep up with the five golden rings of yesterday. We do, however think there might be more a connection similar to the golden rings and the pheasants. (you might want to look at the last post).
Greyleg Goose
There is a goose/gander in England called the Greyleg - for obvious reasons. They are pretty nifty looking and perhaps, just perhaps, they little verse changed over time and for ease of singing.
I.e. Six geese a grey(leg) to greying to laying because some folks had no idea what a Greyleg was or is.
Makes sense to us. But then a lot of things make sense that don't.
Lack of knowledge is the mother of all stuff made up.
We are stumped here. In the poem/song the music stops and Five Golden Rings...comes out slowly and clearly. We looked everywhere for what it meant, from the biblical to the "five marks on the door" and nothing seemed to fit that made any sense.
The one we like best is probably the germ of it...5 ringed neck pheasants...it fits the bird stuff in the rest of it...
We crawled through the tall grass of trivia regarding day 4 of the 12 days....
The line four calling birds is an Americanization of the traditional English wording four colly birds (did you know that????), and in some places, such as Australia, the variation calling is supplanting the original. Colly is a dialect word meaning black and refers to the European blackbird Turdus merula.
The line four calling birds in some versions is four coiled birds. Religiously, The 'four calling birds' are the Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; or their Gospels.
We don't know much about doves so we looked around for info. All we knew was one of our customers came in the other day and said "if he and his wife were doves, he would get a hunting license". Not being very nice but it is just an expression.
Turtle doves are often found in pairs as they form strong bonds, mostly monogamous for life. As such, they are often used as a literary symbol of love. Nowadays, the turtle dove population has apparently dropped about 62% due to a lack of favourite wildflowers caused by a change in European farming practices. Plus on their annual migration they have to dodge a lot of bullets as they fly through the Mediterranean regions where they are hunted as game birds. That, seems to me, would make for a pretty light snack. Doves are actually the same thing as pigeons. They are all in the same bird family, columbidae. It’s odd to think that the white dove, an international symbol of peace, is one step away from the “flying rats” known as city pigeons. (a descendant of the rock dove) They are the most prevalent birds in the entire world, but some species have gone extinct including the famous dodo bird. One thing totally unique to the dove family is how they drink. Unlike every other bird that takes a small sip of water, then tilts its head back, a pigeon or dove will drop its beak into the water and suck the water up like a straw.
Our village is lucky enough to have some creative types who have themed Christmas shopping into the 12 days of Christmas poem. We are up to the "three french hens" so we picked through some trivia to find out what that was all about....and will do so each day..just to get into spirit of things.
La Fleche, Crèvecoeur and Houdans. Poultry historians, yes they exist, trace these breeds way back. Morbier is a wonderful cheese from Franche-Comte with a layer of ash that gives it a distinctive stripe. Normande, Charolais and Limousin are cows which I do not believe were on the gift list. Morilles, Pleurote and les Cèpes are all mushrooms. The Crevecoeur gets its name from a village in Normandy as does the Houdan chicken. La Fleche is a handsome black chicken, the Houdan often has black and white speckles with a top knot and the Crevecoeur is black with a crest. So, all the answers to this question are French names for things to eat but only three names are for chicken.
From The Birds by Respighi, Movement IV, "The Hen"
One of our fav contributors to our Facebook pages is Alex Farrone. She is a photographer extraordinaire to say the least and is getting a lot of recognition for her skill and keen eye. She deserves it.
One of her fortes is arial photography - we assume for real estate folks and their efforts to sell sell sell. We have mental images of Alex, hanging out plane doors, clinging for dear life and clicking like crazy.
Anyway, her abilities are grand and her work brightens our day.
A friend dropped in the other day with his Advent wreath, all a fuss about not starting it up on time; missing a week. He told us about growing up in the middle west and how on the first Sunday morning of advent his church's women's groups sold the wreaths and candles after the service and they always made just enough for everyone, planning ahead to give ones away to those who couldn't afford it. We liked that story, particularly about the ones who couldn't afford it.
Just to fill us in some, Advent wreaths are four candles, one for each Sunday before Christmas and then one extra for Christmas evening. Christians and Jews certainly have the countdown in candles in common this time of year and we like that plenty; this countdown thing.
Fact is, we like the anticipation that countdowns bring. In talking about it in the shop, we concluded that with each candle lit brought us a little closer to somehow being a better person. The church women making extra wreaths to give to those would were in need was somehow the center of our thoughts.
Good thoughts. Countdown is on. Clock's ticking. Do something nice for someone before they ask for it. Surprise 'em.
This is one of our fav. posts. Cold day. Time to revisit it.
Right now it is 42 degrees and drizzling with a promise of a cold wind this afternoon. We were trying to think of something Tuscan, in keeping with our tasting on Saturday - 3-6pm 132 Front Street in Greenport (write it down) - and also something that quite frankly would take the chill off. On the way in this morning we stopped at the market and ran into a friend who was all loaded up with chicken broth and cannellini beans (in cans no less) and and we asked if he was making soup and he replied yes, white bean soup, all creamy and rich, and we could see, in our mind's eye, the steam rising from the pot as we spoke. Perfect. Our grandmother used to make this and we can still see the kitchen stove in the late afternoon light, red enamel pot, gentle steam, that ancient wooden stirring spoon and a wondrous smell of garlic and oil, crusty bread crunching, real butter - my oh my.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 sage leaf
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 slices ciabatta bread
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Directions
Place a medium, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the butter, olive oil, and shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sage and beans and stir to combine. Add the stock and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the garlic and simmer until the garlic is softened, about 10 minutes. Pour the soup into a large bowl. Carefully ladle 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup into a blender and puree until smooth. Be careful to hold the top of the blender tightly, as hot liquids expand when they are blended. Pour the blended soup back into the soup pan. Puree the remaining soup. Once all the soup is blended and back in the soup pan, add the cream and the pepper Keep warm, covered, over very low heat.
Place a grill pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle the slices of ciabatta bread with extra-virgin olive oil. Grill the bread until warm and golden grill marks appear, about 3 minutes a side. Serve the soup in bowls with the grilled bread alongside. (Recipe courtesy of our good friends at Food Network)
Not for nothing, but we are rapidly approaching Thanksgiving and rather than
fill the space with mind numbing financial talk (although the new unemployment
filings are down a bit so that is good news and consumer spending is up slightly
(does that include fuel and food???) the market had its worst week in three
months and we are bracing for a gridlock the likes of which we have never
seen.
Ben Franklin was a supporter of making the
turkey the national bird. I have to tell you that there are also any number who
want to do the same with the Peacock. Turkeys don't photograph well. Peacocks
are,as the saying goes, "all hat but no horse" meaning that they look good but
perhaps don't eat well. I'll give you music about each. You decide before you
send 47 million of the birds to bite the dust to satisfy the holiday. Oh, and
here are some tidbits for the table-talk after Uncle Ed tells his boyhood
stories for the billionth time and someone complains that the white meat is too
dry.
Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the national bird of the
United States instead of the bald eagle. When Jefferson won the argument,
Franklin called the Turkey "Tom" - hence tom turkey
Male wild turkeys act much the same as peacocks when it comes to finding a
mate; they puff up and spread their tail feathers to attract females.
The turkey acquired its name by mistake; the English thought it was another
bird that came from Africa through Turkey. The birds were not the same but the
name stuck with the bird anyway.
Ooof! It is cold and after a long week, we tend to find what comforts we can. Now that we got the bonus sleep hour but not the extra hour of sleep to go with it, we are now trying to figure out our Football menu. Of course it includes stuff from our shop but we would like to put a little flair in it from time to time.
This picture popped up on our Facebook page the other day. We thought about it any number of ways but mostly to remind ourselves what a high wire life we lead. For many of us, if you didn't own an old fashioned can opener (non-electric), a battery operated radio and a gas grill, well you wee out of luck and soon out of anything to eat, drink or flush with. Particularly troublesome was the idea of not being able to communicate. Spending money on hard to find gasoline to charge a phone seems a bit absurd to us.
Our lives have come to the mercy of wires. Wires are at the mercy of wind and water. Nature wins.
Living near the sea and at the mercy of it, we watched a lot of the Weather Channel over the past days and screens filled with cones and arrows, time lines and accuracy. We dodged the arrow so to speak (William Tell and shooting the apple springs to mind) and now look on in horror at those who weren't so lucky.
Water came up to our door, or so the line of washed up leaves told us, so we were far more fortunate than our neighbors down the street and around the corner. In fact our end of the island faired a lot better than we expected or deserved as all of us were in something of the same boat until the left turn arrow sprung up and the balance of effects became uneven.
We opened on Monday, wood came off the windows and our friends showed up to say hello. All had stories to tell, mostly good for "Halloween scared stuff". We will have one here in our village as we were spared somewhat but LIPA is out of power and trick or a treat will have a limited geographic area for the ghosts and goblins.
Our Gate Night prankster missed our town and for that we are thankful. One arrow that missed its mark.
Getting ready for Halloween, we figured it would be good to have a couple good chocolate quotes to toss around. If you have a good one, drop on in and tell us about it at our spirits/candy tasting today.
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #1
Life is like a box of chocolates. you never know what you're gonna get.
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #2
There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark and white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.
Anonymous
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #3
Make a list of important things to do today. At the top of your list, put 'eat chocolate.' Now, you'll get at least one thing done today.
We believe this is from Gina Hayes
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #4
I never met a chocolate I didn't like.
Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) in Star Trek: The Next Generation
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #6
And above all... Think Chocolate!
'Betty Crocker'
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #7
The 12-step chocoholics program: NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!
Terry Moore
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #8
All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!
Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #9
Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food.
Michael Levine, nutrition researcher, as quoted in The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
Favorite Chocolate Quotes #10
I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process.... It may not be true, but do I dare take the chance?
We are watching the approach/forecasts of this big storm headed our way that is pretty much on course to blow the lids off the pumpkins. Seems the Halloween, the trick for a treat part, will have to come a few days early.
We have our tasting as usual this Saturday from 3-6p and it is free. We figured, and rightly so, that the distribution of candy might be a bit uneven this year just because that Halloween fell early in the week. Now with the interloping of this big storm, plans should be made now for any number of good reasons. Candy always falls in the "its a good thing" so behave accordingly.
There is a bit of misunderstanding about Saints and Souls Day and the "Eve" where the townsfolk parade around in costumes and why. As these days are actually religious days (Eve, Saints and Souls) to get into the theology of it all is best left to other forums. Just pick out what you like and celebrate it is quite enough for us. However, to get this big deal few sequence in order, the days are:
Our Tasting on Saturday the 27th
Buying Candy, stocking up, and buying batteries on the 28th
Gate Night on the 29th
All Hallows Eve on the 30th
All Saints Day on the 1st
All Souls Day on the 2nd
Quite a celebration weekend. Be safe. stock up. More later.
Ignus fatuus is a Jack-o-Lantern. The inhabitants of the Isles were keen on carving up gourds and poking light holes in the outer skin as kind of scary things to put out in the moors. Seems like a waste of candles and food but nowadays it is replaced by the one on the front porch to let the trick for a treaters know someone is home with candy.
We are pairing spirits of the liquid kind up with all those Snickerbars and this-and-thats, so drop in Saturday between 3-6p and give us a boo!
Saturday is a day when most of the elementary schools let the kids dress up and go to a town parade. It is actually very nice to see and to let kids enjoy the tradition; and it is a tradition and not the work of the devil. You should know that. No one is very sure how far back the idea of carving pumpkins goes but the jack-o-lantern - you remember? Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumps over the candle stick? - certainly has some American roots - there is a poem called "The Pumpkin" by Whittier in 1850:
Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
All of which (witch) is more than you want to know. Have a happy Halloween. Keep the cats indoors.
That fall day of days is looming. It wasn't invented by the candy makers but they sure have a time of it and why not? You will be giving their products to cute little kids in costumes, knocking on doorswith big smiles and parents gleeming in the background. And just think, at the end of the evening, you will time it so the last handfull of candy fills the bag of the last goblin. Ha!! The double whammy is that if you have kids, all that candy you sent out the door will find its way back.
Actually there is a fairly good chance you can take a few of those Snickers and candy corn pieces and have a little fun with them, or at least soften the waistline blow and angst with a good pairing of wines or spirits.
That is the subject of our tasting Saturday so we are going to write every day about this, and perhaps inspire you instead of depress you. This, until the end of the year, is sugar season when chocolate stuff drops like snowflakes so we might as well get used to it, get over it, and be resourceful.
Three months ago there was epic heat. Six months ago spring came 2 months early. Now we are headlong into leaves and fall rains. Strike that. More than ample rain and leaves.
Have you noticed that winter doesn't really smell like anything and that fall smells so much? Such a difference between now and and those early days of the year- or early spring for that matter. We are right on the water - ocean - bay and there was the clear hint of the summer's water going back to winter clear the other day...we could smell the salt....bits, whisps of scents... and in the evening....night perhaps....perfumes...
Sometimes we envy our pets their sense of smell. The "madelines and tea" of Proust, the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, the woods after a rain - so many things that are big and obvious but our pets; well they smell in nuance and remember in detail. Wish we were that lucky and that sharp.
Exquisite. Beyond the capacity of mere mortals. When you can create this, dance this, understand this...
This has to set you into some sort of orbit of inconsequentially. The gift of grace, dance, music, composition...it comes around once in a lifetime sometimes the beauty of it..well..knock yourself out.
It almost compares to tonight's sunset. Feels so good on the skin and the mind.
A couple days ago we celebrated Columbus Day and we, thereafter made some comments that Christofore was ripe for Sainthood and aside from mustering the courage to make a five week sail across the Atlantic before the trade winds shifter back to westerlies, he didn't do Spain a lot of PR good. That he wasn't Spanish is well known and that is why Columbus Day appears to be more of an Italian remembrance than a Spanish hoopla.
So now we have a decided choice to make as to how we remember Columbus Day. We can celebrate the permanent Euro-settling of the Americas and thank him for that; getting the ball rolling so to speak, or we can talk about how the Spanish weren't really good guests and created a lot of mischief during the early years. The Italians caused none of this and unfortunately got caught up in the painting with the Spanish brush as the saying goes. Chiedo scusa.
We do note, however, that Rush Limbaugh had a great deal to say about those who note that from the Native American point of view, having these three ships appear over the horizon was not a great thing for them and because the White House put up a proclamation that noted that they might have had some displeasure, all lefties were some sort of bad name word in destroying our history as only Rush seems to know it.
That is by the by and let's move on. Halloween is next on the agenda and we are trying to figure out a way to be PC to goblins and ghosts - or is that ghosts and goblins....
See how hard it is to write a blog? Let's all dance and sing.
Yesterday was Columbus Day in honor of one of the guys who popped in from a journey across the pond. He stopped in the Canary Islands and from there made the 5 week voyage to the New World. That was, to us, the most interesting "fact revisited" as, we are sure, you like us were indoctrinated in the long, arduous journey with the crew near mutiny from fear and boredom. We are pretty sure that crossing the ocean at that time was no piece of cake but it also wasn't a journey to the moon.
That brings us to the point. We are taught or learn certain things in school, at the dinner table, or perhaps by some just repeating a supposed fact over and over until it becomes the stuff of legends.
A legend isn't necessarily true. It is just that; a legend, and legendary doesn't mean true stories but some legendary recount as in Paul Bunyan the legendary axeman.
Columbus was by all accounts a pretty nifty navigator (although there is some talk that he had a map of sorts) and his motivations probably started and ended with greed and power. He was a rotten administrator, infinitely cruel, and essentially ran the holdings into the ground. Fact is, Leif Erickson's 11th explorations beat him by 400+ years and we don't have a Nordic Day or a Leaf Day unless we re-invent Arbor Day ( bad joke).
This doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate the day like we did yesterday. On the contrary. It might also be more romantic and inspiring to think of the voyage as a hardship from which sprung a nation forged on the anvil of travail. That appears not to be the case. The only sure facts we know is that Columbus showed up here 4 times in 12 years, didn't do anyone any real good, and now a bunch of folks walk up 5th Avenue in his honor.
One thinks of the darnedest things when you wake up too early to get up. Your mind wants to zip into the day ahead but there are so many more pleasant things to dwell on.
We mentioned this to one of our customers who dropped in just to say hello after his daily trip to the post office across the street. We said that he was looking in good health and all that courtesy greeting stuff and he replied "I wish" and that got us talking. He finally came up with the idea that what Greenport could use was a wishing well, like the one in Chinatown in Los Angeles or the ones that sit out in front of countless restaurants gathering pennies.
We thought about it some and talked about it for the rest of the day, off and on. I mean, Greenport is "on the water" and wishing wells came about because people thought water was "sacred" in some way - it is absolutely necessary for life and all that. Besides it would collect pennies like crazy.
A little reading on the subject gave us the information that it wasn't just a matter of tossing a coin in the fountain (substitute for a well if you don't have one of those handy), but it was "how it landed" that decided if you get your wish. Seriously. Only the spirit in the well or water or fountain knew what was the proper landing and if you notice songs like "Three coins in a fountain" popular decades ago, it is tossing in coins in lots of three that gives you the best chance - three for religious reasons and in math probability it is almost completely unlikely that all three of anything will land "same side up" so you were "covered" in a matter of speaking.
Kids love wishing wells and want to toss money in before they knew or know what the deal is or was and what adult hasn't thought "I wish I...." and followed that with so many "primal car scream" remembrances that we might as well chuck a big solid gold bar in the water and leave it at that; part offering and part hope.
Well (pun), back to sleep. Wish I could get a full night straight. I'm going to talk to the mayor about a well though. It would be a gold mine.
We aren't sure which is going to show up at the tasting tomorrow. So hard to plan. One will be here for sure.
In other news.....
Our village has a photo shoot this morning for some clothes company. It is pretty exciting.
Big weekend last week for the Maritime Festival. Tens of thousands of visitors. That was pretty good too.
Gas down at the corner is well of $4 a gallon. The food shop just up the street now has a coffee table. The Harbor is full of big boats.
Halloween is the next huge event on our calendar. Pretty neat stuff. Pretty neat.
We have to step back and admire folks who take something from the getgo and make it into something impressive. We like Martha Clara Winery a lot for that reason. They will be our "tasting host" this Saturday and we are glad to have them. A very nice selection of wines, a booming business started from scratch, and good friends to one and all.
As we have commented before, Martha Clara was "mom's" name and it is pretty special that someone would name an enterprise after "mom"; something we don't find much anymore. Of course anyone who shops in any market knows the name Entenmann - something of an icon of baked goods - and we think that we recognize most of the selections in this picture. When Entenmann's was old and Martha Clara Winery emerged we kinda knew that they would make a go of it.
Anyway, enough. Good folks. Very good wine. Pretty darn good classic crumb cake to this day.
We ran this contest last month to give away some very nice wine glasses for "the more creative among us". It was a huge success with scores of entries and some terrifically funny ideas. Our winner was a Deborah who lives locally and although there was great debate over the finalists, we like this best.
What we also like a whole lot is that people, when given half a chance, can be as creative and clever as all get out. We don't know if the winners/entrants came up with their entries in a flash or after pondering over it. What we do know is that there are a lot more brains out there, all cocked and at the ready, then perhaps some of politicians give us credit for.
We had a conversation about rock climbing the other day. A local gadfly came in all agog about watching someone climb a big rock face with no ropes - no nothing - just find the niches and up he went. We pondered this for a bit and rather liked the idea of persons doing such things; crazy things that we don't understand and would never do. We couldn't for an instant imagine a sheer rock face and finding those little niches and handholds and, well up you go...up or out as it were.
A lot of times businesses are in the same position and at the mercy of a lot of things they can't control. Our rock climber could well have taken a route that had no handholds, no niches for purchase, nada and eventually he would have found his way back but not in a good way. We are surrounded by vineyards and as a Wine and Spirits shop, we take interest in these businesses because 1.) they are pretty much our stock and trade and 2.) there is a certain "rock climber" aspect to what they do. First there is a long term investment before the first bottle is corked and after that it is weather, or just a freaky poor harvest, or a pre-harvest hurricane.
Then there are those who go a step further and put their eggs in a smaller basket. They climb rock walls blindfolded so to speak. Sparkling Pointe Vinyards comes to mind as their stock and trade is, well, sparkling and that is something of a daredevil thrill ride of current tastes to be sure. To be sure, the fine cabs and merlots produced around here have a huge following and the vineyards that produce these do a bang up job. People love the wines and rightfully so. Sparkling Pointe just climbed the rock a bit differently. It is pretty neat really. They took rock climbing up on the vineyard scale and generally bet the farm that they could produce a niche type product that would have a constant following.
All in a hot and copper sky,The bloody Sun, at noon,Right up above the mast did stand,No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.
We are in those doldrums now. It seems to creep in every summer about this time unless there is a hurricane of course. We mentioned this to a friend yesterday who was something of a sailor and he talked about the sea being so still that the stars in the sky reflected on the surface to the point that you really didn't know up from down.
We liked that thought - the being suspended between water and sky. But now there is thunder coming so our brief fling with the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is at an end. Back to reality.
We are having a monster rumble tag team event of a Wine Tasting on the evening of the 23rd of August. 5-8pm with all our stuff out for you to sample as well as munchies and inordinate good humor and smiles. Serious. Our blood simply boils with anticipation. The passion is on us. We are in a frenzy.
One of our local wags wanted some of our really NICE Riedel Wine Glasses. You know the type of glasses we mean. The ones you never ever ever let Aunt Myrna touch after she has been "sippin' some"? Those.
So his idea was to float a few cartoons in front of you and get you in the mood. You are to "supply the caption". Let's see how creative you are. Here is one to get you into the spirit. The affecion if you will.
We will test your grit over the next week. See who can face the brave bull...see who can wear the Suit of Lights (lotsa bull - 'fighting' stuff coming your way).
We got up this morning, somewhat refreshed by a little night rain and a certain optimism - perhaps knowing that the Olympic events are underway and that dreadful (or were we the only ones who thought so) opening ceremony is over with. We guess that if you have unlimited air time and unlimited budget, poor taste will eventually win out.
To our far flung readers, the sweet corn is really in now and although the drought has taken its toll (a mini drought but high heat) it is good and sweet the the kids are consuming it by the bushel. The farm stands are full of all kinds of produce - may we suggest that light purplish eggplant grilled with olive oil and cracked pepper; the yellow beets roasted next to the burgers...my oh my.
Ospreys Dominion wines are at our shop today for the tasting from 3-6p (132 Front St., Greenport opposite the post office). So in 24 hours we are going to go from poor taste to a day and evening of great tastes and that is something of the joy of living, our joie de vivre as it were.
Not to make too much of it but sometimes we just need to up the ante a bit on what we do hour by hour and day by day. One of our visitors likens it to buying a better brand of salt and, if you think of it some, that is what we mean. There is that brand in the "if it rains it pours" round box and then there is something you actually pay hard money for - a couple bucks for a smallish container and not the "almost free" stuff. It makes a big difference on the corn let me tell you - difference between using butter perhaps as well.
If we made just one little change here and there - not everything - but just one nice thing...and presto a horn of plenty....
Alex, one of our talented friends who, incidentally is a wonderful photographer, hauled out an old album cover by "the Police" called Walking on the Moon, in honor of right about now 43 years ago (well before my date of birth in case you are wondering!....and I have the long form birth certificate to prove it so take that in advance Mr. Trump) and posted it on Facebook.
We have been into Google Earth, exploring Argentina vicariously from the space view (we are tasting Argentinian wines Saturday 3-6p 132 Front St. in Greenport so that is the reason behind this shameless plug), so this caused us to think some and good thoughts too. Mainly how far we have come and how little progress we have made. We haven't been back to the moon in decades and most of the "newer" population missed the thrill of "one small step for man..." to the point of actually having someone in the shop the other day who thought it was all a hoax - an incorrect footnote in history.
We don't have to go to the moon to see earth thanks to Google but for a second I have that little twinge that they took the fun out of "the big view of earth". I also have to tell you, in my heart of hearts, it must have been some trip and I'd be the first to volunteer.
We admit we are not technically astute. A garden hose is often the limit of our prowess so when we started exploring Argentina (the wine tasting Saturday 3-6p will be all Argentinian wines or mostly - whatever) we got all caught up with Google Earth and frankly have been having a time with it.
When we opened it last, we were asked if we wanted to see some Google Earth pictures of Antarctica. Of course we were intrigued by the offer so we clicked on the photo album and the first image was Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds from which he made his first attempt at reaching the south pole. He didn't make it but this is his diary:
"On 9 January 1909, after nearly two-and-a-half- months of trudging, they had reached a point of just 97 (156km) from the South Pole. In his diary entry for that day Shackleton recorder: ‘We have shot our bolt, and the tale is latitude 88º 23 South…Homeward bound at last. Whatever regrets may be, we have done our best’."
That hut has zip to do with anything much other than 103 years later it still stands and someone has been in it and photographed it and put it on the Internet. We are amazed.
It compelled us to read about the Nimrod Expedition and all the stuff that goes with trying to reach the south pole with horses, no really warm clothes and hanging out in a hut until the time was right and weather was right to make the trek...then getting from here to NYC from the destination, turning back rather than risk what would have been a very probable death.
This is some pumpkins of a story to read. We have to say that sitting behind our counter, well, in our mind's eye, this is as good as it gets. By the way, Shackleton didn't take Argentinian wine...just some whiskey and there is another great read.
If you go a bit south of Mendoza, Argentina (their web cam picture is to the left) - the wine center or one of their wine centers anyway, and a tad to the west, you come down in Puerto Octay, Chile. We in Greenport are at 41.1033° N, 72.3597° W on the map and if you change the "N" to a "S" that is where you end up; high in the Andes near a lake.
We like web cams a lot. Wish we had some around here so folks in Puerto Octay could see us or the Mendoza inhabitants would note a "wine country" that rests as far north as they are south.
We are kinda fascinated by all this. The little peg on the map below is our "polar opposite"; the yin to our yang geographically and here we sit at sea level or thereabouts and our friends to the south are about 10,000 feet up. We both, however, rest at nearly the end of the road literally speaking as to each of us you can only get there virtually one way on one paved trail. We also like that far away places like Uruguay, Santiago and even Robinson Crusoe Island are in the vicinity. Remote places to our knowledge but happily complete with web cams.
Can't see much as it is the middle of the night both here and due south down there but we are going to look at first light as Puerto Octay has a web cam nearby. So does Robinson Crusoe Island. What fun in the morning!
When I was a kid in geography class so xxxx number of years ago (not tellin'), we studied South America - almost as an after thought; if there was a North America there had to be, by default, a South America...oh the brains of a 10 year old at work. One of my classmates, (name withheld) came up with the idea that if we stood upright in North America that those folks in South America were standing upside down. It made perfect sense. It still does in some obscure way but we will let that pass.
I was in the store the other day, minding my business behind the counter doing whatever, when one of my gadfly friends dropped in. He learned that our tasting this week was going to feature Argentinian wines and was all into things from Argentina. It struck us that we know so little about what looks like a pretty nifty place.
Mendoza, Argentina appears to be at the heart of wine country there...our Napa of sorts or to be fair, our North Fork without the mountains. We are intrigued of course as a city named "Mendoza" seems out of our realm of understanding. It rests against the Andes and Santiago is just on the other side of that big mountain in the picture. You take Route 7 from there to this town and go through the Andes Pass. No thanks but it would be exciting and doable after several liters of something to "coax the courage". Mendoza is a city of about 800,000 folks and was founded or settled about 80 years before Suffolk, our local town. It is, importantly on the route from Santiago to Buenos Aires.
So we are going to explore this a bit in the next couple days. Our interest is pricked and to think that you could own a vineyard with the Andes in the background, a temperate climate, great soil and a very cosmopolitan town just up the road...well..... the things dreams are made of.
We did. We forgot. We got busy. Big wind coming in. Stormy weather and we just lost track of the swans.
One of our fav contributors to our Facebook pages is Alex Farrone. She is a photographer extraordinaire to say the least and is getting a lot of recognition for her skill and keen eye. She deserves it.
This is one of our fav. posts. Cold day. Time to revisit it.
Ignus fatuus is a Jack-o-Lantern. The inhabitants of the Isles were keen on carving up gourds and poking light holes in the outer skin as kind of scary things to put out in the moors. Seems like a waste of candles and food but nowadays it is replaced by the one on the front porch to let the trick for a treaters know someone is home with candy.
Exquisite. Beyond the capacity of mere mortals. When you can create this, dance this, understand this...
OK. Here's the deal.
We will test your grit over the next week. See who can face the brave bull...see who can wear the Suit of Lights (lotsa bull - 'fighting' stuff coming your way).
"On 9 January 1909, after nearly two-and-a-half- months of trudging, they had reached a point of just 97 (156km) from the South Pole. In his diary entry for that day Shackleton recorder: ‘We have shot our bolt, and the tale is latitude 88º 23 South…Homeward bound at last. Whatever regrets may be, we have done our best’."
