The room wasn't fancy (Super 8 Motel) but it was clean, the mattress was firm and the AC worked like a charm! Sometimes all it takes is one night away to get you out of your 24/7 work routine and on the road to feeling a little more relaxed.

Dinner at Elderberry Farm was most memorable. It's an absolutely beautiful, charming and idyllic restaurant and with a friendly and attentive staff. Did I mention the food?
Yikes...just scrumptious from beginning to end, with everything on the menu prepared from scratch and coming either from their farm or the local area. Now we can say we've done the Route 90-50 Mile Garage Sale in style!

We were on the road a little after 6am and our first purchase was made at 6:17! The pickin' was good nearer the top but that was probably also because we were shopping at the screech of dawn! After a few miles, we just couldn't resist following a hand lettered sign in Union Springs which lured us off the main road. We were met by a decrepit old kitty cat named Jack who we later learned is 19 years old and thinks everyone comes by the barn just to see him and give him some love. Such a sweet crusty old boy. Jack's owner (a man of at least 70) fashions tables from the giant old wooden pulleys they used to use nearby on the canal locks. His barn was full of interesting treasures and each came with a story.

This solid brass lamp-looking thing is made from WWII shell casings. It is part lamp, part food cart. The heat from the lamp would heat up the individual compartments on the outside where various hot foods would be kept. Very cool but a little out of our price range - $500 maybe $1,000, he wasn't sure (and we weren't sure he really wanted to part with it!).

We shopped our way all the way back Ithaca and filled our car with lots of lovely and interesting smalls. Though as with any trip away, it's always nice to be back home,and that's what I'm looking forward to today.

Virgins

Today I spent the morning trying to fluff up our booth space at FOUND. Here's the latest version of our front space,and a look at our back booth.

I reluctantly took home the framed Virgin Mary that's been hanging in our back booth. This version of the virgin showed her holding a bleeding sacred heart with daggers sticking out of it. It would be quite an ordinary religious print except that she was the spittin' image of a young Nicolas Cage (think Nicolas Cage in from his "Moonstruck" days). I kid you not. Oh, if only I had a photos...While I'm on the topic of Virgins, I'm happy to report that someone purchased our paint by number Virgin today. As with all sales from our Vintage Paint by Number Show, 20% of the proceeds goes to the SPCA.

Tomorrow I'll hit some local sales in the morning and then Ken and I will amble north to where we'll have dinner at The Restaurant at Elderberry Pond. We'll stay the night in Auburn so we get up at the screech of dawn and shop our way back to Ithaca via the annual Route 90 sales. Gentleman, start your wallets! I'm so ready to shop - here's to good pickin'!! And speaking of pickin'...The folks over at Lifetime TV - the ones who bring you American Pickers and Pawn Stars - have come up with a new show. Think American Pickers on estrogen complete with daisy dukes and bleach blond hair. That's right folks, the season of Picker Sisters debuts this coming Tuesday, August 2, at 10pm. Wonder what Frank and Mike will have to say about this...

Blowing Bubbles

As I type the heat wave is loosening its grip on our little piece of heaven. Thank goodness. We need the rain desperately and I can hardly wait to turn off the AC and let the fresh air back in.

Despite the oppressive heat we managed to have a delightful two days at this year's Grassroots Festival.

We heard lots of great music, stayed out way past our bedtime and danced our feet off.

August is just around the corner and like clock work I'm beginning to feel time and the calendar close in around me. Year after year I make every effort to get "caught up" at home before school begins and despite my best efforts school starts regardless. My catch up list is pretty long. Will I feel rested and ready by August 31st? Well we'll just have to wait and see about that.

Lately more than a few of our friends have asked us what we've been doing for fun lately. Enough have inquired that I wonder if they're not a little worried about us and this hectic life we're living. So this week we've got not one, not two, but THREE fun things planned! We'll see the new Harry Potter movie, catch the Horse Flies on the Commons and take in a new play at the Hangar Theater.

I hope to make time for some of this too...

Dog Days

Hot. Hazy. Humid. Tomorrow we'll hit 100 and may even exceed it. What happened to my "this is why we live here" season? Searching for some perspective, I looked back at some of my snowy photos from January and February. I wish I could say it helped. I am not grateful for this weather. Instead I am one giant hot and sticky mess, and let me tell you hot flashes in this kind of heat is a kind of hot no one wants to experience. I am a human internal combustion engine!This weekend is Grassroots Festival. Ordinarily I'd be studying the schedule trying to figure out the logistics of getting to all of the great bands I want to hear. Instead, today I've been daydreaming about selling my ticket on Craigslist and using the money to by an air conditioner. Actually a nice sturdy kiddie pool would do me just fine - the water from our well is nice and cold!!

We've taken to having our morning coffee on the porch. The sun doesn't peek over the woods until about 7am so it's usually very peaceful and cool. A wonderful way to wake up.
This morning we were visited by hummingbirds flitting between the hanging fuchsia on the porch and the giant trumpet vine growing on the garage. It was quite a sight and amazingly I got a few picks.

Extraordinary little creatures.

Tenure

Our neck of the woods is caught in the death grip of a heat wave and I hear much of the country is suffering the same fate. Never the less, at the screech of dawn on Sunday we put our heads down, mustered an almost believable happy face and set up our tent for the FOUND FLEA. It was a good day, in fact, a very good day! Sales were steady and we made contact with a huge number of folks who had no idea we even existed. It continues to amaze me how many folks we still have yet to reach despite all of our advertising and our continuing PR push.In the hustle and bustle that was this week I finally realized what it was I was feeling and why the feeling was so very familiar. Growing a business feels an awful lot like the quest for tenure. Anyone in academia knows immediately what I mean. You just never lose sight of the goal of tenure - it influences every decision you make from which concerts and projects to take on, to how much outside committee work to do.In my musings on this idea I realized that a single bit of advice I received from my mentor Abraham Skernick still sticks with me to this very day, though it resonates in a new way for me now. He advised me to say yes to each and every opportunity that came my way for the first three years of my life as a professional musician. He said that long after I'd celebrated my 20th or 30th year of teaching and playing (this is year 29) that I'd be able to link my current successes to decisions I made in the first three years of my professional life. He was so right. Today I find that once again I'm weighing every decision I make in light of a larger goal. FOUND occupies most of the available time in my day and space in my brain. The work is tremendously satisfying and I'm convinced it'll pay off in much the same way as my quest for tenure many years ago.

Pace

It was so beautiful today I'm almost at a loss for words to describe it. Summer please won't you just slow down a little bit. August is starting to come into view...

Clockwork

Every Monday night without fail they show up,and long about 7:30 or so our live dinner music begins.

In the warm weather months they through open the doors.At first we hear tuning, a little mike adjusting and then a little sax warm up. Then we settle back and listen...

Every now and then we recognize a lyric or a melody over the breeze or hear a bass line we know. They play cover tunes mostly and they are devoted. Tonight we went over to say hello. They were relieved we were smiling as their last guests evidently cursed at them. Too bad. Who doesn't love to hear folks trying their hardest, playing their hearts out just because they love it. They've had some personnel changes so they're not at their very best but they have had some gigs and even have a couple coming up. Wish I could remember what they call themselves. For us it is our very own personal live dinner music. Gotta love this country life...

Weed Something...

Well the weeds are winning most days but at least I'm trying to weed something every day. After last night's dramatic thunder and lightening storm dumped buckets o'rain on us, the garden is just teaming.
As soon as the rain stopped the sun came out in full force. Our road reacted to it by setting off an amazing steam show.

Today I went to check in on little Miss Junco in the hanging fuschia plant only to discover that she and her four little eggs were gone. On closer inspection I found one little lone egg out of the nest near the edge of the basket. It had a tiny whole in it. I can only guess that the others got eaten by a greedy crow or some other hungry four legged critter. Made me so sad. The egg is so small and the markings on it are so intricate. I put back in the nest, hung the basket back up and watered the plant. Time now to try and rescue the fuschia.