Catching Up

Photos - from hike up West Simsbury Mountain
Left is the view across the valley back toward Heublein Tower. Click on photos to enlarge.
Right is looking in the direction of Granby. I think someone called this Twin Hills or something like that. I was too tired to care!

Since my last post, I have been making forays into trying to get this house ready to sell. The house is way too big for me, so a smaller place (condo?) will be the goal. However, I am trying to decide what stays, what goes, what gets donated, what goes to the tag sale. I’m having to make these decisions for the possessions of my mother and me. My stuff is easy for me to do. My mother’s stuff has to be paraded before her…that means taking them over to the nursing home and back.

It also means giving each room a thorough cleaning so everything is pristine by sale time. Then there is the outside……….. My kids are going to help me with the yard and some of the stuff that needs to be done inside.

Poison Ivy
On Tuesday, May 26th, I installed downspout extenders. Of the three, only one had any vegetation around it. I noticed all the ferns and hacked them out of the way along with some other stuff. Well I should have taken a good look at the “other stuff.” Leaves of three I did not see. Wrote a poem about it (see below). It’s just about all gone now. An spot here or there will itch on occasion, but that’s it. If I remember, next year I should start immunization (homeopathic of course) in late winter.

West Simsbury Mountain
We did this hike on Sunday the 7th. If you see a hike advertised for this location and it says it’s only 3.5 miles, don’t believe it! It must be almost that far to the top. In truth the hike is 5 miles. On the flat, I start staggering at 3.5 miles. The hike up was up all the way and a good portion of that on rocks that were either loose or had a “spine” upon which you stepped and balanced on the middle of your foot.

By the time we got to the top I was so pooped, I handed the camera to Jon and told him he could take pictures. Once I was able to think about anything other than catching my breath the view was remarkable. We were west of the Heublein tower; looking back at it across the valley.

On the way down, I was darn glad I was wearing my hikers that have a grip on down-sloping rocks and other surfaces. Although the way down was less strenuous and shorter, it was DOWN. The surface, again, had lots of rocks where we had to fight for footholds. There was some smooth and flat, but not much. We were about ¼ mile from the parking lot when I thought my left knee was going to get blown out. It hurt so bad (“badly” for you grammarians)! With all the downward hiking on rocks, my knee was not up to the excessive jolting. The trail could be described as borderline “ankle-breaker.”

On the way home we stopped for ice cream and I hurt in so many places…feet, knees, hips, lower sacral area…I didn’t think I’d be able to get out of bed the next morning.

I met a couple on the trail who mentioned Buffalo, NY. I told them about Kathy’s and my ride on the Erie Canal and they were excited about that because they had been talking about doing the same thing in whole or in part. I saved them a year’s worth of planning by emailing them my spreadsheets of places where we stayed and the distances between towns. I hope they do it.

The next morning I got up feeling surprisingly good. As the day wore on the aches and pains settled in, and by the time I went to bed the worst pain was in my calves. They were rock hard and painful for 3 days.

More food news
On Monday, Shaw’s Supermarket had asparagus for $1.99 a pound. I could not pass that up. After washing and snapping off the tough end I saved a few spears for my scrambled eggs this coming weekend. The rest was divided up for two meals for yesterday and today. This time I decided to sauté the spears in olive oil. I made a meal of mashed potatoes, chicken cutlet, and sautéed asparagus spears. So tasty!

At this rate, I will ruin my reputation as a non-cook.