The Southwick Rail Trail

 http://bikeitorhikeit.org/southwick_rail_trail.htm

The only other time I started a ride from this part of the trail, it was not paved. It must have been 1998 or ’99, and the ride headed south in hard packed dirt, which quickly deteriorated to soft sand. The next hazard was a stream connecting two swamps with a bridge over it. But, the bridge didn’t have any decking on it and my friend, Nancy, and I walked our bikes across on the 2 x 4s.

The north section of this trail was not to be ridden on my bike. It was chunky loose gravel. My hybrid tires would have been shredded in no time, so I never did ride north. That’s what today’s ride is all about. This entire section is now paved!

Today’s ride started at the parking lot on Phelps Rd. in Granby just south of the Massachusetts state line. The parking lot is really just a corner of a farmer’s field…and the trail is right there.

Because this morning was super cool I got up early, had a good breakfast, and got to the trail about 9:45. At this hour the trail is nicely shaded.

The first mile north is the end of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. Once the state line is crossed it becomes the Southwick Rail Trail. It travels through farmland, swamps and marshes, and past a golf course. Very little residential is seen, although I have to believe it is just over the other side of thick woods. Several small paths connect to the trail and I’ll bet they go to the neighborhoods. One nice feature of this trail is its many parking areas. At least one of them has a Porta-Potty. I didn’t notice it because I didn’t realize there was one there until after I finished the ride and read the trail info one more time. I should note here that the information given in the link at the beginning is not totally up-to-date. The trail goes about one more mile than mentioned in the info.

Once the trail enters the town of Westfield, it becomes the Columbia Greenway. After 7.5 miles the improved section comes to an end. As close as I can tell, it ends at Shaker Rd in Westfield, MA. Across the road I could see the rest of the trail not yet improved, but in the process. This is very exciting. The trail will eventually become part of a larger corridor from New Haven, CT to Northampton, MA. Depending on where it comes out in Northampton, it might be close to the Norwottuck trail that goes east to Belchertown. That would be a total of approximately 65 miles. Not something I would ride all at once, but for those bike tours that raise funds for charities, this begins to get interesting.

By the time I headed back to my car, the trail was much sunnier. Thank goodness it’s a cool day!

I want to come back to this trail, but next time ride south toward Simsbury, just to see the difference from my first ride. I sure hope that bridge has had some decking put on it! 

The Red Sox…Historically

I have been a Red Sox fan since 1946. My big brother, Paul, was a Red Sox fan so that meant I was too. He also got my mother hooked. My brother worked on broad leaf tobacco in the summer (all our neighbors grew it) so my job was to listen to the games and write down everything every Sox player did. Of course that was when there were only eight teams in each league. When the Red Sox game would be rained out, the radio station would do a teletype play by play of some other game. Oh! Those were the days, indeed!

The Red Sox always had good players. Sometimes they even had good teams, but never good enough to capture that World Series. We waited a long, agonizing time for that to happen. My two favorite players have to be Ted Williams (left field slugger) and Mel Parnell (left handed pitcher who pitched a no-hitter in 1956 against the Chicago White Sox).

That was then. This is now.

Even with two World Series Championships under their collective belts, the team went into major meltdown in September of last year and they haven’t pulled out of it yet even though it is not the same team. There aren’t many players left who were there last year. This year they are injury plagued necessitating calling up a lot of AAA players…who have played very well, by the way!

In all my years of watching the Red Sox, I have noticed this: if they are playing very good before the All Star Game, they hit the skids after and pretty much disappear. If, however, they are playing lousy prior to the All Star Game, they seem to catch their second wind and come on like gang busters to the finish line.

We all know how they have been playing up to this year’s All Star game. Will we see the “historical” Red Sox from here on out? I hope so. This year has been painful to watch.

Only time will tell.

My Adventure With Wild Rice

If you know me, you know I am not a cook. Oh, I can cook, it’s just that I approach cooking as if it were a chemistry experiment. I follow the recipe. When it comes to cooking I have no imagination…no taste buds that say to my brain, “Why don’t you try a dash of _________?”

When I saw a recipe in a local grocery store weekly flyer for Wild Rice Salad, I cut it out for future reference. Today is the future.

During the summer I usually make (alternately) potato or elbow macaroni salad. They are quick and easy, and I can make enough to last several days. But, I wanted something different this week. Wild Rice Salad, of course!

I had no idea wild rice was black (or is it dark brown?). It was a shock when I went shopping yesterday. I also got the baby spinach, cucumber, and red wine vinegar. I already have olive oil, garlic, dill and tomatoes. The original recipe paired the salad with salmon, but I figure I can pair it with anything. Today I used it as a side dish for pork chops. For a vegetable I cut up and steamed one small yellow squash and one small zucchini. That will make a nice looking, appetizing, plate!

I was so anxious to try the salad that I didn’t even think to take a picture of my plate. I will do that tomorrow and post it, since I will have the exact same lunch.

                                              Doesn't that look good enough to eat?


(As a side note, I do not like eating a monochromatic meal. Where I used to work, the cafeteria would occasionally have breaded lemon-butter scrod, mashed potatoes and corn. Put that on a cream colored plate and it disappeared! It had absolutely no appeal.)

I went outside on the deck to eat because it is a gorgeous day here in in Southern New England. I knew what the pork chop and the squashes would taste like, but the wild rice was the unknown.

I put the first forkful into my mouth and let it rest there for a moment…savoring the flavors. The cucumber and red wine vinegar were the most prominent. The rice alone has a subtle taste to it and has to rely on what is added. The taste is delicious; the texture is crunchy; the look was colorful and appetizing. What more can I say? I liked it!

Here is the recipe:

1 cup wild rice (I bought a .5 oz package and followed cooking directions on the package)

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 cups chopped baby spinach leaves

1 cup finely chopped cucumber

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes (I chopped up a regular tomato)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh dill or 1 tsp dried

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan (since I had just short of 1 cup of rice I used 2½ cups water per package directions).

Add rice, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, 40 minutes or so (follow package directions on timing) or until tender. Drain.

Place rice in a large bow. Add vinegar and oil, toss well.

Add spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, garlic, dill and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Toss to combine. Set aside until ready to serve (in refrigerator to chill is best if you have time).

Life After Facebook

Life after facebook was short! I missed not being able to interact with my family and very close friends.


I gave it a lot of thought as to how I could get back in without having to suffer those "friends" who, as it turned out, posted to the extreme. And it wasn't even about what was going on in their lives. It was a lot of those fuzzy, warm, feel-good posters/sayings that they downloaded by the truckload to facebook. I have a saturation point! :)


It was tedious, but I managed to "unfriend" most of my friends list. Any one who is actually family or those close friends I consider family were spared the cuts. I was pretty brutal. It's not that I don't like the people I unfriended. I do like them. But I like them a lot better now that my facebook home page won't be cluttered up with all their stuff!


It took me some time to figure out how to reactivate my accouint. As it turned out, all I had to do was sign in. It couldn't have been easier. Of course the route I took to that easy-as-pie sign-in, was circuitous and a lot harder than it had to be.


Now I'm trying to delete the new gmail account I set up. Really sorry I did that. I have decided I don't want to use it and I don't like their calendar...which is what I really wanted.


Some days I really, really hate electronics. Is Mercury retrograde?