Hip Hudson

One of my friends wanted to see this documentary being shown in a little art gallery in Hudson, a mid-sized town about half an hour due north of Bard, so off we trotted on Saturday night.  I've been to Hudson only briefly before, and it turns out it's a really cool town!  It's got a couple of downtown blocks lined with classy old buildings painted snazzy colors, a few really nice churches, a bunch of art galleries, and lots of places with sneaky names, like "Swallow Coffee..." (There was a picture of a bird on the sign, but still!)  The gallery itself wasn't much to look at, just a big old brick building, but we had some time to wander around the downtown in search of food before the film started.  (We finally found a cheap but delicious little falafel/pizza restaurant--an odd combo, but the falafel was yummy!)  We didn't have any time for shopping, and not much time for eating, but it was an interesting place to see.

a view up Warren Street in downtown Hudson, NY

I liked the color and shape of these buildings!

one of Hudson's several beautiful churches

Fabulous Ferncliff Forest

Todays' adventure took me about fifteen minutes south of Bard to Rhinebeck's Ferncliff Forest.  This is a place I've been meaning to check out for ages, tantalized both by the name itself and the sign I see whenever driving someone to or from the Rhinecliff train station.  It's mostly just some trails through the Hudson Valley's "second-best old growth forest," according to the sign at the trailhead.

There is also at least one cute little pond.

The forest's real attraction is its observation tower, which you can climb up.  The tower is already on the top of a hill, and while it didn't say anywhere how high it rises, I would guess at least fifty feet, possibly higher. At any rate, there's a stellar view from the top!  You can see the Berkshires to the east and the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River to the west.

view to the south-west

view to the north-west

It was also really neat to be looking almost straight down at the tops of trees; they look so different from right above.

There wasn't enough time to explore all the trails at Ferncliff, but it's definitely a place I'd be happy to revisit.

Terrific Fun at the Topsfield Fair

Last weekend I made the journey back home to see my parents and go to the Topsfield Fair!  (For those of you unfamiliar with the fair, it happens in Topsfield, MA every year in the week leading up to Columbus Day, and it is well worth checking out.)  The fair is an annual tradition: except for last year, when I was in Paris, I can't remember ever having missed a year.  I was sad that the giant ferris wheel was missing from the skyline this year, but we're not really rides people, and this year's giant pumpkin was the biggest ever, breaking the record at 2009 pounds!!!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

I'm not sure why the giant pumpkins are never very orange, but what they lack in color, they certainly make up for in mass.

Of course, there was lots of other prize-winning produce on display, and it was nice to see it all before it rotted!  (In recent years, we've gone on the last weekend of the fair, by which time the prize-winning produce, which is displayed out in the open air, without the benefit of refrigeration, is somewhat putrefied.)

The flower display was also excellent; as per usual, my favorites were the dahlias.

Those seeking my good graces should present me with a bouquet of these...

We also saw plenty of farm animals: bunnies and cavies (that's fancy for guinea pigs), chicken and turkeys and geese and pheasant and quail, bees, cows and sheep and horses.

It's a real sheep, with real horns, I swear!  (Unless it was an alien disguised as a sheep.)

There were even some sheep with more than two horns!  Maybe this merely demonstrates my lack of ovine knowledge, but I didn't know there was such a thing outside of the mutant-alien-sheep genre...  But there was a whole group of these many-horned fellows, although most weren't very obliging for the camera.

Speaking of moving animals, we were lucky enough to visit the fair on the day the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were performing their musical ride.  We've seen this show in the past, and it's always good, but I was pretty young the last time I saw it, so I didn't remember much of it.  It was fun to see it again!

RCMP

I couldn't fit all of them in the frame--it was a huge show!  I'm glad we got to see it.

Then, to finish off the fair... FRIED ICE CREAM!!  If you're wondering how this works, I'm really not the person to ask.  I suppose it has something to do with how cold they keep the ice cream, and the batter they dip it in, and probably how quickly it goes in and out of the deep fryer...  All I know for sure is that it is simply scrumptious, and a visit to the fair wouldn't be complete without it!

FRIED ICE CREAM--YUM!!!