Spring Homecoming, Adirondack Style

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We are back at our little cabin in the big woods, the Adirondack hideaway we refer to as "Beaver Meadow Heights." For weeks leading up to our departure from Florida, North Country friends sent dire warnings. "Got another six inches of snow last night. Driving winds. Bitter cold. Will it ever end?" wrote one. Another penned, "All the snow has slid off your roofs, but the pile is so high you won't be able to get in your door." Just in case we weren't taking the warnings seriously, a stiff wind practically blew us from Florida to Thurman, accompanied by driving rain. Terrible storms flared all around the southeast, but mercifully were not close to our travel route.

We followed the swollen Schroon River out of Warrensburg, awed, as always, by the force of the water roaring toward the Hudson. Familiar landmarks led us home -- Sugarloaf Mountain, Thurman Station, Thurman town hall; then Martin's Lumber, Crane Mountain. At last we were at the foot of our driveway, surprisingly able to navigate the slope, spraying mud all the way up the hill. The snow pile in front of the house had shrunk from its mammoth proportions, and we were able to get into the cabin.

Far from a turn-key set up, our cabin remains unheated during the winter, and the water pipe to our spring is drained. A stack of firewood was waiting for us, however, and within hours the woodstove had taken most of the chill from the living room and had moderated the temperature in the back part of the house. Buckets of snow now melt behind the stove to supply utility water until we can access the supply from our spring again. We have begun settling in and catching up on emails -- albeit by dial-up connection.

Cold, banks and buckets of snow, dial-up Internet--it doesn't matter. There's no place like home. Most of the snow is gone and mud season is well underway. It's spring in the Adirondacks, and we are here, looking forward to a joyous summer.

Maple Sugaring ~ Not for sissies, but, oh, so sweet

Spring approaches in the Adirondacks, but no one is slathering on the sun block or slipping into shorts just yet. Maple producers around Thurman recently have shared stories of wallowing on snow shoes through fluffy drifts in cut-to-the bone winds in order to set taps for this year's sugaring season. Those who use plastic tubing to deliver sap to the collection vats have been out running new lines, repairing old ones, and making sure all is ready for the running of the sap. The weather toys with them, flitting playfully above freezing for a couple of days, then dropping twenty degrees and dumping more snow -- sometimes the kind of snow that can snap tree limbs, limbs that then fall on newly strung sap lines. Once the sap begins to flow in earnest, the boiling will begin. In a good season the task on a given day can go on for hours on end. Tales are told of sugarmakers who literally fall asleep on their feet beside their evaporators, steam crusting hair and eyebrows with crystals of sugar.

Sugaring is tough work, but those I know who engage in it, love it. "I think most sugarmakers are a little bit insane," observed Dave DeLozier, publisher of Ecolocal Living magazine, when I recently submitted an article I'd written about Toad Hill Maple Farm's new sugarhouse. Most sugarmakers I know would agree, readily admitting that the amount of work they do, the need for blind trust in weather known to be fickle, and the expense of equipment and supplies all set them up for failure. A compulsion drives them out into the sugarbush each February and March anyhow.

This year, as in years past, Thurman's maple producers, along with a local sawmill, will roll out the carpet for visitors each of the last three weekends in March. It begins with Thurman Maple Weekend, March 12 and 13, when Valley Road Maple opens at 9 a.m. for pancakes, and the other three sites open at 10 to offer tours and demonstrations. That first Saturday is crowned by the annual Maple Sugar Party, a buffet supper to raise money to fight cancer. Hod Ovitt and the Warren County Ramblers will be on tap to make the occasion festive, and a dessert of pure Thurman maple jack wax will leave no sweet tooth unsatisfied.

The breakfasts, tours and demonstrations will continue on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of March, as Thurman producers participate in New York State Maple Weekends. For details on the event, how to find Thurman and navigate to all sites, please visit the Thurman Maple Weekends web page. You'll enjoy attending this event. If you are from out of the area, check out our local B&Bs on Thurman's web site, www.Thurman-NY.com, and spend a leisurely weekend in the Adirondacks.

Publicity for Thurman's maple events is made possible, in part, by use of Warren County Occupancy Tax funds, granted by the Town of Thurman.

Fiction Among Friends ~ A busy summer

Whoever coined that expression "lazy, hazy days of summer" didn't live in a small Adirondack town. As those of you who check in on this blog from time to time have noticed, it has been months since I've jotted a line here.

Chalk it up to Thurman and the myriad activities bubbling away here. I haven't stopped running since we returned home in April. Thurman Townwide Sale, Thurman Station Farmers' Market and Thurman Station Association's new projects (I'll blog more about those soon) have swallowed half of my waking hours. The work has been challenging, interesting and rewarding, so who can complain?

I have, however, enjoyed spending time organizing events for Fiction Among Friends, the "business" name under which I play with planning events for writers. The first was a writing workshop at Thurman Town Hall on June 19th. A good group of writers turned out, and we spent an enjoyable day working together on fleshing out characters and learning about publishing options--and all that goes with publication of a work.

The Second Thursday Readings at Willows Bistro, 3749 Main Street, Warrensburg, NY, have really taken off. Now in our second year, thanks to the hospitality of proprietor Debbie Swan, the list of so-called "Bistro Readers" boasts over forty members, most of whom have read for our group one or more times. The next session will be July 8th, when we welcome writer/poet Pedro Ponce from Canton, NY, where he teaches writing at St. Lawrence University, and Charles Watts of Lake Placid, a former TV scriptwriter now writing short fiction. If you are in the Warrensburg area July 8, stop in for the program at 7. The public is welcome at no charge. Desserts and beverages will be available.

On Thursday, July 29th Willows Bistro and Fiction Among Friends will host writer/poet/teacher Irene Sherlock's 5 p.m. memoir-based workshop to be followed about 6:30 by a delicious Willows Bistro dinner. The cost of this offering is $20 (including the dinner!), but you must preregister for the workshop and pre-order the dinner, both through me--no later than July 22, please. Irene is an amazing teacher. Visit my website for details and to read comments from former students and workshop attendees. Email me from the site to sign up, and mail your check to 11 Clarence Russell Road, Warrensburg, NY 12885. I'll email to ask your choice of entrees. After dinner Irene will present a reading, followed by readings by RayLene Corgiat and Gail Huntley. It will be a fine evening.

More is on tap for Fiction Among Friends, but I'll save that for my next post (soon, I promise), along with some exciting news.

Till then, all my best,
Perky

Celebrating "Cold Winter Nights" by Anne White

Cold Winter Nights my sound like just another weather forecast to my friends in NY's Adirondack Mountains. For author Anne White of Glens Falls, however, it is the new winning title in her Lake George Mystery series. My review below, written for BookPleasures.com, will warm you just enough to send you scurrying to Red Fox Books or Dog Ate My Homework (for those of you in the Glens Falls area) or Borders in Saratoga Springs to buy a copy. Also available on Amazon, it's a great book to snuggle down under the covers with on, um, cold winter nights. Read on, please.

Cold Winter Nights, A Lake George Mystery
by Anne White

The serene backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains’ pristine Lake George seems an unlikely place to find the ugly snarl of infidelity, deception and murder, but mystery writer Anne White offers just that in Cold Winter Nights, the fifth in her Lake George Mystery series. We willingly follow White’s deft transformation of that idyllic northern New York setting into center stage for the killer’s desperate attempt to silence the too-perceptive (and delightful) Emerald Point mayor, Loren Graham.

It all begins at a holiday concert featuring a solo by the teenaged daughter of Graham’s good friend, Kate Donohue. Sheriff’s deputy Jim Thompson pulls the mayor out of the concert to tell her that Denise McNaughton, a respected RN from the area, has been murdered. It doesn’t take long before the small town is abuzz with gossip and theories about who might have killed McNaughton, and why. While Thompson and other law enforcement officials methodically investigate, Graham can’t help evaluating the evidence herself. Was it the Adirondack hermit, who reportedly had broken into cottages near McNaughton’s home? Could it have been Kate’s ex-husband, said to have been “involved” with the murdered nurse?

As the tale progresses, the reader is transported to various sites in the Adirondacks – from the New Year’s Day festive Polar Bear Plunge in the icy waters of Lake George to the snowy slopes of Gore Mountain Ski Resort, as Graham spends time with friends, conducts her official duties and does a bit of sleuthing. Throughout the fast-moving plot we meet more and more characters from the Lake George area – Don Morrison, Loren Graham’s fiancé; Dr. Kennison, the philandering physician; Teddie Murray, the incorrigible gossip; radio announcer Billie Jorgensen; newspaper reporter Stephanie Colvin; and Lucas Prendergast/AKA Luke Prenders, called by many “the Woodsman.”

Anne White weaves these characters and their motives so skillfully into the fabric of the story that we are at a loss to know just where to point the finger of guilt. As the plot reaches its apex, we find ourselves shivering on the shore of Lake George, trying to enjoy a skating party, but feeling the ominous approach of what we know to be the efforts of a killer to silence Loren Graham. The arctic-like waters kept unfrozen by ice-eaters just beyond the skating area threaten death as the killer makes the fatal move.

This reviewer predicts you’ll find a stack of White’s novels as irresistable as a high-carb snack; nobody can read just one. I’m already waiting for the next.

Fiction: Mystery
Publisher: Hilliard and Harris
ISBN: 1-59133-298-2, 978-1-59133-298-5.

Other Lake George Mysteries by Anne White include:
An Affinity for Murder, 2001, Oak Tree Publishing
Beneath the Surface, 2005, Hilliard and Harris
Best Laid Plans, 2006, Hilliard and Harris
Secrets Dark and Deep, 2007, Hilliard and Harris

Persis Granger, a reviewer for Book Pleasures.com, authored of two works of historical fiction, Adirondack Gold and A Summer of Strangers. She edited and coauthored Shared Stories from Daughters of Alzheimer’s: Writing a Path to Peace, and also edits Adirondack Guest Informer, a travel magazine, and the John Thurman Historical Society Quarterly, as well as organizing and hosting events for writers. www.PersisGranger.com

Good Reads for Christmas Giving

If you check on this blog from time to time (bless you if you do!), you know that there are frequent and extended dry spells between posts. You also know that I always have an excuse. Why should this time be any different?

I've been busy with a new project, collaborating with the publisher of Adirondack Guest Informer to beef up the content of his travel magazine. He conceived the notion of creating a new feature called "North Country Bookstore," a page about books set in the Adirondacks. Each of the authors whose works are featured there will write one or more articles for the magazine over the course of the year, adding a new dimension to the publication.

My part of the magazine's growth has been to recruit authors, schedule and edit the articles they will write, and write a little myself. I knew it would be fun, but, even so, I hadn't realized what a wonderful group of people I would meet and come to know in the course of the project--Miroslav Ivkovic, the publisher, and his wife Maria, Nicole Oddy, the designer, Christine Auclair, a new staff writer, and all of the other authors. The books they have written include picture books, history, mystery, nature/environment, memoir and historical fiction. There are books you may want to buy for gifts for others, and some you'll covet for your own snuggle-by-the-fire winter reading. Beginning with this post I'll post information about these books, complete with details about how to acquire them in time for the holiday. Here's the first installment.

Echoes in These Mountains by Glenn L. Pearsall
Recipient of a “Letter of Commendation” by the 35 county Upstate History Alliance, this critically-acclaimed book tells the history of the Adirondacks through an entertaining exploration of 55 historic sites in a small Adirondack town. $23 includes sales tax and postage: Johnsburg Historical Society, PO Box 144, Wevertown, NY 12886 Amazon.com.


The Diary of a Northern Moon, by Gloria Waldron Hukle. Two friends return to the Adirondacks after World War II. One dies. The other prospers, but for decades carries a secret about his dead friend. A Lake George murder forces confession. Set in North Creek, Lake George and Albany, N.Y.
www.authorgloriawaldronhukle.com. Available: Hoss’s Country Corner, Long Lake, NY, www.authorhouse.com , www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com or Toll Free l-888-280-77l5.


Threads - An American Tapestry, by Gloria Waldron Hukle. An l8th century wealthy Native American woman of mixed blood searches for her missing African American slave amidst prejudicial hatred. www.authorgloriawaldronhukle.com. Available: Hoss’s Country Corner, Long Lake, NY, www.authorhouse.com , www.bn.com, www.amazon.com or Toll Free l-888-280-77l5.

I'll list more from our North Country Bookshelf in a couple of days, so check back. And don't forget to check out Adirondack Guest Informer in January to catch the new author page all of the great articles. Content will change quarterly, so bookmark the site.

Fall - In Love with the Adirondacks

Fall is no wishy-washy affair in the Adirondacks. There’s no seamless progression from summer to winter here. The seasons change with an explosion of reds, golds, yellows and oranges, with the crunch of tinder-dry leaves underfoot, with a crackle and snap of freezing nights that whisper of winter to come and sing sad songs of summer past. Activities and ambiance evolve with the seasons. Canada geese trumpet the change in their southward journeys, settling down here or there to glean a cornfield before continuing on. Residents lay in firewood, and the sharp smell of wood smoke scents the air. Cold cellaring, canning, freezing or pickling prepares beets, carrots, potatoes, squash and pumpkins for winter storage. Lush garden plots fall fallow.
Between the time that everyone wonders, “Where did the summer go?” and the time they start to ask “Do you think it’s going to be a hard winter?” the Adirondackers experience autumn. The hustle and bustle in little villages abates, and one neighbor can spot another at the far end of a grocery store aisle. “How did your garden do?” one will call. Responses vary, depending on that year’s growing season, but the conversation often ends with, “I thought frost would never come!”
Fall is a time for biking, for hiking mountain trails, for parking at scenic overlooks along Adirondack highways to capture foliage and wildlife on cameras. Here in Thurman it’s a season for wandering through the Thurman Station Farmers’ market to look for fall veggies, tasty baked goods, maple products and hand-crafted gift items.
And then there are fall’s special events. On October 10th visit Nettle Meadow Goat Farm’s Open House from noon to four p.m. There will be activities for kids, live music, farm tours and cheese dish tasting for all. That same weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, Thurman hosts its second annual Fall Farm Tour, running from 10 to 4 each day. Valley Road Maple Farm opens early (9 a.m.) to begin dishing up pancakes, and Whitefield’s Farm will stay open late (6 p.m.)
The Adirondack scene changes as the sun recedes to the South, but this mountainous region offers no less—and perhaps offers more—in the fall. The pace of each day is slower, the air is fresher, and biting insects are all but nonexistent. Crowds seldom jostle us, and we have more time to share with neighbors. All savor the last few rays of strong sunshine, knowing that winter soon will blanket the land, a time to hunker down by the fire and savor memories of the seasons past.

(Thanks to Miroslav Ivkovic, publisher of Adirondack Guest Informer, for allowing me to adapt and use here the article submitted to him for the fall edition of his magazine. – Perky)

Back in the Adirondacks - Getting Settled in

We arrived in the North Country on Sunday, under Thurman's sunshiny blue skies. By Monday I was already knee-deep in small town fun, although still surrounded by unpacked totes, bags and boxes. There is so much to do, and I feel as though I'm slogging around in circles in quicksand. Slowly, slowly there is progress.

And there are bright spots! One of the best sparkled during a discussion with another writer on that perennial topic of squelching the inner critic when we write. I had just had several conversations with Robin, a Gainesville writer, on that very topic, as we commiserated about how tempting it is to polish every new sentence, fix every comma...and then loop back and rewrite the whole paragraph. Perish the thought that someone might see our typos and think we are illiterate!

We know there is much to be gained by resisting that editing impulse and just forging ahead with the story -- "vomiting words onto the page," as friend Shari calls it. (Shari is really good that way.)

So when e-acquaintance Jen said that she had found a neat solution to the first draft self-conscious nitpickiness I can be so guilty of, my ears shot up. She shared a trick that her friend Laurie had learned from SARK, author of "Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It." SARK says to give your internal editor a job, to keep her busy so she'll leave you alone to create.

Here's how Jen describes her way of utilizing the idea:
Have given my inner critic a job (per advice from another literary friend). Have sent her to count calories so that she is too busy to jam me up! It is pretty funny to visualize her with calculator in hand, donning an old-fashioned draftsman's green visor, working furiously at tracking the calories and reporting them on a yellow legal pad.

I'm still grinning over that one. I love the image, and I love the sharing among members of the writing community. I owe so much to so many.

Maybe tomorrow I'll find the top of my desk.

Adirondack Bound

I can count on one had the number of days left before we hop in the car, point it north and return to the Adirondacks. Between now and then there will be countless decisions to make: take this? Or leave it here? Finish this? Or hope I can remember to do it when I get home? Scrub this? Or assume it is clean enough until I get back again next fall? Decisions! I hate them. And packing--so stressful.

And when we get back, there are the inevitable "re-entry" problems -- getting re-accustomed to cold weather, heating with wood, possibly not being able to drive all the way to the house until snow is gone and moisture-laden soil has had a chance to dry. And then there will be all those things we can't find, and the inevitable question: did we pack that somewhere, or is it still back in Florida. Stress--oh, yes.




But there is, as you guessed, a big payoff. It has been way too long since we have had family time, and the littlest ones have grown so much. We can't wait to see them all. And then, there are those beautiful mountains and woodlands. Maybe I'll just click together the heels of my ruby slippers and get there faster.