hanging out with vint, toby, and truffle

my birthday weekend in norfolk, ct was a relaxation extravaganza. vint got dianna and i massages from the most gifted massage therapist, melanie. not only is she a heck of a massage therapist, she conceived and gave birth to triplets naturally. WHAT???!!!! now they are 8 and she has taught them to do massage and they have weekly spa nights. how awesome is that?

i found a frog!

everything i need to relax: water bottle with tea, laptop, new orange jacket,
and norfolk sunshine

dianna and vint. at one point he said to her: "that's an interesting way of wearing clothes." those of you who know how all sorts of dianna's undergarments can be showing at any one time can appreciate.

vint and his lovely, tho stinky, dogs took us on a couple of long walks. he entertained us with vietnam war stories of his work with the hmong in laos when he worked for the cia.

annie and vint told us toby pond would be warm and that we should bring our swimsuits.
we brought our swimsuits, but getting in the water was a real challenge.

debating a swim.
dianna and i decided that riding for 3 days straight might be enough.
lindsay finally got in.

the perfect stroke.
(we'll later discover that this is what the early stages of hypothermia look like)

babushka! freezing to death!

vint offered to take us for a spin in chichibu, a 1931 model a. it belonged to his grandparents who took it to tour japan on a boat named chichibu maru (or something)

the engine wouldn't start, so we pushed chichibu out of the garage to get it rolling.

lindsay riding shotgun in chichibu. vint furiously trying to get the engine started.

well. we rolled all the way down windrow road and the car never turned on.
we towed it to a garage rather than push it back up the hill.

tying chichibu up to the truck.

we're clearly not much help here.

but are having the time of our lives!

i drove chichibu behind the tow. it was scary! the car is super old, rare and priceless!

the garage where chichibu will spend the winter.

with chichibu out, vint still wanted to show us the gorgeous forest that his family holds in a perpetual trust. it was so beautiful.

they all used to make maple syrup from the maple trees in the forest, but with climate change, the maple trees that produce syrup don't grow here anymore.

this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.

vint giving us a lesson in botany.
the difference between hemlock and queen anne's lace.
firs, maples, and more trees.

we were driving out of the forest when lindsay "eagle eyes" workman saw these two porcupines.
she is now enlisted to join me on my next safari
seeing thru the bush is the most valuable of all safari skills.

this is the road that we traveled thru the forest.
reminds me of what the road less traveled might have looked like

on the way home, dianna and i drove a little out of the way to travel down some of the roads we'd biked up a few days earlier. it was ALL uphill!!!

i took this picture because i'm a total nerd and love to know about fish in the rivers.
and for my friend mike.
but i kept seeing these and thinking i might have found mike's heaven.
biking through fly fishing spots

lindsay flew out from hartford the day before so she could get back to work. dianna and i drove the car, our bikes, and all the goodies that vint gave us back to washington. vint's goodies included tomatoes, raspberries, homemade apple cider, and sport-tea. we stopped on the side of the road and picked up wild little tiny apples. they are SO good. we ate some tonight. nice and tart!

on the long drive home, we listened to annie's book naked in baghdad on tape. she is an awesome storyteller, and lanneedelamusement officially endoreses the book. it is creepy how spot on the iraqis were about how this war would turn out. it REALLY makes you think about what why we should have known better BEFORE invading. thanks for what you do annie!

thanks again annie and vint! you are lifesavers!!!!!