Tonight!

The start of the Fireman's Carnival!
Meaning the parade will be this Saturday!

this is the end

In Greek and Roman mythology the giant one eyed Cyclopes , other than being giants with one eye - knew from birth the moment of their own deaths. They how when and why's..... would change your out look on things...
I don't know when, but I am very sure that the eventual cause of my own demise will be THESE FREAKING TREES :

 The air is jungle gardenia in church thick with the heavy scent of  these trees that are EVERYWHERE right now.. this one is just across the street. Driving to Wegmans today the road is just white with them.

They do not last long....

S.o.L.

women we love

Watch Country Music Legend Dolly Parton's New Roll: "Book Lady" on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

dinner

ham

broccoli

brown rice

zzzzzzzz

suddenly

 Sub freezing wind chills to 90+ in one week .

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

" I know" , said God, " I'll make people who like it like this "

so good to be back out after a while off the trail.

Mad About TLo

Do hope all of you are flocking to TOM AND LORENZO every Wednesday for a FANTASTIC fashion re-cap of the previous Sunday nights MAD MEN, this week they went full Pulitzer on us in reaction to this :
You defiantly get the feeling that Matthew Weiner does NOT like New York City!

From their blog :

"There was some initial discussion about whether this iconic-style T-shirt was really 1968-accurate. Not only is it accurate, but it was seen on Sharon Tate in a spread for Esquire magazine the year before(picture NSFW). Janie confirmed on twitter that this was a deliberate choice. That is INSANELY ominous. There’s a growing sense of impending violence with each episode and we’ve been treated to some stabbing imagery this season (Abe and Stan), so any deliberate references to Sharon Tate are bound to get the hairs standing on end. 

You defiantly get the feeling that Matthew Weiner does NOT like New York City!

Memorial Day

 America

 Yeah, maybe a bit too Birnbach for normal humans...

 pre game snacks

Kyle

 Koda

 

 Neil, Jack, Linda - 

getting the tour

Grilled Chicken

assorted grilled vegetables

cous cous w/ dried cranberries and dates

chopped salad

Key Lime Pie

w/ black and straw berries

( on Neil's mothers 1950's Fostoria )

Memorial Day daily Koda

We then went down to the Mendon Parade, where my camera was stuck between photo and video or something, so no pics came out, so you are going to miss your Mayberry overdose for the day.
Old people in convertibles and boy scouts with flags, old and new fire trucks and the middle school marching band - we go all out. Oddly enough this year, some French revolution guys with a cannon - very " Do You Hear the People Sing " .
The parade route is from in front of our house over to the tiny Mendon cemetery where the band plays for a bit, they lay a wreath and do a 21 gun salute, which scared Koda.
THEN! they all pile into busses or just drive over to Mt. Pilot Honeoye Falls and do it all over again....

dinner ( last night )

After Saturday night's cholesterol fest, it was time for a little healthy

Grilled Chicken 

on a big salad.

Welcome Summer!

That was then, this is now...

h/t AndrewSullivan

Dinner

I think you can tell who picked out dinner tonight

Steak

( my yearly steak, and it was really good  )

Baked Potato

Sauteed Mushrooms 

in a sherry vinegar reduction

AND

Our neighbors brought us over some really fantastic rhubarb crumble pie, 

I had never really had anything like it - not really sweet at all - 

I should have taken a photo.

Daily Koda

A Giant Snowball Bush and a Mea Culpa

Sorry about the light blogging for the last couple of days, just busy I guess. FREAKY weather - downright cold yesterday, we are talking wind chills - and still very chilly today. It's just wrong to make a big pot of chili and wear sweaters on Memorial Day Weekend.

Do a Good Turn Daily!

Boy Scouts to Admit Openly Gay Youths as Members

dinner

Meat Loaf

Squash Casserole

Peas

Oh Mighty Iris......

Make sure you are following Neil's gardening blog:

 Diamond Rise Gardener

Koda and Fletcher

Our next door neighbor Fletcher is with us for a couple of days - they get along very well.

 

Big Day

daily Koda

Trio of Bdays

Happy Birthday 

Harry!

Alan!

&

Morrissey!

dinner

standard summer fare

BBQ CHICKEN

Chopped " Southwestern " Salad

This Is the Day

The very first warm , down right muggy day of the year.

Didn't we just have snow ?

Post coffee and newspapers , Neil working in his yard -

We hit Frontier Field to pick up the tickets for 

Episcopal Night '13 :

" This time we mean it "

This is the new Parker. Seemed nice enough -

Went to a funeral home

then a garden store

THEN!
Hit the " new " Wegmans on East Ave!

Neil was " underwhelmed " I thought it was just lovely - really like the fact that they kept the over all feeling of an older city store, narrow aisles, tall shelves - with adding all the perks of a new store. It is not, nor was it meant to be its much fancier bother a few miles away in Pittsford

A new computer system - gives you all the information when you get your
price tag

Me, at the New East Ave. Wegmans

came home - to an exploding snow ball bush

cooked some DAMN GOOD bbq chicken

then we had a big storm

I ♥ ALLIUMS

How I spent my Monday.

and in doing all this cause a Mama Robin some distress, 

but they all seem fine now.

Love for a Monday

breathe

One of those " file away " days. Come back to this one in the depths of Winter, or even the rare thickness of Summer. Would that there were smell-o-blog. Fresh earth, cut grass and the bright blossom of miles of brand new honeysuckle. Clear and sweet - as close to perfect as we dare get.

dinner

Ham

Field Peas

Roasted Beets

Beet Greens and Tuscan Kale

ain't no party like a Mendon party......

Ended the night down at the corner with the HFBFF & " friend " - a few mid late night beers with pals - A calm night at the Cottage, we all but turned it pink...

dinner

RIBS! 

( there was slaw and chips as well, but this was pretty much a meat fest )

Here is the recipe that I read and printed and totally did not use, thinking, JC! this is way to much sugar and salt.... Yeah, don't do that...... Use Alton's recipe - I cooked them long and slow, 2+ hours at 275 with a dry rub ( all morning, like  8 hours ) then covered in foil.. blah , blah, blah, just use this one:

2 whole slabs pork baby back ribs
Dry Rub:
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Braising Liquid:
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Directions
Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place each slab of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle each side generously with the dry rub. Pat the dry rub into the meat. Refrigerate the ribs for a minimum of 1 hour. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Place the ribs on a baking sheet. Open one end of the foil on each slab and pour half of the braising liquid into each foil packet. Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency. Brush the glaze onto the ribs. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly. Slice each slab into 2 rib bone portions. Place the remaining hot glaze into a bowl and toss the rib portions in the glaze.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/who-loves-ya-baby-back-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

Brunch, as we all know, is a verb

dinner

daily koda

Miss Sadie goes back next door tomorrow night, 

she has been ZERO trouble at all, the calmest dog in the world.

( son of ) art + beat

IT'S CHRISTIE'S TURN AT BAT

And its heavy hitter night, 

none of this sea sponge glued to a stick bat shit craziness

some history was made.

58.3 Million

No. 19 - 1948

Jackson Pollock.

BOOM! Owned till this week by DC billionaire Mitchell Rales - it last sold at Christies in 1993 for 2.4 million. Re read that bad boy - and hum to yourself : the rich get richer and the poor get children.

 Let's do a little art 101 final and compare and contrast the painting sold earlier this week, Pollock's 1946 Blue Unconscious which sold for 20.8 to this one. Two years and 28 million dollars - We are purely Pavlovian driven to love this, blame Peggy and Life Magazine. Mr or Ms Anonymous Bidder now has the coolest living room in Seattle , San Francisco or Riyadh.

56.1 Million

Woman with a Flowered Hat - 1963

Roy LIchtenstein

23.6 Million

Nude with Yellow Flower - 1994

Roy Lichtenstein

A double shot of Lichtenstein love, as the painter set a new record last night with his riff of Picasso's painting of the same name, Woman with a Flowered Hat , which the famed Spanish painter did in 1921 and is a blue period painting NOT cubist at all - so the whole thing is just trippy. Owned by Revlon's Ronald Perelman - it was bought by London jeweler Laurence Graff . From the NYT , "

Mr. Graff, who sat in the front row of the salesroom, patiently outbid three telephone contenders. After the sale, he said he had bought it as a birthday present for himself; he turns 75 on June 13. “It’s a masterpiece,” Mr. Graff added. “I’ve known the painting for years, always saw it in the textbooks.
” “Woman With Flowered Hat” had been included in museum shows, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was not the only work by Lichtenstein to score a high number. “Nude With Yellow Flower,” a 1994 painting with the artist’s well-known vertical stripes and benday dots, depicting one of the artist’s signature comic-book blondes talking on the telephone, was expected to fetch $12 million to $16 million. A seller paid $21 million, or $23.6 million with fees.
Let's just hope that this work, like all of these ,really - can find their way back to some public views someday

48.8 Million

Dustheads -1984
Jean-Michel Basquiat

Another record set, this time for k+b favorite Basquiat, the seven foot tall painting "sold to a telephone bidder for $48.8 million with fees, also a record price. (The last record, set at Christie’s in 2012, was $26.4 million.) The painting had been estimated to sell for $25 million to $35 million and was being sold by the London collector Tiqui Atencio, who bought it from the dealer Tony Shafrazi in 1996."

Something that surprised me a great deal, another Basquiat and a Willem de Kooning BOTH from the collection of the late ANDY WILLIAMS sold 

5.7 million

Furious Man - 1982

a work on paper

Jean-Michel Basquiat

9.7 Million dollars

Untitled XVII - 1984

Willem de Kooning

Who knew that Mr. Moon River had some wicked chops when it came to 20th Century art! "de Kooning’s “Untitled XVII,” from 1984, a large canvas of abstract ribbons of orange, blue and yellow, sold for $8.6 million, or $9.7 million with fees. Williams had bought it in 2003 for $3.7 million at a Christie’s auction."

His and Claudine's children netted 46 million altogether as they shucked their dads collection.