We meet at last!

[nctomatoman]

http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/1/post...didnt-end.html

[remy]

That's great! It is about time you two met.
Remy

[Barbee]

I love it and what a great photo of you both!!

[huntoften]

Excellent!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by remy

That's great! It is about time you two met.
Remy

Yes it is Remy, since we've known each other for over 20 years.

And I'd like to note that that isn't a hospital gown I'm wearing. When I don't have to go out I wear these long lounger kinda things at home.

This is the first time I've ever had my tomato plants hand delivered and they look great and the two trays are out on the back steps with all the perennials I ordered this year, waiting for the weather to allow Freda to get planting stuff.

Well, one plant inside. There was ONE seedling of Dutka Pink that made a late showing so it's inside being coddled, but being about one inch tall I'm wondering what its fate will be down the road as to fruits this year. I can just hear Freda when the first frost approaches when I ask her to dig it out of the grow=bag, or even haul that Gro-bag inside.

Was Craig what I explected? For sure since we've been e-mailing and phone talking for all that time and of course I'd seen pictures of not just Craig but also Sue when they go kyacking. When I did stand up to get in the walker I think he was a bit surprised to find that I'm just an inch or so shorter than he is, but I wheel around stooped over for much of the time b'c of the spinal stenosis.

And Craig's wife Sue is as lovely a person as you'll meet. She finally sat on the couch knitting as Craig and I discussed many tomato related issues as well as other ones, but we didn't get into heavy stuff, that's for next time they come up this way. And they'll also tell you that my front room is books galore, I have no control when it comes to buying books, but I'm in here all winter, not allowed to go out, and that's that, and no Nooks or Kindles or whatever for me. I want to hold a real book in my hands. And Sue was able to find some that interested her so off to Raleigh they went.

They had a rough trip up from Raleigh b'c of the rain and T-storms and going thru PA there were even some tornados nearby and Thursday night they stayed in Oneonta, NY, hoping to get to my home by early PM Thursday, which they did after checking in to the B and B where I'd made reservations for them.

It's the first time Craig had seen Red Breasted Grosbeaks of which I now have 3 pair as well as many other wonderful birdies ranging from Baltimore Orieoles to Indigo Buntings to the commone Goldfinches, chickadees, nut hatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers as well as Yellow bellied ones and a bald eagle sighting in the backyard last week, and many more, so he was intent on getting all the pictures he could of thiose Grosbeaks, which I also love. And Sue wandered outside and took more pictures and also brought in some fresh lilacs b'c the ones on the coffee table were looking a bit wilted.

How I wish we would have had more time Friday AM but I had an eye appt with my eye surgeon made long ago for the 6 month checkup following the bilateral cataract surgeries and also needed him to sign off on the eyesight card I have to return with the renewal of my driver's license which has to be mailed Monday.

I think he and Sue liked the setting of my home and Sue got a good picture of the 30 ft waterfall next to my deck. I love the sound of the water in the brook as well as the sound of that waterfall when I can open one or more of the sliding doors to just the screens. To get to my front door you have to walk over a bridge built of stone that dates from the mid-1800's.

Alas, no Black Bear confrontations b'c I'd told him it was a possibility and he actually wanted to see one or two. When Freda was here to take the trash out for pickup yesterday PM she mentioned that our country is finally going to allow permits to be drawn for Black Bears. Darn the cubs are cute, but momma bear is huge and as soon as they start coming here Freda has to take down the many bird feeders I have hanging off the 2 foot overhang which surrounds my home. But the bears have become destructive not just to feeders, but entering homes, etc., and darn, if I go out to my car which is pulled up close to the front door, I can't go fast in my walker, so, well, there you go.

My front room is both LV and DR and comprises the front 2/3 of a huge hexagon and the stone faced chimney soars up to about 30 ft, the back 1/3 is the kitchen. And the front room has large windows all around so I have a good look at what's going on out there and can also monitor the number of manure trucks that go aspreading at this time of year. I am in dairy country and have 30 acres here, 10 of which are leased to one of the largest dairy farms and our lands adjoin at the top of the ridge. Another acre is a wonderful marsh and the rest is firs and hardwoods. Actually 14 loads of "S" went up the road n last Wednesday. The "perfume" smells more of money than it does of "S".

And thanks to Crig and Sue for fetching some food and also to them for bringing me 4 dark chocolate bars from an artisanal place in Raleigh. Craig I tried the cocoa nib one last night and it was delicious. And they also brought with them some outstanding pieces of cake that they bought where they had lunch in Schuylerville which is very near the Saratoga Battlefield and about 40 min from me. Best darn carrot cake I've had in years as well as a wonderful blueberry cake and some baklava, which is also one of my faves.

So all and all a wonderful visit and I can't wait until they return for the next visit when we can really get down to brass tacks and solve the problems of the world, and otherwise would also mean a review of the many folks we both know thru tomato activities and what we really think of some of them.

And let us not forget that no one is perfect while still on earth. ( smile)

[recruiterg]

Congrats to you both. Can't believe you haven't crossed paths until now.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by recruiterg

Congrats to you both. Can't believe you haven't crossed paths until now.

We almost did quite a few years ago when SmithKline was shutting down some areas at their Philly location where Craig worked and he went for an interview , with no less than Chester Opalka, ahem, and stayed less than 10 miles from me, but time constraints didn't allow for us to meet at that time.

And my second flyby from someone from NC is my brother who will be here next week and has ordered me to get X pints of maple syrup for him to take back with him which he does every year. NC is NOT a maple syrup destination. My brother and family lived up here until 5 years ago when he moved to NC.

He comes up this way each year, sometimes several times, b'c he's an expert bamboo rod maker and delivers rods to folks up this way, but also deals with folks in several countries. He's well known for his restoration of antique, or should I call the heirloom, bamboo rods.

And he still has several trout fishing friends up here as well, so off they go while his older but wiser sister is at home and waits for him to return. But years ago I use to go with him on some of his trout expeditions up here and I'm telling you, after almost falling off a cliff into a canyon thru which the Hudson River runs at one point, I never went again. it wasn't just the possible fall, it was that in and out of that remote area we had to walk on old logging trails that had been overgrown with berry bushes and it was the breakfast/lunch/dinner area for the local Black Bears.

Carolyn,

I'm glad you and Craig finally met. I always enjoy meeting and visiting with people with whom I share common interests. I guess you could call it comparing notes.

I love the description of your home. From your description, I form a mental picture of a Frank Lloyd Wright design like "Fallingwater".

Ted

[tam91]

Yes, your home does sound very lovely. I'd love to see some photos, if you ever wanted to share them (but I do understand privacy issues, of course).

[gardenmama]

What a wonderful opportunity after so many years.
I look forward to also having the chance to talk face to face one of these days.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Carolyn,

I'm glad you and Craig finally met. I always enjoy meeting and visiting with people with whom I share common interests. I guess you could call it comparing notes.

I love the description of your home. From your description, I form a mental picture of a Frank Lloyd Wright design like "Fallingwater".

Ted

Ted, Wright's Falling Waters place has water flowing over concrete slabs that are part of that unique house, as you know, while my waterfall cascades over a granite cliff, a gift of the last ice age here. There's a space at the top of the waterfall where one can get in and soak and then shimmy backwards between some rocks so that it feels like a great jacuzzi with water cascading over you. No more since I fell, though.

And my waterfall is not part of my home. The water comes from springs on Egg Mountain in VT, I'm only two miles to that VT marker where the road deadends and on the other side of that large Mt is Manchester, VT.

And on my property perculates through that one acre marsh and then reverts to an open brook, goes under that stone bridge and then over the waterfall.

Occasionally I've had ro sacrifice an errant mouse and I always give them a traditional Viking funeral by pitching them into the brook, that is, my brook goes into White Creek which feeds into the Battenkill and eventually into the Hudson River and from there to the Atlantic Ocean and home to the Scandinavian countries.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tam91

Yes, your home does sound very lovely. I'd love to see some photos, if you ever wanted to share them (but I do understand privacy issues, of course).

No camera here, so no photos but perhaps Craig can put up some photos of the top part of the waterfall that Sue took from the deck and also the best one of the Red Breasted Grosbeaks.

I don't know if Craig or Sue took any of the house but it's cedar.

I always wanted to live in a log cabin type home but this is so much better b'c not only is the exterior cedar, but inside the large hexagon, which was trucked here from Oregon, that large hexagon is faced with pine and there's oak and pine and other woods inside all faced off with white walls.

As for privacy, there are literally hundreds of folks who know where I live and have my address b'c when I do my annual seed offer here folks have to e-mail me to get my address so they know where to send their SASE for seeds. And my contact infomation has always been in each SSE Yearbook for about 20 years now.

I value my privacy very much and that's one of the reasons I love it here, just me and my two cat kids, one brilliant the other less so. Craig and Sue saw the brilliant more social one, who jumps up on the car to turn on the motion detector lights at night when she wants in, but even Freda, who is here a lot has seldom seen the other one who is half the age of the brilliant one but no doubt the most affectionate cat that's ever owned me.
And yes, I was raised with a sequence of dogs going from Pepper the English Spaniel to Ginger the beagle and the next one was going to be called Mustard, but that didn't happen. But am an egalitarian when it comes to critters and love them all, well almost all of them but that small raccoon that's been around in the daytime lately delicately eating black oil seeds out of one bird feeder on the deck railing is getting on my nerves of late. No, not rabid, just hungry but since at least half of the bird seed goes to the squirrels, who cares anyway.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by gardenmama

What a wonderful opportunity after so many years.
I look forward to also having the chance to talk face to face one of these days.

Me too Martha, would love to meet you in person anytime.

And that goes for any of you who visit or are in my area of Upstate NY, just let me know ahead of time so I'd know to be here.

Last summer it was Mike Dunton who owns Victory Seeds, his wife and two youngest kids who visited b'c they were here for a USDA seminar at the USDA place in GEneva, NY, love history, and wanted to come East to visit all the Forts and Battlefields around here and came directly from Fort Ticonderoga to my home to visit.

So now I return to the front room to continue reading a book called Tomato Rhapsody which is hilarious. It's an alternative history of tomatoes set in fiction where a person sailed with Columbus, brought home tomato fruits with him, wrong, it was the Spanish who got them from Mexico, and then this Spaniard had to flee Spain b'c of the Inquisition and brought a great deal of money and jewels with him and went to Tuscany in Italy and well, it's a terrific and fun read.

[Jeannine Anne]

What a lovely picture, I had just presumed you had met nay times.

Carolyn, the description of your home is wonderful, I am very envious.

XX Jeannine

PS, I too wear those long dress things mine are like tee shirts that go down to the floor, I live in them when at home.So Comfy.

[tjg911]

that's great that you two finally got to meet, 20 years is a long time! carolyn your house and the setting it is in sounds so beautiful. i hope craig posts some pictures.

tom