Ithaca and home again

I missed posting a blog last week as we got back Friday late from Ithaca and some much had piled up here that I couldn’t get to it.We had left Tuesday midmorning for Ithaca, N.Y. and arrived by five in the afternoon. We stayed at the Statler on the campus of Cornell. We have been in Ithaca several times  for gigs, but this was almost pure vacation.  That night we ate in a Greek restaurant we had enjoyed on previous visits.The next day we set out for wineries on Cayuga Lake.  The first time we went to Ithaca together [I’d done gigs at both Ithaca College and Cornell by myself years befoe] when we were co-teaching a workshop at Ithaca College, we had just gone to wineries haphazardly.  Some wines were very good and some were mediocre.  Therefore in subsequent visits, I did my research beforehand. We only hit wineries that had wines that had won national or international awards.  Every one of the wines we bought were reasonably good and some were outstanding.You can’t get Finger Lakes wines in Massachusetts.  I think wine stores and wine buyers remember when New York state wines were plonk at best.  But by now, there are very good wines being grown there, for instance Cabernet Franc by Hosmer and unoaked Chardonay from Cobblestone.  We tasted and bought wines until it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready to meet friends at the Greek restaurant.  They’re writers we don’t get to see that often and it was fun to catch up, Kathyrn Maachen, her musician husband Ted, Allison Lurie and Ted Hower.The next day we went to the Cornell Orchards to buy apples. We have not been getting good apples around here this year.   I don’t care for Macintosh or Red Delicious.  The apples were coming in and being sorted and bagged right in front of us. I followed the woman who was picking up the apples and taking them to display and got five superfresh kinds as well as Cornell’s maple syrup.Then we took a short walk [I can’t do more with my left knee injured] by Businessmen’s Lunch Falls and the wildflower preserve along Six Mile Creek.  We’ve always driven up the West Side of Cayuga lake where most of the wineris are, so we decided to take a trip up the east side.  We found King Ferry vineyard with some very drinkable wines, but the east side roads are seldom close to the lake and it’s not nearly as scenic.We had lunch at Wegman’s and did a spot of shopping, including getting a six pack of apricot wheat beer that a friend is fond of, to bring back to her. That evening we decided to have Chinese.  I had read reviews by customers of Ithaca restaurants, so we went to one and the food was fine and inexpensive.We got up at 5 the next morning to drive back.  The cats were all over us the minute we walked in.  Xena was particularly demonstrative. She said, I thought you had deserted me and I would be a stray again.  Let’s eat!This week was a lot of catch-up.  Piles of bills and mail, phonecalls to return, correspondence to catch up on, an immense amount of garden work we were still doing this weekend. Today I have to finish potting plants to bring in and also plant the last garlic.  I have 9/10s of it planted but a little to go to finish off the rows.  the sugar maples are in full Technicolor wonder, most a brilly orange but some red and gold.  The burning bush is scarlet.  So is the poison ivy, of course.  I wrote three poems this week and am trying to get my office in order. We had our last beans of the year –except of course for those I froze.  The tomatoes are mostly dead or dying.  The peppers are still producing, hot and regular, although the frying peppers have really slowed down. I think we’ve harvested our last eggplants although the plants haven’t died.This weekend is Oyster Fest, so we’re staying home and avoiding town except for going to a party tonight.  Last year going to our friend’s house that normally takes exactly 7 minutes door to door took 48 minutes with the traffic jam.  Looking forward to the party but not to getting there.My assistant is in Florida at a writer’s conference.  Starting Monday I need to go through the ms. of my new poetry book and give it a good shakedown.  I already rewrote entirely one of the poems, turning it into a dyptich.