Labor Day - End of Summer

Here's a interpretative self portrait photograph Lisa composed a few years ago.

And here she is at the Homestead School, possibly Sullivan County's only private school - and on 85 acres with goats, sheep, gardens, barns and fields, this montesori's school has been around since the early 1970's and the owner's children are just readying themselves to take the helm.

They don't call her 'wrong way Lisa' for nothing. Here she is framed by the mediterean sea with Mt. Vesuvius all hazy and subtle (like a girl I met at Pravda in'98) in the background when we were visiting Capri last summer.

And now, all knocked up, posing with our elderly german shepard.

Really, it's quite pronounced. Sullivan County goes quiet after Labor Day - it doesn't go softly into that good night - it, overnight, becomes a very rural county without the weekend and vacation population that swells its roads, deli, groceries and bars. I mean, we are still only talking about maybe 1 or 2 cars waiting at a stop sign (very few stop lights), but that's one or 2 more than during the winter.

The farmer's markets in Callicoon, Narrowsburg and Barryville are thinning, and the good vendors still have a few good items left come 11 am, when just a week earlier, they would be sold out and making excuses as to why they consistently don't bring enough corn, cheese, apples, peaches or what have you.

Neat restuarant in Callicoon.

I like it slow - I can do without the summer 'crowds'. A rainy day inside the house, cold winters, snow storms, quiet sundays with the family and pets.

Sullivan County is a very seasonal destination. We don't have great ski slopes in our backyards or many of the other reasons people flock to winter destinations - so the only people who are up are homeowners, local or new yorkers alike. The summer is a bit different - with beautiful weather, lakes and ponds galores, the twisty delaware river hugs the entire south and west border of this large county. Hiking, climbing and a host of other summer activities attract a good crowd.

Well, great weather this summer. The spring and early summer started out a bit freakish with big violent rain and wind storms but then it settled into a nice, hot, varied summer with just enough rain to keep everything growing.

But I am a big fan of the other 3 seasons as well - and with my new fall wardrobe arriving in the mail the other day - I am ready to go, in style.

Can't hide the meaning of these colored leaves - Fall is on it's way.

Here's Lady Storm and Ruby - Ruby we rescued from Brooklyn, and Storm from White Lake.

And an old school pic of my friends Nancy and Brooke, before kids, marriages, or 2nd homes stole them away from me, I think we were somewhere up in Newport RI.

And just before the game of quarters started.

Well, just playing it cool today, just counting my lucky stars, and the days to the birth of our little boy, Luke.

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