Marius and Kristie

Marius and Kristie
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

Phone rings at 3:00 Saturday. Guess who's on the Gin-and-Taconic Parkway zipping past Beacon? You got it -- Marius and Kristie driving back from Saratoga. They were doing some thing up there for the GDAP. Hospitality being our hallmark, Tall Pines put them up for the night.

Minimal firearms and photography.

The Terminal

The Terminal
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

Grand Central Terminal. This is the view (swear to God) from a bar stool I like at a restaurant called Metrazur. Sometimes, when really early for a train, I'll drop in here and have a bit of the good stuff before dashing to the tracks.

I arrive here in the morning, and depart from here at night. Look at this place. What a way to start and end the day.

Excerpt

Excerpt
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

"It was winter, and the house needed a lot of work before we moved in. As I proceeded to rip the skin from my fingertips trying to pry old linoleum from the floors, I began to feel less confident about our decision. The place seemed smaller than I remembered. At night, the woods were dark and deep and not at all lovely, and stray dogs howled for hours on end. The cabin, a post-and-beam construction lacking nails, ticked in the cold and sounded as if it were slowly falling apart. While I was trying to replace the busted fixtures on the bathroom sink, I thought longingly about how, when we were renting, this was all someone else’s problem."

Excerpt from: "Winter in Tennessee," by Kevin Wilson, NY Times Magazine, Feb. 22, 2009. Sent to me as hard-copy, through my parents, ripped from the magazine, from Dr. Jim Brown, former head of the WVU Theater Department.

Office Chair

Office Chair
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

LP and TWF turned me on to a pretty sweet Emeco office chair. Extremely nice, high quality and well crafted, this is a chair for the long haul. Classic form.

LP and I zipped into the city today to pick it up -- 70 minutes each way by car. Well, Jeep.

I just have to say -- Thanks, LP. Once again, you make things just that much better.

Tall Pines Rock Glases

Tall Pines Rock Glases
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

LP picked these up at Fish's Eddie in Manhattan today, Serious Tall Pines work for the Art Department. Beautiful! Just the kind of thing that one wants to be sipping scotch and rocks from as a Sunday afternoon turns into a Sunday evening. Thanks, LP!

First Crocus

First Crocus
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

Wow, busy day today. Spring has sprung, and it was 60 today. The crocus opened right up and soaked up that sun like LP down on Long Beach. These (pictured) are the very first to bloom in the South Flower Beds, which I just cleaned out today. Pretty little dudes, those crocus. Hard to believe that just 26 days ago we got 12 inches of snow.

Then I did a 40 mile motorcycle ride -- to the Dutchess County Airport. Totally cool little Cessna-class airport. Two runways, a mini control tower and a hot '60s mod-style terminal. Great place to take flight classes ...

Home again, I ventured into the TP woods and cut vines with a Sawz-All. Manly business.

White wine for dinner!

Two on the Front Yard

Two on the Front Yard
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

LP was up this weekend, and we gave the front yard hell. Raking, weeding, removing trash, taking out prickle bushes, pruning trees. I got hit on the head with falling branches a bunch of times. Carelessness. I'm surprised I don't have a concussion. Well, maybe I do, but I have been sleeping and waking up normally, so I guess not.

So -- the tree in the right of this photo? It's a CEDAR. You cut the branches and the wood is deep brick red and smells just like -- cedar. I was ready to take the trimmings up to the closets instead of the brush pile.

Oh, also. How old are these trees? About 75 years for the bigger ones -- that's from counting tree rings.

A Long RP Weekend

New Shelves
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

My pal RP has come to visit for long, practical weekend. We got the new Ikea shelves in and up today. Very refreshing and practical. $230 well spent in the kitchen.

Others completed items:

• Many fires in the fire pit, made from wood cleaned up out of the yards. Chopped wood. Sawed vines.
  
• Got the motorcycle out, took it apart, put it back together and got it up and running (Fuel, spark, air; Fuel, spark, air.)
  
• Much target practice and gun sight calibration
  
• Much squirrel practice
• Replaced the rope on the flagpole
• Get a tree guy out here to solve that sagging pine tree limbs on the power lines issue
  
• Made every meal four days straight on the grill
• Lots of photography, including star photography, telephone book photography, wines of Tall Pines and so-called "trick photography"
  
• Many bottles of wine consumed. Two bottles of beer. One bottle of Famous Grouse. Half bottle of Smirnoff. Lots of juice and water.
• Cleaned all the gutters
• Took down, cleaned, sun dried and reinstalled two birdhouses
  
• One game of Risk
• Many games of Spades
• Repaired the furnace exhaust
• Diagnosed a sagging floor
• Stealth'd out a camera
• Repaired lawn furniture
• Scrubbed the picnic table
  
• Cleaned up the yard (fallen branches, leaves, etc.)

Oh, more photos? No problem.

Target Practice!

Target Practice!
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

That's right, Daddy's got a nice target rifle, and this is a photo of the target he shoots. :)

And, I'm getting pretty good at it too. This was my favorite thing to do over the weekend, and I am happy to say that it was the very first thing on my to-do list for Sunday morning. What else? Well, church, naturally, and then new bathroom faucets (RP, need your help this weekend, ok?), new driveway signage, inspection of a problematic tree threatening my utility lines and "call Mom."

I can't wait for all the fun yard sports that are TK this summer -- petanque! Croquet! Archery! Hammocking!

30 Seconds of Night Sky

Night Sky Numero Dos
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

Well, all that snow from the last post is gone now -- We're having a heat wave in New York! Temperatures in the mid-sixties all weekend. It gave me a great opportunity to meet some neighbors, walk the grounds (mostly shaking my head and mentally adding yard things to the to-do list) and tend to other items out in the yard. Grilled steaks, too.

Also, went out on the balcony and started doing some night photography with the d80 and the Bogen. This is a 30-second exposure. There's a half-full moon just on the other side of the roof of the house -- that's what's making the sky so bright. Pretty huh?

TP Driveway (McAdam Drive)

TP Driveway (McAdam Drive)
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

So this is my driveway, as seen when I came home to it Monday night after the weekend's March 1st snowstorm. And you know what? This is 10 or 12 inches. And the Jeep just handles it. Love that little red Jeep.

The Hammock View

The Hammock View
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

See these two trees in the foreground? Well, that's where the hammock is going. Imagine how that's going to look in the summer.

I also uploaded some new photos for everyone -- right here. The photos are partially a quarterly assessment (interiors!) and partly winter shots.

Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone

Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

A Tall Pines fave, mentioned as one of the "50 Reasons to Have Actual, Legitimate, Genuine Hope" in the February 2009 issue of GQ. Also mentioned: Five Guys, Amy Sedaris, Marisa Tomei, Vans and ... Demetri Martin?

Anyway, Parallele 45, endorsed by the editors of GQ, as previously seen in "The Wines of Tall Pines."

New Hamburg Station

New Hamburg Station
Originally uploaded by Tall Pines Lodge

This is the view from the New Hamburg Metro-North platform -- at night. I snapped this pic last Wednesday evening on the way into the city for an impromptu dinner with my GF, LP.

My 75-minute rail adventure starts here on this deserted country road and ends at the largest train station in the world -- Grand Central Terminal, 42nd Street, New York City. I take great pleasure in this extreme contrast, which often feels like sleight of hand. Sometimes, if I get a good sleep on the train (Pzizz, anyone?), it can feel like teleportation.