First Snow!

Yes, it's true... I'm still ticking away here and have not fallen off the planet! Just haven't had the time or energy to post much lately...

As the title says, we had our fist snow here today! Ugh... No real accumulation so far, but they are calling for up to 10 cm tonight. Way too early for that! It's supposed to warm up and rain most of the weekend, so it won't stick around in any case.

Brad, Paul, and Ron and I had a great time this past weekend. We went to the Indulge Festival in St. Andrews. Brad and I drove down on Friday afternoon and we met Paul and Ron there. Our accommodations were really top-notch, basically the bottom floor of a renovated older home with a full kitchen and dining room, 2 living rooms, and large baths. And no one was staying in the two rooms upstairs, so we had the whole place to ourselves. We had a superb meal on Friday night at Europa restaurant. Saturday morning we went to the market and then grabbed a bite for lunch and set off on the wine trail. We meandered from location to location (art galleries, small shops, inns, etc.) and sampled nice wines and various nibbles along the way. The weather cooperated nicely, too, and it was a spectacular fall day by the ocean. We went to the Extravaganza evening at the historic Algonquin Hotel, which proved to be a lot of fun as well. Back at our abode, Brad turned in at the relatively early hour of 1:30 or so, and Paul and Ron and I stayed up solving the world's problems until almost 3:30 a.m.! We started Sunday morning off with champagne and truffles at a little shop down the street, then sat down for a real brunch at a place nearby. The weather was overcast and cool, so after lunch we headed back to our pad and had a rousing game of scrabble beside the fireplace. Then it was time for wine and cheese and eventually supper - roasted potatoes & fried haddock. All and all, it was a terrific weekend and we'll probably all go back and do it again next year.

I'll post some photos - both of our weekend and Brad's 9-day bike trip - in the days ahead. Stay tuned...