We’ve just returned from a few days in the Catskills. Usually, we go to the Adirondacks, but we thought we’d try something different this time.
We wanted a pet-friendly log cabin with a fireplace. We found it.
We love our neighbors. They are really neat people, and we’ve come to be good friends, sharing food and exotic liquors and much good conversation in several languages, including Esperanto.
But this time, we wanted to give them a cat-free holiday. So we boxed up Nicky and Stripey, and took them with us! (That’s Stripey, appearing as Hypno-Cat, on my lap.)
Nicky, the Shy One, stayed in the second bedroom most of the week. Friday night, he emerged from that room and his Favorite Blue Blanket to sit on the sofa. His picture is 
just to the right.
I love how those LED flashes bring out cats’ eyes!
It was an odd place, though delightful. The website promised a restaurant, Wi-Fi, and firewood, but none of these were really available. The landlady complained that “she didn’t know whether she was coming or going,” due to recent illness and the sale of the property. Apparently, the fact that her website was now false advertising didn’t bother her. She was definitely unaware of coming vs. going.
Still, this old Boy Scout had no fears in the Catskills. After all, the local high school was called Onteora: and I’d been to Onteora Scout Reservation back in the day. I haven’t forgotten how nature provides firewood in rich abundance. Free for the taking.
So, we went out and gathered kindling. We also plundered the last remaining stores of firewood that the Lodge had bothered to keep. It was flogging rain when we arrived, but we found enough to keep us going. Scout rules applied: we always kept safety first, and we never built a larger fire than needed.
(Hilariously: we also had modern heating, thanks to “gas furnuses” in each cabin. Furnuses. I chanted the praises of Furnuses all week. Pronounced fur-NOOZE, of course.)
Over those days in the Catskills, we hiked, drove around, and simply stayed in, tending the fire, reading, writing, watching DVDs (The Lord of the Rings; The Chronicles of Narnia)… And made really good meals.
Case in point: our neighbor had given us half a Julekaka —the Norwegian Yule Cake. Bread, with candied fruit peel in it. From his elderly uncle in Norway, mind you. This, I toasted and broke down, and in a gesture worthy of Chopped Stadium, transformed into a Sage-Onion-Julekaka Stuffing, for large portobello mushroom caps …topped with mozzarella and baked, and served with baked chicken breast.
Eat your heart out, Ted Allen!
Meals included: Irish stew, asparagus risotto, boneless pork loin with sweet potatoes…damn nice. And no added sodium!
Nobody went hungry, nobody went a-jonesing for the “regional cuisine” served in the local dolled-up roadhouse, called the Peekamoose. You can give a roadhouse a dolled-up name, but it will still be a roadhouse. And this one is located right on the road, at Route 28…where we also looked at a house for sale…but more about that, and our Pissy Catskills Realtor, another time.
For now: we had a great time. Next time, we’ll go back to the Adirondacks, but…we had a great time.
I’m having not one, but two boiled lobsters for lunch…civilization hath its advantages.
