Month: June 2012

30 June 2012

The Pre-Tromp Romp

Now is a good time to note that, however camp turns out, we have learned and grown enough in the last two weeks to make it worth it. From a delightful and heartwarming exchange with the creators of Hoops & Yoyo to the deepest conversations ever with our boy about growing up and what camp is for, we have already made great strides. We have packed a summer’s worth of activity into one week and watching our growing children do the same things they always have shows us how much they have grown physically and emotionally. So, for a moment, we smile and breathe easier, understanding that we were a little better equipped for change than we thought. Hearts full, fingers crossed – here we go.

Photo: a parade of sparklers.

26 June 2012

My first reblog, in anticipation of tromping off to camp.

Putney Farm

Some good summer cocktail karma here at the farm. First we get cherries to play with, and then we stumble on a classic recipe and just happen to have all the ingredients and the drink turns out to be very, very good. And the cocktail, of course, is the El Diablo. The El Diablo is a combination of tequila, lime, crème de cassis and ginger beer served on the rocks.  The El Diablo packs a lot of flavor with the sour lime, sweet Cassis and the spice of the ginger beer, but it has a light body and is quite refreshing. And the color speaks for itself (and for the name of the drink).

Surprisingly, the El Diablo is a creation of “Trader Vic” Bergeron, who is mostly known for tiki drinks. But Vic published this recipe in 1946, so it predates the Moscow Mule, a similar ginger beer-based cocktail…

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25 June 2012

Tromping Back to Camp

We love the Hallmark characters Hoops & Yoyo, and have for many years. They provided our first family doubled-over-in-front-of-the-computer moment, and our youngest memorized all of the dialogue from their tale of The Runaway Marshmallow (watch them all – you won’t be sorry). But even as we continue to buy Hoops & Yoyo greeting cards it has been a while since our marshmallow moments. Now our older boy is going to camp – sleep away camp – for a long time. We never really thought we would find a camp that would meet his needs and still be camp. It has been a long process to get to this point and I still can’t write about it quite yet except to say that the dialogue from The Runaway Marshmallow is all that stands between me and tears when I think about separating from my boy. We know that it is the right thing; we know that he will love it; we know it will be hard for all of us to not be together as a family for a large part of the summer. And so we make light of it by making all references to camp as “tromping back to camp!” I hope I will be able to write about it in a good way, and if not, well then I’ll be be back in September. The tromping begins next week; wish us luck.