starbound

When I was young, before the two brothers arrived, my mom, dad, and I would drive to the beach, a longer drive back then without the interstate, and a drive I sometimes try to recreate by taking the back roads and reminding myself that there is still undeveloped land between me and the Atlantic Ocean.

I recall being in the front seat in the middle, safe between my parents, air rushing in through open windows. An adventure. 

I also remember the view from the back seat, where I had the whole seat to lie flat on my back and watch the world fly by through the rear windows. Even thinking of that view sends me into a visceral memory of travel, which is different when one is a child because no planning is required, no organization of luggage or tickets or driving. You are home and then you are on the way to being somewhere new. It was the purest sense of going to a place I have ever experienced. In the back seat of a moving car, safe, expectant, waiting to get to wherever it was we were going.

On the way to the beach we drove by fields of blueberries. I remember being driven down a long driveway, past big trees and white farmhouses, and maybe barns with horses. Climbing out of the back seat with bare feet, short legs and chubby toes, feeling the white sandy soil underneath. We stopped on the way to and from the beach to pick blueberries. 

Back then they were in little wooden boxes and they weren't in grocery stores every day of the year. They were warm from the sun, fat, indigo blue, the perfect size to eat in one bite, and then another bite, for that soft burst of blue inside one's mouth.

Fast forward many years to me now, eating dinner at my favorite restaurant, Ashten's in Southern Pines, perusing the dessert menu and seeing this: Childress Starbound Blueberry Port (NC). The first time I ordered it I was sitting on one of their dining sofas in the pub side of the restaurant, surrounded by foxhunting decor and the sounds of many conversations layering around me. The first sip made me think of blueberry picking and sandy feet and sitting upright in the back seat of a moving car with salty air rushing in through the windows and blue-stained fingers. My own pint of blueberries.

Since that first glass of blueberry port I have had many more there at Ashten's, and then one visit the menu had been updated and the blueberry port was gone. I vowed to locate my own bottle but couldn't remember the name, then time passed, then I forgot.

Last week I emailed our neighborhood asking if anyone wanted to go to the local wine shop, VINO, for their Friday night wine tasting. I'd visited in search of a bottle of wine for my brother's 50th birthday and signed up for the mailing list, urged by the owner to come on a Friday night and try some wines.

While waiting to hear back from neighbors, the wine shop's newsletter email came, announcing this past Friday's tasting would center around ports. My eyes moved down the list of ports to be sampled, and there it was: Childress Starbound Blueberry. I read further and learned that our neighbor the wine rep was going to be one of the pourers that night, so I quickly emailed and learned that yes, he is the one repping the Childress. How funny that since Ashten's stopped serving the blueberry port I had a source literally right across the lane!

At the pouring I learned that the Childress Starbound is made from blueberries in one very special blueberry field in Burgaw, North Carolina, and that it has been made from those blueberries for years and years and years. Burgaw is the town we drove through on our way to the beach, and for all I know, some of the blueberries we picked and ate over the years of summer beach trips came from that very farm and field.

I had a taste and with great glee I bought a bottle. Our neighbor assured me he can get it anytime. "I can leave it in your mailbox," he said. And what I thought right then was how things connect: blueberries in the back seat of a car on the way to the beach, discovering a beloved restaurant and then a tiny glass of dessert wine, a chance visit to a wine shop that led to a tasting that led to another tiny glass and now a full precious bottle with the assurance of more when needed.

Somehow all this time I never focused much on the name - Starbound - and now that too feels like something meaningful, naming the journey, what it means to take a sip of something sweet and being transported back in time, a treasure found, and lost for awhile, and found again.

old reads, new reads, a few rides, and a new favorite thing

First, the riding. Keil Bay and I both started taking microlactin last week and I am definitely seeing a difference in both of us. We're mostly doing what I call "big walking" - which is really just a nice flowing engaged walk, with some energy and schwung. It's when we do this walking that Keil offers soft snorting and I feel his entire body loosen up. We're doing a little trotting and will add in more of that as we go.

I've had two good rides on Cody and several ground sessions. He actively wants to trot but I'm holding him back for now as I keep an eye on his abscess scar. It's growing down the hoof wall nicely but is clearly a vulnerable spot until it grows out. He's having a cranio session this afternoon so I hope we'll see some good ripples from that in his riding. I've come to really like the bitless sidepull I have for Keil Bay and have used it exclusively this fall, but it's too large for Cody. A horse sized one for Cody is on our Christmas list! I think he'll enjoy going without a bit, but we'll see. For now he's chewing the bit, creating a nice little rim of foam, and seems to be happy to be working again.

The backyard is now cat-proof so all four kit-meows can go out through the cat/Corgi door and enjoy the back yard! We have some tweaking and tidying up to do of the wire overhang but I'm surprised by how invisible it is when I glance out the windows. So far so good. I'll do an entire post on that once we get it completely finished. Then it will be time to figure out the front porch. 

Books - old and new. One of my favorite books when I was young was Harriet The Spy. I read that book until it fell apart (and still have it, more a pile of pages than a book at this point). I loved Harriet's interior life, the notebook in which she wrote things down, her gift for stealth, and her love of Ole Golly. One detail in the book became a sort of fascination: the egg cream. Growing up in the south I had no idea what it was. It sounded like something good, but egg? and cream? I finally had one in NYC as a young adult. It was nothing to do with eggs and I enjoyed the taste. I don't think I gave egg creams much thought after that first and only one.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. What came over me? I don't know. Suddenly the idea of an egg cream struck me one evening. But it's the season of eggnog, and we had a half-gallon from a local dairy farm and I decided to make an eggnog egg cream. I've had several by now and have perfected my method. Put a splash of pure (real) vanilla extract in a tall glass. We don't happen to have our homemade version (vanilla bean pods crushed in a jar of dark rum) but I think that would make this even better. 

Fill the glass halfway with eggnog. The local farm's eggnog is thick and rich and very creamy, so this recipe assumes that consistency. This would probably be amazing with homemade eggnog! 

Then take a mini-whisk or fork and stir the glass as fast as you can without tipping it over. Add freshly-opened (or made if you make your own) seltzer to top off the glass. You'll get some foamy froth if you stir fast enough and the seltzer is fresh enough.

Oh my goodness - it is my new favorite thing to drink. I'm having it as dessert in the evenings. And thinking of Harriet and Ole Golly and almost wishing for a tomato sandwich. :)

New reads: I finished Andrea Barrett's Ship Fever and enjoyed it. Quiet, elegant, with science woven into the stories. It's a book I will read again.

I started Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven two days ago and I am tempted to sit and read it straight through. This is one I've hoarded since it came out and I am loving it so far. I haven't read her earlier novels so am looking forward to going through them at some point. I'm only one-tenth of the way in right now but consider this my early thumbs-up!

Happy Thanksgiving from the November Hill Herd

giving thanks 2015

I am grateful for:

- a big forward walking ride on the 26-year old Keil Bay today

- the return of Mystic the cat who didn't show up for dinner last night (his front claws are worn to nubs from trying to escape some place he obviously got shut up in but otherwise he is fine)

- a husband who will jump in and figure out how to create a safe backyard habitat for a curiosity of unruly cats (will photo and post when done!)

- two amazing children (now young adults)

- a loving family including my mom who shared a wonderful meal last night (appetizers included spicy crab dip, warm Brie, and calamari, dinner a hefty salad and shrimp puttanesca with goat cheese, a glass of Malbec, and coffee with limoncello cheesecake) 

- two exuberant Corgis (and one is 16 years old and still chasing things in the backyard)

- our farm, newly refinanced with a good locked-in for the duration interest rate

- the creative life and process, which keeps me happy

- amazing friends (which includes many of you reading this)

May this thanksgiving day be full of good company, good food, and the opportunity to count our blessings!

the all you can eat hay buffet

On Wednesday night we had over 2 inches of rain, so the horses were in that night and most of yesterday as it began to - well, dry out is not accurate - seep in enough that they could march around without going fetlock deep in mud.

I did manage to ride Keil Bay as the arena had drained well. After the ride, Cody got a little groundwork with daughter and I opened both arena gates so they could go to the back field without having to tramp through the muddiest areas.

They were out last night with the arena still open, got their after-breakfast hay out this morning, and when I looked out the window at 9:30 or so they were all huddled in the arena near the hay tent (which backs up to the 4-strand HorseGuard tape fencing. I got the sense something just wasn't quite right, so out I went. Some helpful beast had managed to pull up the hay tent flap, reach in, grab an entire bale of hay, pull it through the HorseGuard tape, and served it up to the entire herd. 

I got the bale and put it away, then made about 12 piles of hay in the barnyard so they could come in there and soak up some sun. At 11:30 I glanced back out the window and there they were in the arena again. Another hay bale had been served up for all to enjoy!

I think it might be time to test the charge on that fence tape!

Keil has had 4 rides this week and although I was planning to ride him today, he seemed sleepy and very content in the stall as he ate his midday tub. It's possible he bamboozled me but I gave him today off, grooming and massaging and then letting him back into the barnyard.

Cody got his second ride of the week. I'm going very slowly with him as he has been out of work as long as Keil has but it's been over a year since I last rode him. And he has been galloping around the farm tossing his head and acting generally like a 4-year old. Dear daughter has patiently helped me get him back under saddle, and of course he's been fine. Just walking so far, though he tried to trot several times today. I'm guessing he is ready for more work.

Daughter also had to talk me through a moment of panic about dismounting straight to the ground. Keil and I have been using the elevated block for awhile now but Cody thought that was just too weird. (and honestly, it was awkward for me when I attempted it because he's not really tall enough to warrant it) Leave it to our horses to push us through our fears - I've dismounted to the ground both rides and had no problem at all. 

I'm keeping an eye on the abscessed hoof. So far so good. He's tracking up at the walk and there's no sign of swelling in that fetlock so we'll keep going. Hopefully we'll be trotting soon!

They all need it given the all you can eat hay buffet they've set up for themselves!