St Patricks Day, Hoosick Falls NY

Today was the 250th St Patrick's Day Parade in NYC, which is quite a remarkable achievement in itself. They love a parade in NYC, but "St Paddy's Day" as they call it has a bit of a Melbourne Cup feel to it: not officially a holiday but seems like most people take the day off and go to the parade then adjourn to the pub, whether or not they are Irish. But it also celebrates the end of winter. today was sunny and "warm" (17C) and the vernal equinox is just 4 days away. we skipped the parade today but last Saturday while driving upstate we did happen upon the SPD parade in Hoosick Falls NY (pop 3436), about 170 miles (260km) north of the city. A "hardscrabble" town reminiscent of Lithgow or Goulburn. But the locals seemed to be having a lot of fun and no doubt enjoyed a couple of Guinesses after the parade.

Bye bye to Millerton - and Millie & Dave

Our lease at 32 S. Center St is up at the end of the month and we are unable to go back up there the last 2 weekends of the month, so this weekend we vacated the premises. It was appropriate for the last chapter of the Millerton Almanac, as the spring thaw has begun. So we had been right round the seasonal cycle, and we did a lot of reminiscing about all the fun times we had there last summer, fall and winter (won't miss the drive out of NYC on a Friday night though).

Saturday, we drove up Route 22 to Shushan NY, so Monica could visit Flying Pigs Farm, her favorite purveyor of pork products at Union Square... and they were very contented free-range pigs and hens. then we headed west across to Saratoga & Albany. On the way back we had one last look at the pretty farmland around Ancram, just to the west of Millerton where we had gone for many challenging bike rides and picturesque drives, as documented in previous posts. The beautiful sunset below was from the top of Winchell Mountain.

Dave & Millie were in NYC the past 10 days, in transit to the UK. We bade them farewell at the 63rd & Lex subway on Wednesday on their way to Newark.

Friday night in Greenwich Village

Stayed in the city this weekend and did a real NYC thing: Friday night went to see a band "Andrea & the Watts" in at the Bitter End Bar, a Greenwich Village landmark since 1961. Ron, the husband of our running friend Jodi, plays in the band (on guitar, pink shirt). They are a cover band playing bluesy rock (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones etc, which was very contemporary music last time we went to see a band at a pub on a Friday night). Sunday, Dave & Millie arrived. It was very wet but mild, around 15C. We went to the Whitney Art Museum, and enjoyed the Edward Hopper exhibition which is on until April.






Rainy Sunday afternoon on First Ave.

Edward Hopper's "The Barber Shop".