We had a great day starting with a pleasant drive to Salem, New York. Along the way, we took some pictures of little villages we passed. We thought you would also find them humorous, as we did.
Must be a fun place to live!
Once in Salem, we ventured down route 30 to The Gardenworks.
The Gardenworks where we met Meg & Rob, the owners.
Jon Katz's stand of books, pictures and other small items for sale, the proceeds of which benefit Hospice. Located inside the front door of The Gardenworks.
Gifts and antiques
Crafts and dried flowers on the left....fine foods and snacks on the right.
Upon arriving, we met the owners Meg & Rob and bought some excellent cheese made in Pawlet, Vermont, the same town where we found Casey Mae, our black Lab. We added to the cheese, a wonderful stick of bread and a ball of cheese butter, with two root beers. After buying this meal fit for a king, we dined at a small table, enjoying every bite.
As we sat there dining, an elderly gent arrived with a young lady that appeared be his daughter and as he stopped briefly, saying he wanted to comb his hair out of his eyes, both Vicki and I recognized him as Warren, the husband of Helen, one of the Hospice patients Jon Katz wrote about on his blog recently. Helen passed away a couple weeks ago and he was here to hear Jon’s presentation about the Hospice program his wife used in the last stages of her life. Vicki addressed Warren, introducing herself and told him she was a friend that was following their story on the blog and stated that she was the one that painted a special water color picture for Helen and sent it to her by way of Keith Mann. He recognized the receipt of the picture and thanked her on behalf of his deceased wife Helen, telling Vicki it was beautiful. We then moved to the upstairs area where we met Issy, Lenore, Jon Katz, Maria Heinrich and Mary Kellogg.
Vick & I on the left (with ball caps on) Warren in the blue shirt in front of us. Keith Mann talking about the Hospice program of Washington County, NY
Jon Katz, renowned author, talking to folks after the program.
Izzy (Border Collie) and Lenore (Black Lab) leaving The Gardenworks.
I was most impressed…..no, amazed and saddened at meeting Warren. Little did he know that although he never met us before, we were there with him and Helen as their physical relationship drew to a close….ended by the terrible sickness that took her life. We watched, through Jon’s blog as Helen and Warren braved the sickness and prepared for the end of life as they knew it. We cried, we laughed and prayed every day as we followed their inspiring love story. We definitely mourned along with Warren and his family upon Helen’s passing. After the program was over, Vicki had a lengthy talk with Keith, the head of the Hospice program in Washington County, New York. She told him about her involvement in the Hospice program in New Jersey for many years and that we plan to have a gift and Art store here at the Cluckin‘ “A” Critter Farm, which will carry a banner name over the door of “Nature’s Friend’s of Hospice” or something in that direction. There we will display Vicki's and my art prints in watercolor, pastel and pen and ink, stained glass creations, my books when published and a picture disc of the historical and educational areas in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River Valley area. All these will be for sale in the store with 25% of the profits donated to the Friends of Hospice program. Before we left The Gardenworks, Vicki picked a bunch of cheeses, butter, mustard, crackers and such and had them put it into a basket as a Fathers day and Birthday gift combined, for her Dad. We know that he will surely enjoy this basket far more than anything else we could have ever gotten him, as he loves to snack on cheeses and crackers at lunch time. (Note: We only took a limited number of pictures showing the people at this event and decided not to post their images without their permission, except for Jon Katz, Izzy and Lenore, all of whom are fair game!)
We stopped here for dinner on the way home. A nice place, but not exciting!
When we returned home this evening, We fed the dogs, got all the critters in their respective housing, fed and watered them all, we realized we were missing our female duck Rover…..Grover’s mate. We looked again in vain, then gave up hoping she had a nest of eggs out in the swamp end of the Pupskill and was now perking the clutch. If that is so, we wil not see her until the clutch is hatched out and then she will show up one day with her little brood of ducklings. (We hope!!)
After resigning to the fact that Rover was not coming in, we went to the house and was ready to blog and retire for the evening. Tomorrow we go for plywood in Catskill!
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