the adirondacks

We were invited for a day and a night to spend a restful sojourn in upstate New York by Jerry Marshall, head prop master on "Priscilla"   So after getting drenched in half a block on the way to the apartment he shares with his partner, David, we piled into the car; Jerry, Sheldon, me and 2 papillons called Scout and Boo

 The drive was 2 hours or so by freeway and then we plunged into glorious little towns.
High Falls was our rest stop for walkies and foodies

This is the local real estate agency. Really lovely two storey homes for 200,000!
Below, the local church

A kerbside sale with lots of decoration ideas

Sheldon checks out the free maps at the closed canal museum

And I suggest we buy this for our first real estate

How about this for a Christmas card view?

The bike will be back in autumn

All these little places rely on antique and gift shops

This was a tavern in 1797

This is the cafe we had lunch in. It's an ongoing project since the 1970's and becomes even wilder on festive occasions. It was getting over Easter today.

The cash register was decorated with the oldest painting, Miss G Stein

It's a wonderful riot of texture and colours

Jerry and David's house is in Olivebridge.

And it is full of wonderful objets and books pertinent to their professions and interests

This is a phantasmagorical chair  that Jerry helped make for the stage musical, "Shrek". It never lasted beyond the rehearsal room so now lives in Jerry's bathroom.

After we snored and read and totally flopped Jerry drove us to a historical resort hotel called Mohonk Mountain House. And it was jaw droppingly awesome!  Kubrick could have used it in "The Shining". The house was built between 1879 and 1910 and has 266 guest rooms, 28 tower rooms, an indoor pool and spa and an outdoor skating rink for winter use. There are gangs of young students who form the entertainment posses and dining staff. The lake is packed with swimmers and canoes. We got there at afternoon's end.

We drove two and a half miles up the mountain from the reception gate and parked behind the old lady

We went on the sunset trail which took us round the ridge and back to the other side of the hotel

This view was celebrated by the Hudson School of painters in the 19th century

These little rest shelters are all over the property

That's Jerry

Now it gets all" "North By Northwest"

That's  dung in the foreground. They have a stable of horses to cater for the guests.

First glimpse of the lake

We could have been in Switzerland

Some roof detail

We are almost inside!

The place is full of historical photographs.

We had a great smorgasbord dinner in the circular dining room and I fell off my diet by having spuds but there was a sugarless mousse !!

One of the many nooks

From the first floor looking over the grounds

"Come and play with us"

 Ah! Guess where we are

Now my dear photo teacher I went mad and experimented out in the fading light so here goes

And here the battery conked

This morning was drive back day. We had brekky and Mum and baby came into the yard

 Wonder when this was last hung out the front

Drying off

I went for a walk along the road for a bit and clicked away

Bye bye  Olivebridge

We stopped in a lovely little town called Rosendale on the way back to NY

A little puppet theatre was readying for its next season

A pride and joy of the town is the picture palace which was to have closed last year and was saved by the actions of a few locals. It is now run on a voluntary basis

The modest foyer and box office area do not match the magnificent  auditorium which is now a heritage space

We had a wonderful time and are now back in the hot and stormy city!!!!!