This blog is about the daily trials and tribulations of living as expatriates in New York’s upstate Finger Lakes Region. It is also a blog about the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort which my wife and I both own and operate in this stunningly beautiful part of the world. It is a blog about every day life and that of trying to live the American dream! The blog is frank, direct, from the heart and sometimes, of a very personal nature. I do hope that you will enjoy reading it.

Jane and I travelled over to Rochester on Valentine’s day to first enjoy a meal the Shanghai restaurant on West Henrietta Avenue and then to watch a Jazz concert in the Kilburn hall at the Rochester school of music. Like many of the concerts held at this venue, it was free. All together we had a great evening out together and something we look forward to repeating in the very near future. Yesterday I had to take Jane over to Syracuse, an hour’s drive away from Geneva, just to attend an appointment the USCIS (Immigration) service office there for her to have her “biometrics” taken which entailed just a photo and a fingerprints.

This took just five minutes to be done but I could not help laugh at the fact that when we first came to the USA together, we both had photos and fingerprints taken at the airport and to have go all the way over to Syracuse to have this done again is simply ridiculous. Not only did it absorb two and a half hours of our day, it also cost money for the gas, parking charge and wear and tear on our vehicle. Strangely enough, I was not asked for my own biometrics to be redone either!

This brings me to this morning. What a gloriously beautiful morning it is and with blue skies and sunshine. The snow has once again all but disappeared after the rain we had yesterday and the countryside looks like the precursor to spring.  I cannot wait until the daffodils and tulips start poking up through the soil and then spring will truly be here. We are once again fully booked this weekend and as time goes by, we shall start to rapidly become fully booked for the summer if the past four years are any reflection on the demand for our accommodations here at Cobtree.

All In All

It has been a busy week here at Cobtree for Jane and I. For example, answering inquiries by email and by telephone, taking guests reservations, processing credit card deposits, finalizing the inventory audit for each of the properties, adding  a number of hi-definition televisions to some of the properties, modifying the design of the new charcoal barbeque unit ordered from the Mennonite metal fabricators, placing advertisements, attending the local chamber of commerce business after hours, writing this blog and this afternoon, I was out in the fields helping my friend Todd Hoover put in some field drainage tile for a local farmer. It was such a glorious and warm afternoon, just like spring! Working out in the fields helps me get some good fresh air in my lungs and helps me keep fit however, I am a fair weather worker and so when it is bitterly cold, too hot or when it is raining, you will simply not find me out working in such adverse elements!

Jane as always works diligently at her translation and interpretation throughout the day but starts her day walking the two dogs. I on the other hand start my day down at the Hall Diner and chew the fat with the guys that go there together and dine around the “Power table”. These are made up of people from all walks of life. Retirees, farmers, construction workers, car repairers, local business owners and so on. There is always something to talk about and some topic or other to discuss for example, the application by the Martins in Gorham who are Mennonites wishing to start up a puppy mill there. This is a huge hot topic and resulted in thousands of people signing a petition against the operation even though the planning board approved the application. However, this decision was “vacated” by the town board at a special meeting last night on a technicality. It will be interesting to see how the application will now proceed with such venomous objections from both the local community and indeed, from objection from people throughout NY State and wider afield.

There is never a dull moment in the Finger Lakes!

Jane and I are pleased to inform you that every property at Cobtree now has two cable televisions. All but Cayuga cottage now has a  hi definition flat screen  LED or LCD television with either a built in DVD player or a separate DVD player or combination DVD and Video player.  The second Television in the property may either be a newer hi definition flat screen model or the older style TV as the case may be. Other than in Cayuga cottage, the old style televisions have replaced with the newer TV’S and the older ones placed in another room in the property. As these  fail over time, we will be replacing these too with the newer televisions.

Cayuga cottage has a very  large but older style stereo Sony television in the lounge which was not replaced as it is still a very good TV with a good picture. The TV upstairs is also an older style TV but is also good for use in the bedroom.

Jane and I took Cheeko and his canine friend Jacko out for a walk this evening along Armstrong Road just at dusk. Jacko is a standard poodle belonging to our friends that went away to Florida for the winter. As we walked along our driveway and out onto Armstrong Road, I looked down towards the lake and the sight was so beautiful that I had to stop and take this photo with my Iphone.  The photo is that of the bright moon high in the sky above Seneca Lake. The reflection of the light on the mill pond surface of the lake was breathtaking as was the moon itself that displayed so much detail. Simply stunning. The day was a glorious day and despite the early morning frost the temperature today reached into the high fifties here in the Finger Lakes. This is a dangerous time for grape growers because if the days become too warm and then in the days and weeks to come,  we have a severe frost or ice storm, this can easily kill the vines. Fingers crossed that the mild winter will therefore continue into spring!

I have to confess that I have never watched a live game of American football and have only ever rather cursorily watched a game on the television. American football is as we say back in England, “Not really my cup of tea”. Not only do I not understand the game but also, I consider the amount of money that is annually spent on the game and that of its highly overpaid players, to be repulsive. Such vast sums of money could be better utilized by so many good causes throughout the USA. This of course only my own point of view and opinion. The great thing about living the American dream is that in the USA everybody is entitled to their own opinion and may share your opinion through rights granted and enshrined in the first amendment to this country’s great constitution.

So for me, Superbowl Sunday may as well be, a Superbowl full of Chili. Whilst the masses may go to the many sports bars in the area and drink their fill of beer and spirits in front of a wide screen television set, and enjoy the game,  I on the other hand will be enjoying a visit to the local 8 screen cinema to enjoy a movie with Jane and those in the minority that do not watch American football or participate watching the super hyped Superbowl.

Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon

Sunday, July 15, 2012 – 7:00 am
1.2 mile swim – 56 mile bike – 13.1 mile run

Race cut-off times apply. The swim course closes at 8:40am, the bike course closes at 12:30pm, and the run course closes at 3pm. Swimmers will be brought to shore after this time and cyclists/runners should expect uncontrolled intersections and aid stations to be unavailable.  An ideal course for beginners and experienced athletes alike – here’s why plenty of aid stations on the course,five splits (swim, bike, run, T1, T2) will be taken for all athletes

DoubleMussel 88.7
Since the mini-Mussel moved to Saturday in 2007, we can offer crazy people – err, dedicated triathletes – the chance to compete in BOTH the mini-Mussel and Musselman half-iron. Aside from enjoying 88.7 total miles of fun, you get to sleep and eat in between. Fabulous prizes await the men and women will the lowest combined times, and we’ll honor those “going for broke” with extra supplies at the medical tent.
Aquabike returns
Thanks to a request from an athlete who wants to compete but can no longer run due to injury, the Musselman is proud to again offer an Aquabike division. Aquabike was formally introduced by USA Triathlon in 2004 and consists of the first two legs of the half-iron: a 1.2-mile swim and 56-mile bike. Participants receive three official split times (swim, T1, and bike) and start with their age group wave in the half-iron. Aquabike athletes will be given the same support as all Musselman athletes on and off the course but will not be eligible for awards.

Swim course (1.2mi/1.9km)
The single-loop swim features an in-the-water start and deep water throughout. Waves are typically 110-150 swimmers each, guided by skilled kayakers. Struggling swimmers will be helped to shore. Water temperature is typically in the mid-70′s, so expect wetsuits to be allowed.

Bike course (56mi/90km)
The rolling, single-loop bike course debuted in 2008 for the fifth anniversary race. Starting from Seneca Lake State Park, it traverses the byways of Seneca County to the east of Seneca Lake, including long stretches of shoreline on both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. You’ll pass wineries on the Seneca and Cayuga Wine Trails, penitentiaries, small towns, Mennonite farming regions (look out for horse & buggies!), and a shady stretch in Sampson State Park.

Run course (13.1mi/21km)
The single-loop run heads west along a lakefront path and winds its way through the city of Geneva.

Redecorating of our brick built cottages is nearing completion here at Cobtree ready for the start of Spring and into our peak summer rental season. Already we are seeing a number of advance bookings made throughout this year and are confident that we will have a good season if the momentum keeps up. There is still snow on the ground here at Cobtree albeit, the days are once again getting warmer and I suspect that after today the snow will pretty much have dissipated. I am going over to the nearby town of Canandaigua later this morning to attend a major research initiative for tourism meeting organized by the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection. From time to time I attend these type of functions in the belief that in some small way I can contribute to the discussions and also to be appraised of how tourism is working for both the region and the community of the Finger Lakes as a whole.

February is fast approaching and with it comes the start of the winery events calendar which starts with the Chocolate and Wine tasting weekend from the 10^th through 12^th February. This will closely be followed by Valentine’s day where many couples like to escape cabin fever and just get away for a short break from the norm. Next on the calendar will be the March Cruisin the Tropics weekend, a very popular event that runs this year from 23^rd through 25^th March. Tickets for all of these events can be purchased online at www.senecalakewine.com

The Geneva Chinese Kids Club celebrated the Year of the Dragon at the Geneva Hydrant Hose firehouse yesterday. It was a joyous occasion for the children many whom have been adopted from China by American families here. The group is supported by many local families and by Overseas Chinese students attending the local Hobart William Smith Colleges here in Geneva to whom the group send to them their sincerest thanks for all of their support. The photo above is that of Jane teaching Sean Wright Chinese Calligraphy and below Sean is doing some coloring. Here is a photo of the children doing a Chinese dragon dance and aptly, this is the year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar!

and finally, the children listening to a Chinese story read to them by teacher Wai.

Its official. The Hall diner is for sale with an asking price of just $120,000 for the whole building which includes the diner and three rental apartments. If not sold by July of this year the owners intention is to close the diner completely as they wish to retire from the running of the business and concentrate on their family it would seem. I enjoyed my breakfast this morning at the  Hall diner arriving a little later then my normal time and the diner was packed with families enjoying their breakfast together.

The snow that had accumulated earlier in the week has all bad disappeared once again as we had rain yesterday that melted it all away again. This winter has so far been so mild and must really be hurting the ski resorts like Greek Peak and Bristol Mountain this year. Already we have started to see our forward reservations materialize earlier than is normal for this time of the year together with many inquiries for people wanting to get married and to use our accommodations here at Cobtree.

We had planned on building two further properties here in the fall or early spring of 2013 but now think we will wait another year before doing so. An alternative plan would be to build a separate home for Jane and I nearby and then to rent out the property that we ourselves currently reside in here at Cobtree. In addition to this, we are looking into the feasibility of creating a location on site where people could enjoy holding a wedding, large group gathering, religious retreats, reunions and so forth and where, we could erect a  seasonal 40 x 60ft tent from May until end of September for this purpose and top build a unisex restroom next to it for the guests to use without the need to rent portable toilets or for the guests to use the bathrooms in the homes as they currently do when they hold such an event here at Cobtree. As you can see, a lot is going on behind the scenes and we are always looking to improve our business and services that we can offer to our guests.

This morning, Jane and I are going to be going to a Chinese New Year function down in the City of Geneva which is a small party for children (Predominantly adopted Chinese children from mainland China) to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon.

Our painters arrived today to start repainting the insides of the brick built homes here at Cobtree. Completed in the spring and early summer of 2005 these properties have held up very well to the number of guests that have stayed in these cottages over this time period but how the ceilings get black streaks and marks on them is clearly beyond my understanding. In one cottage, it was as if somebody had held  another person upside down and then allowed them to walk on the ceiling because no kidding, there were clearly outlined footprints on the ceiling of the living room/lounge!

Unlike the wood stained interiors of the log homes and cabins, these cottages all have painted walls and lacquered pine wood baseboards and doors and so, they have to be redecorated every few years. In general every 10 years is an average. Of course, this always costs a bunch of money for these works to be carried out and with the ever rising costs of materials to do so. Having said this, it is paramount that we maintain the fabric of our buildings and grounds as well as keep the internal decoration of our properties in good condition. We successfully have a high occupancy rate and high rate of returning guests only because we offer them a good standard of accommodation as well as being clean and well equipped.

We are also gradually changing our old style televisions in our living rooms (lounge area) for flat screen televisions and by putting the older ones in the bedrooms which currently do not have them (After all, are guests not supposed to be on vacation?) By this summer we should have completed this process too. We are also looking into purchasing a 6ft x 30ft charcoal barbeque pit for guests to be able to rent for a small additional fee (These things too are mega expensive to purchase). These will allow small or large groups to be able to cook great charcoal barbequed food on rather than just the propane gas grills that we supply as part of the rental right now. More on this subject as we move forward into spring.

Incidentally, Kung Hay Fat Choy to everyone reading this blog and thank you for bookmarking our web site or for following our blog too.

It is true. I cannot deny it. I have way too much time on my hands during the cold winter months. Take today for example.  This morning  I have been researching the purchase of a commercial grade charcoal barbeque grill like this one displayed here. As you can imagine built in stainless steel, they are not cheap! This one with delivery for example would cost $3400. Manufactured and shipped from Texas of all places. I wonder whether I can get a local manufacturer to make me one of these in stainless steel which would save me $400 on trucking alone. Then, I have been looking at ones made in Georgia in carbon steel. Of course, one manufacturer claims theirs is better than another or the other manufacturer will claim that that one is made of thin steel and so on. I am certain that if I asked the local Mennonites that they could build one for me in regular steel much cheaper but then, how many years would the thing  last before the bottom fell out of it!

Added to the above,  making an investment of this magnitude we have to get a return on the investment and so how do we go about charging the guests for its use? Right now, every property is provided with a propane gas barbeque unit included in the property rental charge and, with free propane refills to boot! We would have to charge some $35 plus cost of any charcoal consumed to a guest that wanted to use this equipment for a large group, wedding party, reunion etc.  Lets say we rented out the unit to guests for say $35 a time and we rented it 20 times a year, it would take almost five years to pay for itself and not including interest. Perhaps then the Mennonite option really is starting to look more attractive.

Then again, what will guests think when they go to use a carbon steel barbeque unit to find it covered in rust unlike a 304 stainless steel quality unit  built in a 14 gauge material,  should never rust and would last a lifetime!

Ah….. Way too much time on my hands I think!

Today was Kylies birthday and to celebrate the big day, her family held a birthday party for Kylie Harvey and her friends at the nearby Town of Seneca’s Pavilion. Kylie turned 5 today. The town of Seneca rent their pavilion throughout the year for various events and functions and is it’s use is free of charge for any residents living in the town. The building was financed by the Cassella waste management services company in the town of Seneca.

It is a sad fact that the Hall diner is closed on a Monday. This means that My neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie and I have to find another eating venue to haunt and so we patronage bagels and cakes on Hamilton street in downtown Geneva and our mutual friend and local farmer Bob Spink joins us for breakfast each and every Monday at 7am.

Club 86 are the owners of Bagels and cakes and they serve a delicious selection of breakfast items including their signature freshly baked bagels as well.  The coffee is great too. As much as I would like to eat a freshly made bagel, alas they are difficult for me to digest and so usually I stick to just the one egg over easy and a rasher or two of bacon and of course, freshly brewed decaffeinated coffee.

Together we sit and watch the news on the wide screen TV and chew the fat together. Meanwhile up the road at the Denny’s restaurant, you would find our friend Glen Quackenbush and Fred Jenson having their breakfast together. On a Monday Denny’s restaurant deducts a whopping $1 off the bill for anybody who has an AARP card or basically, if you officially qualify as being a certified “Old Fart”.

Phil and I do not care much for the Denny’s restaurant and much prefer the setting of Bagels and cakes. Once again it is a bitterly cold day here at Cobtree. Last night the temperature outside was as low as 5F although this morning it was 12F at 8am. I am snuggled now in the warmth of our house and as I type this blog I can see outside the window overlooking the lake to the East and to the West up the hill and the woodlands to the North. The sun is finally poking it’s head out of the clouds and not forgetting, the sunrise over the lake this morning was nothing less than spiritual!

Jane and I are about finished with our telethon calling friends and family around the world to wish them all a Happy New Year. I confess, we are a little late in doing so this year and for this we apologize! The snow is thick and deep here at Cobtree right now. We have had an accumulation of some 6-8 inches in places as well as several snow drifts around the property. This afternoon was a beautiful afternoon with blue skies interspersed with puffy white clouds. This morning Seneca Lake looked like it was boiling and fog rose up in columns from its surface. It truly was spectacular to see. Even though it has been so cold and with the snowfall, we have had a busy weekend all the same. So many guests come to stay with us because they want to experience the winter beauty of the Finger Lakes and of course, we are also Pet friendly and they can bring their beloved pets with them to walk the many woodland trails that we have here at Cobtree too.

It is a freezing winters day with lots of snow outside my window. Here I am eating a small bowl of a Chinese black sesame seed paste dessert that is prepackaged and all you need to do is add boiling water to. There is about 100 calories to a packet and so here I am on the exercise bike burning off the 100 calories that I am eating. It takes 20 minutes!

As you may have read in an earlier blog of mine,  I have been busy both physically working in the fields around Cobtree helping my friend Todd Hoover lay several hundred feet of drainage tile. We have employed Todd to do this type of work for us here at Cobtree simply because he is the “King” when it comes to any excavating work, drainage, landscaping and of course, field tiling required throughout the area.

This work has been going on for the last week but for the last two days I have not done any physical work myself but, have spent much of the day mesmerized by watching Todd fell the many huge poplar trees along the hedgerow in front of Cobtree (Between our resort and Seneca Lake) as well as removing all the dead brush with his Hitachi 360 degree excavator. At the end of the first day he started this particular work this week, it really did look like a war zone. However, today Todd piled all the timber and brush into neat piles to dry out and cleared and tidied everything up. At some point in time we have to think of what to do with the masses of wood that is now laying on the ground some distance away, I may add,  from where our properties are located. Perhaps we will have a huge bonfire on Guy Fawkes night next year and sell tickets to the event to raise money for a local charity. We have twice done this in the past when we combined the event with good food and music by the crooked lake fiddlers and were able on each occasion to raise over $500 for the Geneva Boys and Girls Club as well as the West Lake Road Fire House. Sadly however, the DEC have brought out new rules regarding burning of brush and wood and it may well be that we will no longer be able to do this regardless of the great cause for the money that we can raise for charity from doing so. I shall have to check the rules I guess to see what is permitted.

It is quite amazing that the temperatures are still in the high forties here, in January when typically, we have snow or deep frost in the ground. Today was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and the lake was a beautiful dark blue. The removal of the trees and brush now means that all of our homes here at Cobtree now have even more beautiful views over Seneca Lake.

I will take some photos in the next day or two and post them here for everyone to see the spectacular views that Todd has opened up by removing these “weed trees”

Sadly our son Daniel could not make it over to share Christmas and New Year together as a family. We did keep in touch by phone though and Daniel was able to be with Jane’s brother back in England for part of the festivities.

Photos courtesy of Teresa Hoover Photographer. From the left: Robert Lawty, Kenneth Lawty, Olivia Lawty, Gemma Lawty, Jane Lawty and below, Daniel Lawty.

For example, we have one contractor working away on site around the grounds cleaning out ditches, felling some cottonwood trees to further open up our views over Seneca Lake, installing 1500ft of perforated tile in one of our fields to improve drainage to the land for the growing of crops and we shall shortly be having some interior painting works carried out to the brick built cottages as well. All of this requires planning and some amount of supervision as well as making them coffee and snacks which is more of an English tradition than American. We also take the time to check the inventories of everything we supply in the properties for our guests to ensure that at minimum what we display in the inventory information on our web site is accurate and up to date. Then there is the advertising contracts to be reviewed and renewed at this time of the year too. The snow that we had last week has now completely melted away with the 45F temperatures which is so unseasonably warm for this time of the year and more like spring weather!

We have some reservations this weekend and guests still come to enjoy the peace and beauty of the Finger lakes and the hospitality of its people. Many will visit those wineries that open their doors throughout the year and the many restaurants that abound the region as well. This evening I took this photo here at Cobtree and the sunset was glorious with both the sun setting in the West and the Moon already high in the sky to the East. You too may escape the winter blues and “cabin fever” and come to stay with us here at Cobtree – The Finger Lakes Experience!

Our son and his family have now safely returned home to England having spent the last two weeks visiting Jane and I here at Cobtree.  We had a glorious Christmas and New Year together and was only saddened that our son Daniel could not make it over to be with us and to enjoy the festivities and the time together. Our Granddaughter Olivia was a bundle of joy too. At 9 months old she is quick to crawl around the house and she can also get around on her feet by holding onto the furniture. It will not be long now before she takes her first independent steps. For the first time in many years we put up a Christmas tree and decorated it for their arrival which we had been longing so much for as it was the first time we had seen Kenneth and Gemma in two years and the first time we were to meet Olivia. The weather was a blessing too as leading up to Christmas it was so mild and then before they left to go back to England, it started to snow and they were able to enjoy some of the stunning winter views here at Cobtree overlooking Seneca Lake. We already miss them so much but, they are planning on visiting us again in February 2014.

We also had friends come over from Canada to stay with us .  We enjoyed their company together for a couple of days before sadly, they too had to return home. Julia and Ming Fei have been our friends since the early 90′s when we together formed and owned a company in mainland China.  However, they do plan to visit us again in the summer this year for a longer vacation together.

Meanwhile, I have also been missing my sister Karen who lives in England. Her husband passed away last summer and she became withdrawn and reclusive and we have drifted apart as a result. Jane and I love her so very much and do hope that she will be able to find the strength to get back in touch with us and to be part of our family once again.

Happy New Year to everybody we know and to all of our guests that have stayed or have yet to stay at Cobtree.

Whatever you do, DO NOT purchase any exercise machine or equipment produced by this company. They only offer a 90 day warranty and beyond that they do not offer any after sales care or replacement parts whatsoever. I purchased a quite expensive exercise bike from them in December 2010 and 11 months later, the crank broke off the machine. When I contacted the supplier Meijer.com they would not offer any resolution and when I contacted Elite in California, they did finally respond after 10 days and then only to inform me that beyond their 90 days warranty, they did not offer any solution for any machines or equipment sold by them that break from use.  They do not sell any spare parts at all and basically they told me to go “Hoot” Buyer be very aware that Elite do not stand by their product and that if your purchase breaks after the 90 day warranty that comes with your purchase, you can do nothing about it at all. Not even obtain the spare part to fix the problem.  My advice is DO NOT purchase anything from this company!

I ask you, who could possibly believe that my good friend Glen Quackenbush could be related to no less than two past Presidents of the United States of America but purportedly, it is never the less true! I was wondering what these two past Presidents ate for their breakfast each morning. Jerry Hoover (Owner and part time cook of the Hall Diner in Hall NY) recently created this edible Christmas tree breakfast for Glen just before Christmas this year. Three pancakes and sausage for just $5 with coffee!

My family and I went to the new Indian restaurant on Seneca Street in downtown Geneva today for lunch. The Pure Grill and Curry house was quite busy and we decided on trying their lunchtime buffet. The buffet whilst not being as extensive as the one we recently tried in Rochester NY, was never the less very good and the dishes were very tasty and, not to spicy. Among my favorites were the Tandoori chicken which is prepared with very mild spices and cooked in a clay oven called a Tandoor. The chicken korma was delicious as was the freshly baked nan bread too. I would highly recommend the restaurant to anybody who likes Indian food as it is an authentic Indian owned and run restaurant that brings a fresh taste of the Indian subcontinent to the Finger Lakes Region.

My family and I decided to get away for Christmas and found the perfect little cabin overlooking Seneca Lake.  From the minute we walked in, we knew we made the right decision.  It was amazing.  Quiet, clean, and everything you could ever need in a well-stocked kitchen, plus – beds so comfortable, I had to sneak a peek at the label so I could get one for home.  We loved it and will try to return soon.  Best Christmas ever!

The Kerbein’s
East Greenbush, NY

It takes a lot of will power at this time of the year to avoid eating, especially after successfully achieving a rapid weight loss from my gastric bypass surgery. In keeping with the norm in business, at this time of the year, Jane and I are invited to a multitude of social functions and parties to which we like to attend whenever possible. Take today for example. The Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance was holding it’s annual Christmas party for its members, staff and guests to which we were happy to attend. The wine flowed and the food was great and mingling with other business owners is always a pleasure. On my way out with Jane a couple of hours later, I could not help but participate in sampling some of the best ice cream you will find anywhere in the world let alone in the Finger lakes.

The Cayuga Lake Creamery have over the years produced over 150 flavors of ice cream and sorbets and today I enjoyed a small portion of their egg Nog flavored ice cream made with real egg nog and delicious it was too. Next time you are visiting the Finger Lakes Region, stop by the Cayuga Lake Creamery and enjoy the finest hand crafted ice cream you are ever likely to find wherever you may travel to.

The Snow has continued to fall throughout the day. The big question is, will it still be around for Christmas day?

Just a few more days and it will be the shortest day of the year. Although the sun was out part of the day, it is deceiving as it is bitterly cold outside.  Last night we had winds over 70 miles per hour and there are many trees that have fallen over around the area. The town of Gorham had a power outage yesterday afternoon that lasted will into the night, caused by fallen trees one of which hit a transformer somewhere or other. I myself had to go out onto the fields to retrieve some recycling bins that had blown halfway down the hill as well. It is so strange not to have snow by now as this is the first time since we moved to the USA in 2005 that we have not had snow leading up to Christmas. Now at 4.38 in the afternoon looking out over Seneca Lake, it is dark and foreboding and darkness is almost upon us.

I enjoyed a great evening out yesterday at the Geneva chamber of commerce after hours held at the Opus Espresso and wine bar on Exchange street in downtown Geneva. After meeting so many business acquaintances and friends and “chewing the fat together” I went with my friend Matt Parrott first to Rylie J’s and then to Halsey’s Firehouse Bistro for a bite to eat. Although outside it was bitterly cold and raining, we never the less kept warm inside and enjoyed a good meal and few drinks together. There is after all, always something to do or enjoy in Geneva New York!

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. Well, at least dreaming as odds are that this year we may well not have snow this Christmas with the weather forecast looking as it does today. Not only do we have family from England coming over to stay with us but we now also have friends coming over to stay with us from Canada immediately after Christmas this year as well. So, we are going to be very busy over this yule tide season. Of course, some snow would be nice, especially up at nearby Bristol Mountain as we could then go out skiing together as well. Still, there is always plenty of things to do around the Finger Lakes region all year round and I don’t believe for a moment that we will get bored. In any event, having friends and family around is a blessing in itself and no doubt we have lots to chat about and things to catch up on as well.

Finger Lakes from space

Even when things are slow there is still plenty of things to do. I do not mean just watching TV or eating one’s self out of house or home but, real work to be done. Christmas and New Year is not looking as busy as we were last year at this time as can be expected from the fairly dismal economy right now. Many people still want to get away for a few days but they are looking for real bargains and, who can blame them? The weather is also not playing ball right now as there is no snow and no snow even up at elevations such as Bristol mountain either. Take today for example, the morning was bitterly cold with a frost but then transformed into a gloriously sunny day. Meanwhile, I have had a number of maintenance works to carry out around the property, fielding emails and telephone calls inquiring well into next year and of course, I have to maintain this blog to boot! The lake is looking so blue today with the clear blue skies above and everything looks so peaceful here at Cobtree.

The weather today reminded me of England 50% of the year.  It was wet, grey, overcast and a thoroughly miserable day in the Finger Lakes. Not that this prevented me from doing a whole bunch of chores and errands throughout the day. First it was to the post office in downtown Geneva to collect mail from our post office box and then to post some Christmas cards back home to Blighty. Not cheap I may add at .98 cents for each small Christmas card. No wonder so many people sign up online to web sites such as Jacquie Lawson to send greeting cards throughout the year to family and friends.

Whilst out and about, I bought a couple of takeout coffees from Tim Horton’s and a couple of donuts to take to my friend Todd Hoover who was having an equally miserable day digging ditches on some land owned by Seedway. This company is one of the largest seed growers and distributors in the USA and based right in Hall NY where my beloved hall diner is also located. Whilst Todd scoffed on the two donuts and drank his coffee whilst sitting comfortably in the back seat of his truck, I drank my coffee outside whilst it drizzled and drizzled with rain.

For me then it was just one of those days here in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York.

I have received many emails from people asking after my health when it was learned that I was recently hospitalized whilst on vacation with Jane down in San Antonio in Texas. Mercifully, the Grim reaper himself was also on vacation but perhaps in the Bahamas as I was very fortunate not to have snuffed it.  Here I relate what happened.

In the middle of October 2011, I felt some pain in my groin whilst vigorously exercising. I went to see an Urologist who diagnosed me as having a small inguinal hernia on the right side. He recommended that I go to see a general surgeon. This I did on the 25^th October 2011 and she recommended that it be repaired and that it was a simple and regular outpatient procedure. On the 9^th November 2011 I had the operation carried out by Dr Lael Forbes, MD at the Highland Hospital Surgical Day Centre in Rochester NY. Everything seemed to go very well and my surgeon confirmed to me that there was no preclusion to travel by air on Monday the 14^th November 2011 or to go on vacation together with Jane.

The trip to San Antonio was uneventful and we arrived at around 11am local time. However, during the late afternoon, I started to have pains in my lower abdomen and progressively these pains became worse and my belly became distended. On Tuesday the 15^th of November 2011 I went with my wife to visit the Alamo in the morning. By 11am I was in excruciating pain, my belly was rigid like a board and, I simply could not suffer the pain anymore.  I called the Highland Hospital in Rochester NY and they put me through to my surgeon there. After carrying out some checks over the phone, as well as temperature and pulse rate, she instructed me to go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

On arrival at the emergency room of the Baptist Medical Centre, I collapsed and was thus taken into their care. After examinations and a CAT scan I was diagnosed as suffering a massive Hematoma most probably as a result of a blood vessel being “nicked or damaged” during my  hernia repair surgery 6 days earlier.

As a result of this Hematoma, I had to remain immobilized and to stay in hospital 3 nights. When finally released from the hospital, I was forbidden by the Doctors and surgeon of the hospital to fly back home until Wednesday 23^rd November 2011 and only after being cleared for travel after seeing the surgeon again on the 22^nd November 2011 so this extended our trip by 6 nights.

It was indeed a close call that I got to a hospital when I did as overnight I lost a pint of blood and in total and estimated 3 pints of blood as recorded from the blood counts taken at the hospital. The good news is that I am on the mend and the even better news is that I am now weighing in at just 192lbs. I feel so sorry for Jane who was immensely worried about me. What a rock of Gibraltar Jane has been as my wife and soul mate in this life.

Click here to visit the article published in the Destinations Travel Magazine online.

Being a Monday when the Hall diner is alas closed, Phil and I ate breakfast at the bagels and cakes restaurant on Hamilton street in Geneva.  They make the most superb freshly made bagels albeit, I cannot eat them anymore as they tend to stick in the small pouch that I have in place of a stomach. So, for me it was a sausage Pattie and an egg over easy, washed down with several cups of great tasting coffee (double cream of course). Phil ate a hearty breakfast bagel with bacon and egg and joined by Bob Spink and later Bob Meyer then there were three “Bobs” around the table and one Phil!

I had quite a busy morning answering a variety of email inquiries for the Christmas and New year as well as for reservations into 2012. People do tend to book late these days wishing I believe to get last minute bargains, discounts as well as conserve their cash or credit lines. In the afternoon, I accompanied a lands surveyor to pin out the property line of two new parcels of land that we recently purchased and closed on last week. We have a number of trees between our property and the lake. These old popular trees have grown so tall that we now plan on felling them to further open up our views over Seneca lake. If all goes to plan this should be done within the next month, hopefully before the major snows and frost arrives here.

Then this evening Jane and I were visited by an agent for AFLAC as we are planning on taking out some policies with them as it occurred to us that if either one of us became ill, we would have to employ somebody to do the others work and this could run into a few thousand dollars a month!  Just when you think you are doing well and have all the answers, something happens! Well after all, don’t they call this the Good Life?

I was up at the crack of dawn once again this morning. The landscape was covered in a crisp white frost. Jack had certainly been working hard throughout the night and it took several minutes before I could clear the windshield on my car to be able to drive over to the Hall diner. Once there, and for a mere $5 including taxes, I can have unlimited decaffeinated coffee, a small bowl of oatmeal with sugar free maple syrup and milk, a rasher of bacon and one scrambled egg. This morning was no exception to the banter and chewing of the fat that I have come to immensely enjoy down at the diner 5 if not six days of the week. My diner friend and local sheep farmer Beth is going to be heading over to England just before Christmas. Ironically, my older son Kenneth, our daughter in law Gemma and our Granddaughter Olivia will be coming this way almost to the day that Beth is heading over to England as part of a visiting church group.

Although the sun shone throughout the day, it never the less has been a bitterly cold day here in the Finger Lakes. I took some time out of my rather busy schedule (Joking) to call a few friends back in England and later in the afternoon was able to “Facetime” with my friends down in Brisbane in Australia. There, it is has hot as hell right now, quite the contrary to the weather here in Upstate New York. As mentioned in an earlier blog, we are fully booked this weekend for the last of the Deck the halls weekend sponsored by the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. Between now and Christmas Jane and I have been invited to a number of parties which will give us both an opportunity to socialize and catch up with our peers, acquaintances and friends in the local tourism industry.

We have just submitted another ream of supporting documents to the immigration department here in the USA via our immigration attorneys in support of our application to extend our stay once again for another two years. This whole process is a bone of contention and extremely frustrating for any E2 investor let alone Jane and I who are wrung through the ever bureaucratic process every two years and, which precludes Jane and I from travelling to and from the USA. Essentially, we are landlocked.

2011 has been a good year for our business and as our business has matured we have been able to gain stability and we have so many returning guests to thank for our success in what we do and are very humbled by their patronage.

This coming week I will start to get the site cleaned up after the fall. Shrubs to be trimmed back, trees to be pruned, fallen leaves raked up and the berms around Cobtree tidied up ready for the onslaught of winter yet to come. I am hoping that when the snow finally does arrive this year that I will be able to try my hand at skiing once again. Last time is was disastrous and I came down the Sunset slope of the nearby Bristol Mountains Ski Resort like a runaway locomotive. Yes, you may all laugh at this but my memory is one of absolute terror. Imagine a fat 270lb balding man out of control sliding down a slope like a bat out of hell!

In the spring of this year I looked like this. (Note the overhanging pot belly) and in the middle of November 2011 I look like this. A leaner and much fitter model than before albeit, still balding. Anything is possible  in life and with the right  tools to be able to achieve it. In my case, a gastric bypass.

It is a mild but blustery day here at Cobtree today. On my return from the Hall diner with my neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie, we saw literally thousands of large crows out on the fields surrounding the Cobtree estate. They seemed eerily frightening reminding me of the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Birds”. Our pet mutt Cheeko hates crows so as soon as I opened the door to our cottage, he bolted straight out between my legs, nearly knocking me over in the process, straight out onto the fields barking and away flew the crows. We have seen quite a few deer around as well as the geese and other migratory birds flying overhead. The trees are now all but barren of their leaves but the fields still look nice and green with the winter wheat that has been planted this year. Now we are waiting for the snow to arrive and of course, Christmas and New Year where once again, we get pretty much booked up year on year.

I went to see my surgeon yesterday and she announced that I am definitely on the mend and so I for one am still alive and Kicking!

Once again we have been blessed by having a full house this past Thanksgiving holiday period and, this weekend as well. The weather has been quite moderate but the evenings and early morning are quite cold. The local wineries and restaurants still remain busy at the weekends with many visitors coming on a wine tour. The last of the deck the halls weekends this year on the Seneca Lake wine trail will be this coming weekend the 3^rd and 4^th of December. Then the next busy time for us here at Cobtree will be Christmas and then New year. I am slowly recovering from my short illness although still very “sore”. My Doctor informed me that it will take some time to become fully healed. The good news is that my weight continues to drop, now weighing in at just 192lbs from the 267lbs that I weighed back on June 17^th this year so, I really have very little to complain about I guess.

As the fall winds down and we move into Christmas and the New Year, everything starts to slow up until we have some snow. Then, we start to get our winter guests arriving to take advantage of the snow and nearby Bristol mountain for some downhill skiing and snowboarding fun!

I apologize that I have not posted a blog for some days now.  Jane and I went to San Antonio in Texas for a few days vacation and whilst down there, I was taken to the emergency room of the local Baptist hospital and diagnosed with a massive Haematoma caused as a direct result of a recent hernia repair. I lost three pints of blood and was in a bad shape for a few days. As I could not fly home for a week and did not have access to a computer, I was unable to post my daily blog.  The good news is that I am alive and kicking and trying to get back to good health again.

Jane and I send to everyone our wishes for a very happy thanksgiving.

Our respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our liberty and freedom around the world.

Enough Said.

Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed by my Urologist at the Geneva General Hospital as having an inguinal hernia. I immediately went to see the surgeon over at Highland Hospital in Rochester who carried out my gastric bypass surgery on the 17th of June this year. Dr Lael Forbes  is one of the leading general surgeons in the State of New York and specializes in bariatric medicine and of course, the gastric bypass procedure. Yesterday I was admitted for day surgery at the Highland Hospital surgical day center and from start to finish they took great care of me throughout. Here I am waiting on the hospital gurney ready to go into surgery yesterday morning. The procedure took about an hour and a half although I was at the hospital from 8.45 in the morning until nearly 4 pm arriving back home groggy and sore at 5 in the evening. I was so tired that I immediately went to my bed and slept for a good few hours before waking up to have some supper. Then when it was time to go to bed, I could not sleep! In fact, I recall only be able to drift off to sleep around 4am today and at 6.30 my body clock awoke me and I was down at the Hall diner by 7. I was famished and I have to say, that I did eat a much heartier breakfast than I normally do, consisting of a small western omelette a rasher of bacon and one slice  of buttered toast washed down with several mugs of decaffeinated coffee.

Thank goodness though for Vicodine!

So, whats new?  Well…we had a full house once again this past weekend and although this coming weekend we have a good occupancy, the next highlight this year will the first of the Deck the halls weekend on the 18th through 20th November followed by Thanksgiving on the 24th November  and then the 2nd Deck the halls weekend on the 2nd through 4th December 2011. This week is going to be a very busy one for me personally. Today I did a lot of running around and had to take my car over to Ontario Honda over in Canandaigua to get it checked out. It turned out to be a bad battery which needed to be replaced. which set me back a cool $128

Then there was a visit to the Bank of the Finger lakes, the post office, the Auto shop, Staples, Tops supermarket ( where I ran into my good friend Pete Ells doing his weekly shop there too) and of course, I had to drop my 2 year old battery over to my friend Quacky on my way back from Canandaigua for him to be able to return it to his suppliers “Interstate batteries”  to be replaced under their guarantee.  Ah yes, a busy day indeed!

Then tomorrow (if you have not lost interest already in today’s blog which is all about me I am afraid) I have to see my GP and then call Highland Hospital to check in for my surgery this Wednesday. Yep, surgery again this time for a hernia operation. Then on Thursday morning (providing I am still around) I have to see my urologist followed by a trip to Rochester for lunch with our son Daniel at the New Cantonese Chinese restaurant and then onto the airport to see him off on his journey back home to England. This is always a sad occasion for Jane and I, particularly for Jane. Friday is pretty clear and then on Sunday we have to drop Cheeko to Quacky’s house in the evening because on Monday, Jane and I are flying to San Antonio for a 4 day mini break staying at the Grand Hyatt near to the River walk. A well deserved break we are looking forward to after a long and busy season here at Cobtree.

Last night, we again went to the deluxe restaurant on North Genesee street for a meal together with our son Daniel and friends Brad and Britney. As usual, the restaurant was packed to capacity and the food was as always, excellent. Jane and I shared a plate of fresh haddock covered in their own fresh made deluxe cheese sauce. Daniel ate a Delmonico steak whilst Brad ate a hearty plate of Riggitoni pasta and Britney had her usual chicken fingers and fries. Yuk!

Then it was onto Tim Horton’s for a a freshly made cuppa coffee and Daniel drank some hot apple cider. Pussin Boots was a scream. One of the most enjoyable movies I have seen for some time now and one of the characters even looked the spitting image of my good neighbor and friend Phil Wilkie! This animated movie was shot in 3D and starred the voice of the actor Antonio Bandaris as Pussin Boots. Although very much a film made for children, Jane Daniel and I simply could not stop laughing as it was so funny and the 3D effects were awesome.

Up with the lark and down to the Hall diner for breakfast as usual this morning. As I left the house, I took a picture of the sunrise and in the foreground, my new Kubota RTV with a trailer loaded with fencing posts and wooden snow fence ready to be erected today with the help of my son Daniel.

Daniel is our youngest son. He is 20  years 4 months old and he is employed by the largest  budget airline in Europe namely

Ryan Air has it’s main offices in Dublin, Ireland. Daniel works as a flight attendant and is based out of Stansted airport in England. Daniel has been with us these past three weeks on vacation with us for a whole month. Towards the end of next week, he shall return back home to Blighty and already we are missing him so much and he has not gone back yet! Such are the strong feelings that parents have for their children if as we do, we love him and his brother Kenneth so very much as well as our daughter in law Gemma and of course, our Grand Daughter Olivia Louise who is now 10 months old.

Together we have been to a number of places and sadly, we have as always seems to be the case between parents and their children, done too few things together! Daniel does like to hunt however and here he is this afternoon heading for the woods with his rifle with telescopic sights attached

Jane, Daniel, Cheeko and I went to Ithaca yesterday afternoon for a short excursion together. First we ate lunch at the Tamarind Thai Restaurant on Meadow Street which is an authentic family run restaurant and the owners and chefs are actually all Thai! We enjoyed some delicious food for just $49 consisting of chicken satay and fried beef dumplings as an appetizer followed by a chicken green curry with coconut and basil, a vegetable dish, a pork dish, Pad Thai noodles with chicken and shrimp and of course how could we not miss eating, pineapple rice!

After lunch we drove to the Taughannock State Park and walked up to the falls, taking Cheeko for a much deserved walk!  The falls were in full flow, pounding with a thunderous roar from over 200ft above our heads. It is always a pleasure to visit the falls.  On the way back home, we stopped into the Cayuga creamery for an ice cream. I ate a sugar free low fat raspberry ice cream and very nice it was too although the raspberry flavor was just a little over powering.

With the kind assistance of In House Graphic Design Inc., Geneva, N Y  Our web site has now been successfully moved to the servers of  Bluehost.com who are located in Utah right here in the USA. This move was necessitated due to issues we were having with our site being hosted on  accountsupport.com.

Increasingly we and many of our web site visitors were finding that our web site was unavailable when they tried to go to our web site. So, we decided to do some research as to whom was one of the best and most reliable web site hosting companies located onshore in the USA.  Bluehost.com  consistently came up on the search engines, forums and online reviews that reported that this company was within the top 10 best hosting sites with excellent customer support and of course, 99.9% independently verified up time. As a result of this, we moved to the new server today.

We have signed up for the Premier package offered by Bluehost.com because they offer lightening fast access to their dedicated servers and they limit the number of clients that can share these servers. In addition, they offered  SSL site certificates and a static IP address included in the package together with daily, weekly and monthly incremental back up of our web site and files.

Of course, we have just started to work with this company and only time will tell what our experience with Bluehost.com will be.

IF we are to believe our teachers, then today has certainly been an education for me!  Sitelock.com runs an algorithm which they claim was developed in conjunction with Google engineers. They take your domain name and trawl the internet to find any pages containing that name. The software then scans each and every page of what they find, looking for broken links, malware, phishing sites and so on. Some of these pages, as can be seen by today’s report, no longer exist on our site but are “out there” on the web cached somewhere or other! If Google discovers that a web site has connections, links and so on to such sites described above, they actually will penalize your site and in some cases blacklist you. Google also “likes” sites that have an SSL certificate and ranks them higher in their search results.

One of the major problems with creating outbound links to other sites is that sites do change hands or they can get hacked and code added to them for malware, phishing etc. Unless somebody checks these links daily, weekly or periodically, you could suddenly find your ranking going down in the search engines when the “Bots” find these links. Therefore, a site scan software package such as offered by Sitelock.com (amongst many) seems a sensible precaution and with the added bonus that it includes an SSL certificate.

I also found the information regarding WordPress hardening very interesting and was pleased that Sitelock.com offered to set this up for me on the Bluehost server once we move across. Actually, it is also in their own interest to do so because they have to certificate the site anyway!

Of course, there has recently been reported where an SSL company in Holland was hacked and has since closed down leaving a lot of certificates out there unsecure but mercifully mainly for domain names in Eastern Europe.

What an education!

Jane and I have become aware that our server has again been down this evening. Unfortunately, this has become an all too common event for us recently as we know from people who call us that they have been experiencing the same problem on and off for several weeks now. Actually, we can trace these events to when hurricane Rita arrived on the East coast and ironically, the server we currently subscribe to is located in that very region of the country. Vermont if I am not mistaken. I cannot help but think that the problem is connected somehow. We are now looking into other hosting service providers around the world and here in the USA to be able to alleviate this problem. We are  looking around for the best package available, bandwidth, reliability, physical location of the server and of course, 24/7 server back up. If anybody has any recommendations based on your own experience, we would like to hear from you please. We are looking for a dedicated server (Linux Cent OS) with a high monthly bandwidth  with managed hosting service.  24/7 technical support for any server issues,  wordpress support and with periodic wordpress software updates included.  A static IP Address is desirable. A secure server with built in analytics and network monitoring. Thank you.

Taughannock Falls, New York

Photos courtesy of Gail Geary taken in October 2011 whilst visiting the Finger Lakes Region and whilst being a guest staying at the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort in Geneva, New York

Watkins Glen State Park, Watkins Glen, New York

Photos courtesy of Gail Geary taken in October 2011 whilst visiting the Finger Lakes Region and whilst being a guest staying at the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort in Geneva, New York

Montour Falls, Village of Mountour Falls, New York.

Photos courtesy of Gail Geary taken in October 2011 whilst visiting the Finger Lakes Region and whilst being a guest staying at the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort in Geneva, New York

Land and water clash at Chimney Bluffs, sculpting the most dramatic landscape on the Lake Ontario shore. You can experience massive earthen spires from above or along the lake shore on nature trails. Courtesy of  http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/43/details.aspx

Photos courtesy of Gail Geary taken in October 2011 whilst visiting the Finger Lakes Region and whilst being a guest staying at the Cobtree Vacation Rental Resort in Geneva, New York

As you can well imagine, all hotels, motels, B & B’s and vacation rental owners from time to time unwittingly host those “Guests From Hell”.  Those guests who are rude, overly demanding, who leave the property in a dirty mess or at worse, have caused damage to the property. Then when confronted, have the audacity to post a negative online review against the owners. In  most cases, owners do not fight back and accept that from time to time they will have this type of guest stay with them but I have to say, that I have great difficulty dealing with these “Types” of people.  I find it hard to keep calm and collected and actually shake with inner rage when I have to argue with them.  At such times as this, my blood pressure must go through the roof I think!

This weekend we had the shadowy specters of the guests from hell appear at our property once again. I guess it was our turn to win the grand lottery this weekend. This couple stayed together at one of our smaller log cabins and from the moment they arrived they were rude and demanding. First they told us that they did not know which property they were to stay in because they did not receive any confirmation from us. How strange is this when they made the reservation themselves online for the particular property that they reserved. They would then have received two separate emails to confirm the details of their reservations.  Next they complained that when Jane and I were walking Cheeko down the road, they passed by in their car and waved to us and that we did not wave back so they were upset with us. Now you know how it is walking down the road with cars passing by from time to time. All you care about is your safety and that of your pet and cars go by so quickly that you often do not have time to react if somebody waves at you and in that instance you may not even recognize the car or the occupants anyway.

If that was not enough, they left the property like a pigsty and you have to remember here that these were just a couple who had stayed two nights with us.  When Jane approached them at 10.30 to inquire when they were planning on leaving (Our check out time is 10am unless a returning guest in which case we offer a 11am complimentary late check out) the lady became all agitated and rude towards her. Unlike me, Jane simply walked away but it was their parting  comment to her that made me see red when they said to her that  they would be posting negative things about Cobtree on the internet. Jane simply turned back to them and  said to them to “do what they wanted”. Jane unlike me, would walk away whilst I would say a few choice words and then regret doing so afterwards.

When Jane told me this story, I sent the guests an email to complain the manner in which they spoke to Jane and the parting comments that they made to her and telling them that they were not welcome back at Cobtree.  It came as no surprise then to receive an email response from them denying what had transpired. but Jane and I both know the truth of the matter.

Still, rather than live in fear of the next visit by the guests from hell, we have to put such visits (and mercifully they only happen once or twice a year, if that) squarely behind us and continue to operate our business in a professional manner and to continue to offer our guests clean, well equipped, functional and quaint accommodations at a fare rental rate and without nickel and diming our customers by adding on hidden charges etc.

We welcome all guests to Cobtree and to do our best to be good hosts whilst they are staying with us.

I was up before dawn this morning and made my way over to the Hall diner for breakfast as usual. When I returned home, Jane asked if I wanted to go out for a walk together with Cheeko to which I replied “that would be nice”. So, we set off west along Armstrong road but rather than turning around at the top of the road and walking back again, I decided to walk along PreEmption road going North and then back along Bilsboro Road down towards the lake again.As we walked along Bilsboro Road, we took in the beauty of the fall foliage which is now at it’s peak here in the Finger Lakes with nature showing off the colors in all of it’s glory.It was a long walk that lasted one and a half hours as around the block is exactly five miles door to door. As we arrived back at Cobtree, I took a photo of Hemlock and Honeoye log cabins with the woodlands behind them displaying all the pastel colors of greens, browns and reds and the beautiful blue sky that suddenly appeared for a while this morning. Together we had a great walk and very good exercise it was too!

The fall is still hanging on with a vengeance. Despite being fully booked here at Cobtree, Jane, Daniel, Cheeko and I managed to sneak away to first have Chinese dim sum at the New Cantonese Restaurant over in Rochester and then a short drive down the I390 to Mount Morris for a short visit to the famous “Grand Canyon of the East” at Letchworth State Park.Here is the center of the gorge where you can see the leaves on the trees that have changed into their fall colors. Here is a picture taken by the hydro dam overlook as you enter the park. A little further into the park we stopped by the picnic table area and here we ran into a couple who are both guests that were staying at our resort, Mr and Mrs Anne and Jack Smith Ganey from Statton iseland, new York who brought with them  there two dogs Samba and Rosie. Anne and Jack have stayed with us now some 6 or 7 times and we cherish them both as our guests and they have become our good friends alas, business is business too but we will make certain we always take care of our regular returning guests and offer them exceptional rates to sweeten the pot for their return to stay at Cobtree once again as well!  Here is a picture of Jane, Daniel, Cheeko and I sitting on the stone wall overlooking the gorge below. Our son Daniel is over from England visiting us and he decided that he wanted to get a complete Western outfit and so here he is with his cowboy hat, leather boots, belt and blue jeans as well as his Carhartt black shirt and Columbia jacket that he recently purchased from stores in downtown Geneva, the Waterloo outlet mall and from Tally Ho in the village of Waterloo. Here is a photo I took of Jane with the streaming sunlight behind her as she sits in a giant Adirondacks style wooden chair also at the entrance to the park by one of the visitors centers there.Naturally, I cannot forget to include a photo of Cheeko in today’s blog and here you can see him being walked on the leash by Daniel along the side of the road.Jane took this rather suave photo of me by the gorge and as you can see, I have lost a tremendous amount of weight from my recent gastric bypass surgery although, the volumizing shampoo that I now use does not seem to be working! A little after this photo was taken, I also took a photo of Jane sitting on a rather large rock but she doesn’t seem to be too happy about me taking the photo for some reason she seems to be looking so serious at me! Perhaps she was getting a little tired? Eventually we came to the High falls (Glen Iris falls) where I stopped for a cup of coffee and 1/2 of a dessert whilst Jane, Daniel and Cheeko went off together for an even longer walk along the trail by the falls.All in all, we had a great day out together at Rochester and the Letchworth State Park and will be sure to return again next year for another day trip.  Letchworth State Park is just a 50 minute drive from Cobtree along the 5 & 20 then South on the I390 and then take the Mount Morris exit to the park itself. Here is the address:1 Letchworth State Park,Castile, NY 14427-9714   (585) 493-3600

This old rambling shack is located along one of the many walking trails here at Cobtree. Many of our guests that come back to us year after year like Joanne and Jack Cabry from Delaware enjoy walking these woodland trails with their pets. Sadly, their pet Gabe whom we were introduced to (and to our boxer ridge back cross Cheeko) recently passed away and regrettably, I do not have any photos of him to include here. However, please let me introduce you to their two new pets Annie and here is Joey

Annie is a very loving dog and although she likes to have a good bark (just like Cheeko does) she likes to give you a good lick once she gets to know you! Joey likes to explore on his own and trying to get him to obey a command is near high impossible as he seems to have a mind of his own! Jane and I walked Cheeko through the woodlands accompanied by Joanne and her two dogs one afternoon whist they were here last week and together we had a Grand old time. Cobtree is a very safe place to walk with your dogs because we are well away from Armstrong Road and the woodland trails that criss-cross our 18 acres of woodlands are a perfect place to let your pets off the leash so that they can have their freedom as well.

I took these two photos this morning when I was out walking Cheeko with Jane along Armstrong Road. As you can see, the fall colors are at their peak and the soy bean field in the foreground gives stark contrast to the pastel colors of the trees in the background.The second photo shows our two neighbors properties to the east of Cobtree and as you can see, they really do take great care in maintaining the look of their gardens which is so typical for property owners throughout the town of Geneva.

Every year Jane and I look forward to attending the West Lake Road Fire Association annual dinner with it’s 50/50 drawing. The ticket costs $100 or $120 if attending with a guest and they have a number of cash prizes from the drawing from $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000 and $4000.  In five years we sadly have only won the one prize of $125 but the event commences at 4pm until around 7.30pm and the tickets include free booze, snacks and a steak dinner (New York strip steak, baked potato and side salad) plus coffee.  It is a great night out and a real buzz. It also affords Jane and I to meet up with neighbors, friends and people we run into around town. Two of our friends won prizes tonight, the town of Geneva Supervisor Mary Luckern and local farmer George Patchett from the village of Penn Yan. Congratulations to them both on their wins.  Alas, Jane and I came home empty handed or did we?

Actually, we came home happy in the knowledge that the members of the West Lake Fire Association stand guardians and protectors to our family and to our business as well as every other resident and non resident alike that lives or visits the town of Geneva and beyond. I say beyond because in the event of a big fire somewhere or other nearby, all of the fire associations can get called to attend an emergency. And, it is not just fire emergencies that these members attend, they also attend to such incidences as medical emergencies, natural disasters, flooding, downed trees, boating accidents,  waterborne emergencies to just name a few. Indeed, the WLRFA have attended a number of false alarms at Cobtree and two “Real Fires” that were caused on both occasions by guests that were careless. Fortunately, the WLRFA fire house is just  5 minutes away from Cobtree and I have to say that Jane and I cannot speak more highly of the association and it’s members and for what they do for our community.

Thank you so much West Lake Road Fire Association and thank you for allowing me to use the photo of your members on this blog too!

West Lake Fire Association

214 West Lake Road
Geneva, NY 14456-9760

Our friends Deb and Bob Dorn came to stay with us last night on a flying visit from North Attleboro in Massachusetts. They were here to attend the memorial service of their other close friend and renowned local artist Yoland Schofield who sadly passed away on the 19^th September 2011. Many readers of this blog will know Deb and Bob Dorn as they were both highly thought of in the local community. Bob headed up the Boy’s Scouts of America office on Pre-Emption Road here in Geneva whilst Deb Dorn was a broker for the Coldwell Banker Parrott and Venuti Real estate office located on Hamilton Street in Geneva. Deb is an avid Rotarian and served a term as President of the Rotary club of Geneva when I too was a member of the Geneva Rotary club at the time and where we both met and have since become very close friends of the Dorn’s.  When they moved away to North Attleboro, Jane and were very sad however, we do go to visit them a couple of times a year and are always able to combine the trip to the much loved city of Boston where Jane and I like to stay at the Boston Hyatt Regency Hotel located on Lafeyette Avenue nearby to China Town.Jane and I look forward to visiting them both once again later in the year and until then, we wish them a safe journey back home again or should I say, Bon Voyage, Auf wiedersehen

What a busy afternoon Jane,Daniel and I had today.  First stop was the Tractor supply store in Geneva to check out their sale prices that run between today and the 16th of October. Nothing special here I am afraid. Then, we stopped by the Bank of the Finger Lakes to open a bank account for Daniel and then onto the Super Casuals store in Geneva. Next, we went to the Waterloo Outlet Mall. First stop at the mall was the Samsonite store where we took in to them a carry on flight bag that was needing a lot of repair after 15 months by Daniel for his work as cabin crew for a European airline. Shaun the manager of the store simply exchanged it for a new one under their 3 year warranty.  They normally send them away to be repaired but as the one we had needed so many repairs, she exchanged it with absolutely no quibble at all. Indeed I was actually stunned and then much appreciative that Samsonite stood by their product in this way.

Next, it was a quick visit to the Rocky mountain chocolate factory outlet where Daniel purchased a few chocolates and just three sugar free chocolates for me and yes, they were indeed delicious…no, really yummy! Then it was in and out of a host of stores (Calvin Klein, Perfumania, Timberland, Corning Ware Corelle Revere, Chefs Outlet, Tommy Hilfiger, Sunglass hut, Wilsons leather,  Columbia Sports Ware Store) purchasing an item in every store we visited and by the end of the afternoon we headed for the Tally Ho store in Waterloo and arrived around 5.30 just as the owner was locking the door. As we pulled up the owner realized we were heading into his store and he most kindly opened up for us, By 6pm we had parted company with $237 and the store owner Scott kindly gave us a 10% discount on our purchase of a pair of leather tooled working boots and a cowboy hat for Daniel as well as a pair of thermal lined winter gloves for me! I have to say that Tally Ho is really a great store to shop at. They had so many of the items (or of similar quality and brand) that we bought this very afternoon and at a significantly lower price even without the discount being applied. I was quite amazed how much I could have saved if we had simply gone to that store alone for our purchases today. Kudos to tally Ho.

Having said this, the day was saved by the great deal Daniel and I received on winter jackets that we bought at the Columbia Sports ware Store (Mine was 50% off and Daniels was 35% off)  So, all in all, we made out well and we together spent over $1000 during this short afternoon shopping spree. Then, there was still  the restaurant bill to add onto this amount when we stopped by Emile’s Family Restaurant on the journey back home  for dinner together. We had a really fun time and a bonding time together with our son Daniel whom we have not seen for over a year and the time we had together was priceless!

Here are three pictures of Daniel sporting a Nerd hat in Calvin Klein, one of him in his jeans, working boots and cowboy hat in the corridor of our home and  one taken in Emile’s Restaurant this evening.

Cheeko, Jane and I had an enjoyable walk around the woodlands here at Cobtree this afternoon. The colors are just starting to become quite vivid as can be seen in this photo. There are many wild flowers growing throughout the woodlands  such as this beautifully purple wild flower and this red bush with berries on it.  We had a great walk on a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon together and the fall colors are expected to peak next weekend when we are already fully booked however, we do have availability during the week days and can offer a good deal if you decide to stay more than two nights with us.

Weevils tackle invasive water fern on the River Till

The beetles will feed off the azolla plant without harming native species, says the Environment Agency

A beetle colony is being used by the Environment Agency to tackle an invasive water fern in Lincolnshire.

The fast-growing azolla weed has covered a 2.5 mile (4km) stretch of the River Till near Saxilby.

It has formed a dense mat on the surface of the water, depriving other plants, fish and invertebrates of light and oxygen.

The azolla weevil, stenopelmus rufinasus, feeds off the plant without harming native species, experts said.

Natural remedy

Nick Kite, from the Environment Agency, said: “We’ve put 8,000 weevils in at this particular site.

“In a couple of weeks they will go up to millions of weevils, more than enough to control the amount of weed that we’ve got here.”

Agency officers said the weevils often die out naturally once they have eaten their way through the azolla, eradicating the weed without the need for dredging and chemicals.

The azolla was imported from North America in the 1840s as an ornamental pond plant.

Stenopelmus rufinasus, commonly known as the azolla weevil, exclusively feeds off the azolla weed

It started to pose a problem on the River Till, a tributary of the River Witham, earlier this year.

Officers cleared the weed in June but the plant, which can double in size every four to five days, returned and spread downstream, invading the River Witham.

Experts said the warm, dry weather had helped the weed grow.

Invasive species cost the UK economy an estimated £1.7bn every year, the Environment Agency said.

Jane and I attended a seminar at the Ramada hotel in Geneva this morning regarding the new health care insurance through the Geneva Chamber of Commerce. As we walked through the hotel we saw the sun rising over the Eastern shores of Seneca Lake and I went outside to take a photo using my IPhone4.  Jane then used it to take a picture of me. Unfortunately, I did not have my Canon EOS30D with me with the different lenses filters that I have for it and so, the photos do have some shadows and glare to them.It was such a glorious morning down at the lake and the seminar was indeed very informative. The speaker “Nancy” certainly knew her job very well for which Jane and I are thankful as there is nothing worse than sitting through a boring  presentation, listening to somebody or other waffling away who is really out of their depth and  without a clue what they are really talking about!  There is going to be another seminar on the 9th of November at 7.30 am at the Ramada to discuss the new plans offered by Excelus Blue Cross and the MVP group and I would highly recommend you attending this one as well if you are Chamber members too.

I was very disappointed with the launch of the Apple Iphone 4S today.  I was expecting something spectacular from Apple but all we saw was a slightly upgraded version of the Apple Iphone 4 and really nothing to write home about. Come on Apple, where is the innovation that the general public and your loyal customer base have come to expect from your company?  This is simply not good enough and a huge let down!

I collected my suits from Geneva Tailor and they did a fantastic job of resizing them for me. Well done to the two tailors who worked on them for me. Our son Daniel is coming over for a month next week and so Jane and I are looking forward to seeing him after what seems an eternity although it has just been a little under a year now. My older son Kenneth, our daughter in law Gemma and, not forgetting our granddaughter Olivia, will be coming over for a couple of weeks at Christmas. We are looking forward to this very much. Meanwhile Jane and I are traveling down to San Antonio in Texas for a four day mini break together and our good friends Glen and Susan Quackenbush will be taking care of our pet boxer Ridgeback cross ” Cheeko” whilst we are away.

Cheeko has is now recovering from the surgery he had carried out last week to remove some fatty cell tumors that had suddenly materialized. This is not the first ones that he has had removed over the past couple of years.  Boxers are very prone to these I am sad to say.

It has been raining pretty heavily throughout the day so I used our newly purchased  Hoover steam vac to clean the area rugs in the lounge of our larger brick built cottages as well as clean one of the smaller log cabins myself today for something to do!

This afternoon I went scrumping over to Tom Wilkies orchard and picked myself some apples and pears (Actually, I do have his permission to do so). They taste so good!

Whisper chocolate  had it’s grand opening this morning at 11am at 444 Exchange street Geneva NY 14456 and so I decided to go down to the store to try out a few samples myself. Regrettably, they did not have any sugar free chocolates but, they did have some dried fruits dipped in a 72% dark chocolate which sufficed for the time being as they do plan on creating a sugar free range of chocolates some time down the road. These chocolates are hand made by local artisans skilled in the art of the chocolatier and so it is not surprising then that 9 small hand made truffel’s sold for $18 just to give you an idea on the quality of these chocolates. They do sell small bags of  dried fruits dipped in chocolate from $3 -$5 as well. We wish this new business venture success in Geneva as clearly they have put a lot of hard work into the store and to make these delicious chocolates too.

It’s raining again but I don’t really mind at all as I sowed some grass seed last week and this weather should get it germinated and off to a good start before the winter finally arrives. I planted a number of new shrubs yesterday around the site as well and so the rain will keep them well watered too. No complaints here with the rain then!  Cheeko is recovering from the surgery yesterday to remove three fatty mass tumors that had appeared a couple of months ago. It cost almost $600 but fortunately we have a pet insurance plan that should settle around 80% of this cost. Jane and I are great believers in insurance protection.

Please can you consider supporting Jane and I on this petition?  Thank you! Please click on this link to register:

We petition the obama administration to:

E2 Treaty Investor Visa holders are required to bring in foreign investment to buy or start up a US business and create jobs for US citizens. To our knowledge this is the only visa that asks for a substantial investment without leading to Green Cards. Legal permanent residency would give these small business owners more stability to expand their businesses, thus leading to even more jobs.

There have been 2 Bills in the last 2 Congresses which have not been successful and we are actively working to have a new Bill introduced in this Congress. However we realize that this E2 Visa is relatively unknown and hope that is the reason why reform has not taken place thus far.

We are LEGAL Immigrants, who are helping the US Economy at a difficult time.

We urge the White House to consider this.

It is no secret that I had  gastric bypass surgery performed by Dr Forbes at the Highland hospital in Rochester NY on the 17th June 2011.  Weighing in at a massive 267lbs prior to surgery as well as being type two diabetic and having lost the battle to keep my weight down over the many years of failed dieting, I decided together with my GP Dr Michael Collins and my surgeon that this surgery would  immensely benefit my health and offer me a new lease on life.  Now at just 204lbs with more to shed along the way, I have had to purchase myself a completely new wardrobe of clothing having dropped from an XXL to a medium size and a waste size from 46 inches to just 37 inches. Imagine my joy then when I read in the Finger Lakes Times that a new business venture was opening its doors in Geneva.  Geneva Tailor on Seneca Street. Armed with the 15% Grand opening discount voucher that I clipped from the paper, I took 5 suits and 10 pairs of trousers to them this afternoon and for a mere $315 after discount they not only are going to re-size the suits to fit me but, dry cleaning is also included in this amount and I can pick them all up this Saturday. What a bargain and what great service! Their attention to detail was impressive and I was well taken care of throughout. I wish the owners all the success in the world as they start this new business venture in downtown Geneva.

I took Cheeko at 2pm  this afternoon to the dedication ceremony of the Kashong Conservation area in the town of Geneva New York. This was a  a simple ceremony dedicated to Polly Spedding and her family who donated the land to the Finger lakes Land Trust and which the town of Geneva kindly agreed to support with it’s maintenance and upkeep. The town supervisor Mary Luckern officiated the ceremony attended by Polly Spedding and Chris Olney of the Finger Lakes Land Trust.

Considering that there are over 5500 residents living in the town of Geneva, I was somewhat disappointed that on such a beautiful sunny afternoon, so few people attended and especially as the town supplied free refreshments and donuts too! The conservation area consists of 88 acres of land with walking and biking trails and is just a five minute drive from Cobtree or a 15 minute bike ride.   Further information about the conservation area can be located by clicking on this link

Atwater Estate Vineyards is excited to present the unique photography of BRIAN OGLESBEE (www.oglesbee.com)

Opening Reception will be on Friday, October 7th from 5:30-7:30

Oglesbee’s images are produced by pure photography; full of detail, complex to the eye and mysterious in tone.
Oglesbee’s use of water and its surreal effects on the human body were used in the movie The Tempest (2010), directed by Julie Taymore, featuring Helen Mirren and Russell Brand.
His images are to be displayed in the film Arbitrage (2012) featuring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon.

The event is FREE for all ages.
Complementary wine tastings and a tapas-style spread will be available.

For more information call Allison at 607-351-7145.

Hope everyone can make it!
Allison DeDominick
ARTe
Art Coordinator

Trash dump trash. It is a bold headline don’t you think? We take it for granted that we live in one of the most beautiful regions not only in the USA, but in the whole wide world. However, this does not isolate us from the growing social disease of some people throwing trash out of their moving vehicles onto the verges of  roads and highways around the country. Not a day goes by that Jane and I do not pick up trash along the length of Armstrong Road that has been thrown out of a passing vehicle.  As we walk along the road our eyes take in the  sights of our rural beauty such as the Alf-Alfa field here that is used to feed cows at the nearby DeBoover farm.

Then as we walk further along the road this morning, we start to discover the trash that has been thrown out of yet another  passing vehicle overnight as we see in the next photo. Indeed, when I was once a member of our local Rotary club (for over two years) we used to go out twice a year along sections of route 14 and in one day, our teams of trash collectors would collect hundreds of black garbage sacks full to the brim with trash.

It would seem that some people have no shame when it comes to throwing their trash out of the window of their vehicles and so much of this fast food packaging, beer bottles, cans and empty water bottles. Actually, I often see an old man on a small scooter that goes around the whole area picking up these bottles which he then takes to the store for the 5 cents refund on each bottle but, I digress.

I guess, that at the end of the day, “Trash Dump Trash!”

Jane and I had a most enjoyable evening together with friends down by Seneca Lake this evening when we were invited to the newly renovated home of Anne and John Davie. The food and drinks were great (especially the barbeque chicken) and the conversation flowed all evening and no doubt continued long after we both left the party at 10pm. It was good to meet with so many people that we know from around town and when our good friends Joan and Jeff Eckert arrived we were able to sit with them for a long while and to chew the fat together. We arrived at the party at 5.30pm and watched the ever changing beauty of Seneca Lake as the sun went down. It was a glorious evening here in the Finger Lakes and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Many thanks to Anne and John for inviting us over and we just wanted to say what a lovely property you have on Seneca Lake.  Well done on all your hard work in renovating the house and thank you for inviting us to the party this evening.

Cheeko has truly found the ideal spot amongst 6 good looking “Chicks” as they get ready to start their wine tour from Cobtree in the Aristocrat Wine Tour stretched Limo this morning.

I just got done with mowing the lawns around the estate and the skies opened up and, did it rain for a while!  Now the sun is poking it’s head out of the clouds once again but alas, no rainbows. Cheeko always dives for cover when there is a storm brewing. Like most animals, he hates it when there is thunder and lightning and tries to get under the bed to hide which for an almost 80lb dog is quite comical to see albeit, I am quite certain he does not see it that way! The grass is looking so lush and green at this time of the year. I used a hand spreader to spread 50lbs of Kentucky grass seed around the bare spots on the lawns this morning which were caused by the drought like conditions we experienced earlier in the year. It is no mean fete to keep the estate looking so beautiful and pristine for our guests and actually does take a lot of effort and expense to keep everything looking the way it does.

I took this photo this evening here at Cobtree at 7pm whilst kneeling down next to the Soy Bean field  (I was not praying may I add). the pastel colors of the ripening Soy Beans and the pastel blue color of the sky above the log cabins was a stark contrast with each other. What do you think?

It has been raining on and off  here at Cobtree since dusk last night. This morning continues with the rain but rather than let it get me down I went to the nearby Top’s supermarket and bought several pounds of small onions. These I blanched for a minute in some boiling water. This technique softens the skins for easy peeling after which I placed them into several  large screw top jars, added some McCormick pickling spice, salt and pepper and filled to the brim with a mixture of white vinegar and water (2/3rd vinegar and 1/3rd water) to make some delicious pickled onions.  These are zero fat, almost zero calories and go well with more calorie loaded cheeses that are nice as a snack in the evening during the cold winter months. I atually prefer to use malt vinegar but you can only buy the small bottles made by Heinz and it is hellishly expensive for what it is!

Interestingly,  1.5oz of McCormick pickling spices in Wegman’s is a whopping $4.69 and in Walmart just $2.78  I wonder how Walmart can sell a product like this so much lower than a major grocery store like Wegman’s ? Naturally, we would not expect our guests to come to stay with us here at Cobtree just to be able to do some canning or pickling but my blog today is just to highlight the kind of thing that you can do when it is raining outside and which may prevent you doing other things. In fact, there are a myriad of things for guests to do on a rainy day so rain does not have to put a stop to your enjoyment when you visit the Finger Lakes Region!

Jane, Cheeko and I went out for our daily evening walk along Armstrong Road a little after 7 pm and as we reached the apex of the hill we were confronted once again with a most glorious sunset in the West. I never get tired of watching the beauty of the sun rising and the sun setting as each time the view is unique. The colors this evening were very vivid with strong purples, orange and reds contrasted with the grey-black of the road and the yellow double line markings, surrounding fields and trees. The walk to the end of the road and back again takes just under one hour at a steady walking pace. Jane walks this route twice a day with Cheeko whilst I myself generally walk only once a day.

 
Sometimes we also walk along the trails in our woods and walk along the Western trails then turn left heading South towards Armstrong Road by traversing  along the top of the ridge and walking between the barns at the newly opened Lacey Magruder winery before turning right along Armstrong Road heading West until it meets up with Pre-Emption Road (County Road 6)

We then come back along Armstrong Road, turn left into the Cobtree driveway and we are back home again. This route takes pretty much the same time as the first however, there is always an opportunity to catch a glimpse of many of the wild life that abound in the woodlands such as the deer, turkeys, owls, birds of prey, chipmunks, squirrels and other small critters and other wild birds. Jane and I are blessed to be able to live and work right here in the Finger Lakes and although parts of the winter can at times be brutal, the properties are well insulated and warm and so even watching a storm brew outside is a joy in itself albeit, not clearing the snow away from the porches of the properties when the temperature dips on occasion to minus 20 deg F.

As early posted, summer has now gone for this year and the fall is already here and we now wait for the trees to change into their spectacular fall colors. We have been fully booked again this weekend as indeed, most weekends are. This weekend there was a wedding party that rented all of our properties together and a bus has just dropped off the guests returning from the wedding reception. The night is pitch black here at Cobtree especially tonight when we have a heavy cloud cover and no stars out right now.  It is a peaceful and quite place at night and everybody can get a restful sleep.

It was a  chilly start to the day here at Cobtree but eventually warmed up after lunchtime. I had to put on a warm jacket, hat and gloves when mowing the lawn this morning and my feet still got cold!.  I stopped for a break at 11.30 for an early lunch and started back again mowing. It is a long tedious job mowing for 6 hours at a time but I was unable to mow throughout the week due to the rain that we have been having. I was able to finally complete the task at 3pm and was thankful that the work had been completed. Now as I look out of my window the sun is out and it is much warmer. I had to put the heat on in our house today as the temperature plummeted to just 67 deg F this morning. The soy bean fields have all turned a bright yellow indicative of an early fall. The change of season is fast approaching and it will not be too long now until bow hunting season around the middle of October. The Lacey Magruder winery seems to have had quite a number of cars come and go today so they must be doing well with their sales right now as well.

Our friend Brad Howard invited Jane and I out to the Deluxe restaurant for dinner this evening together with his sweetheart Britney. Brad went to school with our son Daniel and also worked for Cobtree for almost three years before completing college and landing a job in the foundry of Goulds Pumps in Seneca falls. Brad is essentially our adopted son and he wanted to celebrate by taking Jane and I out for a meal together. Brad left it to me to choose the restaurant and as I was aware that he also used to work in the kitchen of the Deluxe, I thought it would be fun to go there.

Over the years Jane and I have dined at this restaurant from time to time because they offer excellent service, a pretty good menu, the portion sizes are huge and the prices very reasonable indeed. Take this evening for example. When we arrived, we were promptly shown to our table, seated, given menus and offered drinks. I got waylaid for a moment when I caught sight of my two friends Pam and “Big Pete” Ells. Now he is called “Big Pete” for a reason but, that story is for another day! Anyhow, Pete asked me if I wanted to join him for a Manhattan cocktail and as he was buying for me and Jane was with me to drive me back home, I thought why not and so I indulged him. I digress…

Back at the table. We ordered our food from the waitress and we ordered a fresh salad with creamy blue dressing followed by the broiled seafood platter but, no drinks. The waitress promptly returned with a basket of fresh Italian soft bread and real butter followed almost immediately by the salad. Jane ate 3/4 of this together with a slice of bread and I ate a 1/4 of the salad but with no bread initially. This was quickly followed by our Entree and this consisted of about 4oz of freshly broiled haddock, 4 large shrimps, 6-8 scallops, and two King crab legs cut in half with the meat exposed and served together with some dipping butter and a side of angel hair pasta tossed in an Italian tomato sauce.

Once again, Jane and I split the order and I have to say, that the food was excellent. Even after splitting the order, we still took home with us a “Doggy bag”. The whole meal with our friends order of boneless chicken, a 12oz rib eye steak, deep fried pickles, coleslaw, Zitti with tomato sauce and extra mozzarella cheese and  a take out portion of peanut butter pie came to just $54. What a bargain! Whilst dinning, one of my British friends came in to the restaurant and was seated behind me. I first met Samantha George when we moved here and she actually called me to introduce herself to me hearing that I too was from England.  For a while she cut our families hair as she owned a hair salon in downtown Geneva. later alas, she moved to Auburn and we had since lost contact with each other. What a small world it is!

Thank you Brad for inviting Jane and I out for a meal together, we had a blast. We are so proud of you and to see you have grown into such a wonderful young man. We wish you all the best as you grow up and move forward in your own life whichever road or direction that may take you.

Do you remember the movie Big starring Tom Hanks and Josh Baskin? Well, here is Josh Baskin in the photo on the left of this blog as seen in the closing scenes of the film Big in his ill fitting suit . This evening I attended the monthly business after hours held at the  Vein & Laser Center of the Finger Lakes, 200 North Street, Suite 203, Geneva. This is located at the medical office building adjacent to the hospital (at the Henderson’s entrance) on the second floor.

I decided to get togged up for the event because many business owners also arrive smartly dressed in business suits and I wanted to show off my newly acquired body! Before I left to the function, Jane took several photos of me in a suit that was made for me way back in London back in 1989 and which I have not been able to fit into for several years now. Here is a photo of me in the suit this afternoon.

Can you see the similarities between the two photos given the 60lbs of fat that I have lost since the 17th June this year when I had my Gastric Bypass operation? It certainly made Jane laugh and it gave me a chuckle too!  I did notice that a new store has opened on Seneca Street in Geneva and it is called Geneva Tailor and yes, they make suits and clothes so perhaps in time, I will ask them to refit my suits rather than find a good home for them as the cloth of my suits are still in good shape.

I came across this link about our friend Deb Whiting who sadly was killed earlier this year in a tragic car accident. I wanted to share this with you.   http://destinationstravelmagazine.com/July2011/#/chefs_corner_36/

Hydrobowl 2011 September 23rd – 25th 2011 at the Lakefront Park, Seneca Lake, Geneva, New York

Featuring food and wine concessions and great fun day out with your family and friends. Visit Http://www.hydrobowl.com

Waking up at Cobtree is an enjoyable experience and I never seem to get tired of watching the sun rise slowly above the Eastern shores of Seneca Lake in all it’s heavenly glory. To some people this may well be just another day but here there is peace and solitude being out here in the countryside. If you take a moment to stop, look and listen you will see and hear so much wildlife. This morning I observed an owl that gently swooped down and caught a critter in the dew covered grass. The early bird may well catch the worm but for this owl, he caught his breakfast too!

The fields of soy bean are now turning yellow. In a few more weeks they too will be harvested as will the field corn. All of the fruit on our trees here at Cobtree have now been picked, the last were the plums that Jane and I picked yesterday which I then blanched and placed into the freezer. We did not have many apples this year ourselves but no doubt my neighbor Tom will bring some over to us when he picks his trees. and I can then freeze some of them too for making some sugar free pies throughout the long winter months that are coming.

I had to go to the dentist this morning for a small filling. This cost me $155. He then told me I need two crowns at a cost of $800 per crown. Ouch!  I need a sedative just to hear this news let alone for when I have the work done by him. Dentists are hellishly expensive here in the USA and I have known people who would rather go on a vacation to Malaysia for example to have their dental work done because it was cheaper to do so than to have the work done here in the States! I kid you not, my friend Cameron Dawson did exactly that when he was quoted over $7000 for a dental plate to be made and fitted and he traveled to Kualar Lumper and had the work done there and together with the cost of the package holiday for just $5000

I do not know how I have done it but, my right leg has really been hurting these last couple of days. I cannot take Ibuprofen since my gastric bypass surgery and so I have been looking for an alternative anti inflammatory medicine and so went online to discover a natural product called Boswellia which comes both in capsule form and in a topical cream form. I did not have to go far to purchase these two items locally and was able to obtain them at the Mother Earth Natural Foods store in Geneva.

Here are their contact details.

Mother Earth Natural Foods, Geneva NY

What I love the most about the sunrise and the sunset is that each one is uniquely painted on Gods own canvass which is our sky. I cannot help but be in awe at the colors and the light as the sun rises or the sun goes down respectively. It really is such a heavenly picture to stand and watch and like today, to take a photo using my IPhone 4. Certainly is is such a beautiful and peaceful place to live (and for Jane and I, to live and work!)

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Home away from home in the Finger Lakes.

What is one of America’s best-kept travel secrets? Remarkably, the Finger Lakes region remains largely unknown to many vacationers – including those from Canada.

Though there are actually eleven lakes, only seven are commonly identified as Finger Lakes. Collectively, the long, skinny blue streaks reminded early mapmakers of the fingers of a hand.

At close to forty miles end to end, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake are the longest, and among the deepest lakes in the United States – 435 feet and 618 feet deep respectively. Carved by glaciers receding at the end of the last ice age, the Finger Lakes today drain northward to Lake Ontario.The southern end of the lakes is characterized by steep hills and tributaries that drop precipitously, often via waterfalls. With a 214 foot drop, Taughannock Falls is one of the highest waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountains. Visit Taughannock Falls State Park, Fillmore Glen, and Watkins Glen to see striking examples of waterfalls that have been incorporated into public parks.

“Native American Legend maintains that the Fingers Lakes were the impression left behind by the creator when he reached down to bless the land,” writes vacation rental resort owner Robert Lawty. The Finger Lakes region is one of bucolic beauty. Picture rolling hills, dotted with waterfront villages, dairy farms, old Victorian homes, forests, and sparkling waterfalls. In the summer, it is a patchwork quilt of verdant land and shimmering water.

The lakes have given rise to microclimates, ideal for grape growing. Notably, the area has become New York’s largest wine producing region. Today, more than 75 wineries reside along the banks of the lakes. Enjoy organized wine trails along Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, and Canandaigua lakes. In the summer months, the Finger Lakes region comes alive with outdoor enthusiasts – cyclists, hikers, swimmers, and vineyard-goers. It is also a wonderful place to take in live theater and music, such as the Summer Music Series, which offers free weekend concerts. To some the lakes are known as “the little jewels in upstate New York.” Come see these gems for yourself.

Please visit http://www.cobtree.com for further information

Thomas S.

Review Submitted: September 7, 2011 Date of Stay: August 2011

We thoroughly enjoyed our family reunion/vacation at Cobtree’s Honeoye cabin in the New York Finger Lakes: swam at the Sampson state park and the over sized pool at Watkins Glen state park, hiked the Watkins Glen gorge, visited several wineries and a microbrewery, watched the sun rise from our comfortable cabin, walked and dined in pretty Geneva, biked the back roads, grilled out, chilled out. All laid-back and lovely.

I have great pleasure in announcing that our online virtual tours are now accessible from your smartphone or mobile device.  These high quality virtual tours were created by the team of professionals working at Virtualmedia360.net

They have done a splendid job for our company and, at a reasonable price for all the work that they put into making the tours for us.  We cannot speak more highly of the owner Derick Clarke and his team and we wish to thank them most graciously for all the work that they have done in photographing the properties, preparing the tours for uploading to the internet as well as the painstaking programming required so that they can now be viewed on a mobile device.  Thank you…a job very well done.

Jane and I hope that the general public will enjoy looking at our tours on this website or on your own IPhone, Droid or other mobile device.  If you have any problems accessing the virtual tours, please do alert us won’t you?

The Labor day holidays are all but over and with it, our summer peak season draws to an end. This of course does not signal ” game over” for the year. On the contrary,  we will now be moving rapidly into our Fall season and with it, the stunningly beautiful Fall colors will soon appear on the trees. Indeed, the leaves on the trees have already begun to to change color which I attribute to the very hot early summer that we experienced here in the Finger Lakes. My best guess is that this year we will see the peak of the fall colors in the very beginning of October this year, two weeks earlier than is normal for the region.

Then there are the many visitors to the region who will soon arrive to participate in the many wine tours that occur in the fall and the release of new vintages by the numerous wineries that dot the area.  I am reliably informed that there are some 54 wineries around Seneca lake alone! In additional, there are many fine restaurants and good restaurants in the region for guests to enjoy some well prepared foods and most restaurants make good use of local organic produce and farm to table meats and vegetables. However, whilst there are indeed some restaurants that serve some really good fish dishes, I am really surprised that restaurants do not seem to serve locally caught fish from our many lakes in the Finger Lakes region. I guess there must be a reason for this but I am damned if I know!

My neighbor Phil Wilkie and I went this morning at Sweet Sues Diner on the 5 & 20 between the town of Geneva and Flint and had an enjoyable breakfast together as the Hall diner is closed on a Monday . It has been raining pretty much all morning since I arose at 6.30 and the sky is cloudy and grey. We have had a busy morning because we have had to supervise the cleaning of  four of our  properties since the occupants have left to go  back home and I suppose, they will be back at work tomorrow. I also had to carry out some maintenance jobs around the properties including repairing a casement window that was made by Anderson windows as well as two French door screens on  doors that lead out onto the decks of two of our properties here at Cobtree.

I raided my neighbors peach trees yesterday.  Tom Wilkie asked to do so as he has literally thousands of peaches and for whatever reason, he has not picked them this year.  I made several peach crumbles with them to put in the freezer. Some where made with regular sugar and some with Splenda so that I too can enjoy as well when we have guests over later in the year to share with. I also took a couple of them over to Phil Wilkie as it was he who asked me to make some for him in the first place! The trees still have bushels of peaches left on them and it is sad to see them just falling off the trees only to be left to rot on the ground.

Here is how to make a Peach Crumble:

First you turn on your oven and heat to a temperature of 350 deg F.  Next, take 1 1/2 lb of all purpose flour and add to it 80z of regular salted butter and 60z of granulated sugar in a mixing bowl. You then rub these together to form a “Crumble mixture”  this resembles bread crumbs in texture. (It is best to run your hands in cold water and dry the before doing this so not to warm the mixture up with hot hands)  Next, you put a saucepan on your stove or gas ring, containing some cold water. Bring the water to the boil. Then, turn off the stove top or gas ring. You then take 12 medium or large peaches and a few at a time place in the hot water for about one minute. You then take the peaches out of the water, drain  and place on a plate. Carry on with the other peaches until all 12 have been blanched in the hot water. Using a small parring knife you then remove the skins of the peaches and cut the peaches in half to remove the peach stone.

Place the peach halves in an oven proof glass or ceramic dish.  You can also use  small aluminum pie trays as well. You can either make  one large crumble, or two to four smaller crumbles depending on your individual needs. Next, sprinkle light brown sugar over the peaches to your prefered sweetness. I used four small aluminum trays and about one table spoon of sugar or Splenda for each tray. You then ” share ” the crumble mixture and level with a regular table fork .  Next, sprinkle some white granulated sugar over the top of the leveled mix and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the crumble is cooked and light brown in color.  Remove from the oven and turn off the oven afterwards if you have finished using it!

Serve with whipped cream or ice-cream.

We had the pleasure of the company of a few friends around for a barbeque here at Cobtree this afternoon.  My friends John and Linda Wright together with their two children Nicole and Sean as well as Glen and Susan Quackenbush and not forgetting last but not least, my good friend and neighbor Phil Wilkie arrived around midday. Together we sat down to eat a hearty meal consisting of barbequed boneless skinless chicken thighs marinated in an Italian zesty marinade, home made potato salad made with Helmans original recipe mayonnaise doctored with spring onions tops and added salt and black pepperto season and then  dressed with sliced hard boiled eggs. I also made a sweet red onion and tomato salad dish with cilentro and olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing, another salad made with the heart of Romain lettuce together with green peppers and a rich Caesar dressing, garlic bread and a few  beef franks. This was followed by home made plum cobbler made with plums from our own plum trees here at Cobtree.  All delicious if I may say so myself!

After lunch, Nicole and then Sean drove me around the resort in our new RTV. A great time was had by all before the thunder storms arrived later in the afternoon!

The Waterloo outlet mall which is part of the brand of malls Premier Outlets, is located just a 15 minute drive away from Cobtree. This mall has many of the big brand names. Don’t miss out on this weekends Labor day sales which offer tremendous discounts on these hugely popular brand names.

For your convenience, here is a store directory courtesy of  Premiumoutlets.com

Stores Adidas Aeropostale Alfred Dunner Ann Taylor Factory Store Banana Republic Factory Store Bass BCBG Max Azria Bon Worth Brooks Brothers Factory Store Calvin Klein Calvin Klein Casual Male XL Champion Coldwater Creek Columbia Sportswear Company Dressbarn Dressbarn Woman Eddie Bauer Outlet Gap Outlet Guess Factory Store Haggar Clothing Co. HanesBrands Izod J.Crew Jockey Jones New York Kasper Lane Bryant Outlet Levi’s Outlet Store Loft Outlet Maidenform Motherhood Maternity Nautica Nike Factory Store Old Navy Outlet PacSun Polo Ralph Lauren Puma Reebok Rue21 Timberland Tommy Hilfiger Under Armour Van Heusen VF Outlet VF Outlet Clearance Wilsons Leather Zumiez Children’s Stores Carter’s The Children’s Place Outlet Gymboree Outlet J.Crew | Crewcuts Justice Old Navy Outlet OshKosh B’gosh Stride Rite Keds Sperry Tommy Hilfiger | Kids Shoe Stores Adidas Aldo Bass Clarks Bostonian Famous Footwear Outlet Foot Locker Journeys Merrell Nike Factory Store Nine West Outlet Puma Reebok Rockport SAS Factory Shoe Store The Shoe Doctor Stride Rite Keds Sperry Timberland Fine Leather Stores Coach Samsonite Wilsons Leather Houseware Stores Black & Decker Chef’s Outlet Corningware Corelle Revere Kitchen Collection Le Gourmet Chef Store Book Warehouse Bose The Cosmetics Company Store Harry & David Mulberry Knoll My Favorite Sports Store Perfumania Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Vitamin World Yankee Candle Food Stores Arby’s Ben’s Ice Cream Burger King China Express Mrs. Field’s/TCBY/Pretzelmaker Subway Sun Garden Grille Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen Adjacent to Burger King in the Food Court Food Court Food Court Information Center Information Center Information Center Food Court and two additional locations Food Court and three additional locations Food Court

The Lacy Magruder Winery at 462 Armstrong Road finally opened it’s doors this morning at 11am.  They will be open daily from 11-5. The original barn was built in 1830 and it formed part of the farm that Jane and I purchased back in 2002 together with the Colonial style farmhouse that sits on the crest of the hill on Armstrong Road. Currently the wine maker Jim Hundertmark has 6 styles of wine to offer including a very nice barrel aged Chardonnay. I have already purchased 2 bottles each as a case of wine and received a case discount for the privilege.  Now when you come to stay at the Cobtree Vacation rental resort here in Geneva, you have only a short walk to the new Lacey Magruder winery which is aptly named after the Grandparents of Ruth and Jim Hundermark.

Life is sometimes like a JigSaw Puzzle and once in a while everything fits together! Take today for example, I mentioned to my friend Quackie when I went down to the Hall diner for breakfast with my friend Phil,  that I was looking to purchase a new upright freezer. Jane did not want to do so as (1) we are now only a household of two people (2) The cost of purchasing a new one and (3) The cost of operating the appliance and (4)It is something else to go wrong!  Added to this, Jane wanted me to get rid of a Lazy boy armchair that we have in one of our back bedrooms. It is never used anymore since the exercise bike now takes the place of where the lazy boy used to sit. I asked Quackie if he wanted it to which he replied “why not”.

To my surprise, Quackie just stopped by after lunch and on the back of his truck he was carrying the upright freezer to deliver to us having collected it from home when he went home for his own lunch and five minute Cat Nap. This was exchanged for the lazy boy armchair which he will now take back home with him. Of course, I will still owe him a good sized breakfast down the diner tomorrow for all of his goodwill and generosity but is is amazing how once in a while things do seem to just fit together like a JigSaw puzzle!

Now don’t forget Quackie, you and Susan both have an invitation to lunch his Sunday from around noon for a chicken BBQ cooked on the new gas grill we purchased from you (and a very good quality grill it is, better than anything that Lowes, Walmart or Home depot sells for the same price range) and we will have home made potato salad, Caesar salad, home made Plum pie made with plums from our own trees, served together with ice cream and whipped cream and of course, some Coors Light Beer for you to wash it down with too!

It is an opportunity for you to meet and make new friends with the Wright family John, Linda, Nicole and Sean. John is a locksmith who works in the family business of George Wright and Co. Linda works for a company that supplies the local sign industry with various materials.

Make it a date and don’t be late!

There are three memorable labor day’s in my life thus far.  First is the birth of my oldest son Kenneth on the third of April 1989, the birth of my youngest son Daniel on the 5th July 1991 and the birth of our first Granddaughter on the 22nd March 2011.Here is a photo of Uncle Daniel with his Niece Olivia taken in August this year and a photo of Father and Daughter (Kenneth and Olivia) and finally, Mother and Daughter together (Gemma and Olivia) Of course, the labor I refer to is that of their respective Mothers Jane and Gemma and nothing at all to do with the forthcoming labor day here in the USA but I thought it would be a little bit of fun to post what “Real” labor means and the real miracle of life.  We do not as far as I am aware, celebrate an equivalent of Labor day in England so it really does not have much meaning to Jane and I even though we live right here in America. It is though a good day to remember all of our family members around the world.

Jane and I wish everybody a wonderful Labor day wherever you live in the world!