A Beautiful Summer Season!

I've got three pints of Mutha Sauce a rattling in the canner, a decent habanero crop on the picnic table and plans to definitely purchase some rubber gloves while handling these babies tomorrow. Summer was wonderful at Stillwater! Many kayakers, campers, hikers from everywhere as always.The Stillwater Fire Tower has been refurbished an I have had the chance to hike it twice this summer. I played pretty much every Saturday night on the Stillwater Deck, And also at the Brackel in Mcdonough, The Pine Tree in Brantingham, The #10 and The Colgate Inn in Hamilton as well as my hospital gigs in Norwich, Herkimer and The Oxford Vets Home in Oxford. Bob Hankey (the owner of Big Moose Inn a few years back who now resides in Thailand and invited me to play in Thailand but unfortunately I have this cataract in my right eye that needs to come out. Pretty disappointed to give up this opportunity. I'm ready for a break but have a few more things lined up at the Country Club in Norwich and the Stillwater Wine dinner party. Then some time for recording. It's been 3 years since my last CD. I have a bunch of new tunes pretty much ready to go. Just need to put the blinder on and focus! So back to habaneros! Holy Hell HOT!

Campsite 1038 Sunny South Hamilton

Now that I've finally found some time..here are some shots from the annual Brown family summer stay cation here at 1038 Campsite South Hamilton

Summer Stay-cation

Crazy busy is all I can say. Loving and living the dream. Gardening, kayaking, Working Stillwater and playing a respectable amount of gigs. One never knows who you will meet at Stillwater! I was requested by a couple who winters in Florida and summers in Lake Placid at the Still a few weeks ago. A wonderful couple who made it totally worth my while to travel up and play while they had dinner. Then a hospital gig in Herkimer, The Brackel then home. This Saturday I'll be at the Big Moose Station then back to Stillwater. Working weekends and stay-cationing during the week. Summer is spinning by so fast that already I'm dead heading my day lilies and cutting back the host shoots.The garlic has been harvested and the yellow beans are out of control! Last night I finally made time and invited my dear friends and neighbors over for a Mexican pizza happy hour on the front porch. I hope to get a few more of these in before the snow flies. Cheers!

Springtime Peepers

Spring has finally arrived in a cold, wet dress of rain, all muddy green with fog. So very grateful to have made it through winter and also grateful for a fine winter season up at Stillwater. The Easter decorations are back in their boxes and shelved and the leftover lamb cassoulet is in the freezer for another time. Last July 3rds blow down is stacked yet again from the back yard into the shed because it's April 8th and still the wood stove burns. In the craggy branches of the seven ancient maples that guard my home are the springtime starlings busy with nest building and new blue maple syrup lines have replaced the hooded, tin sap buckets and connect my trees like a dot to dot emptying the clear sugary sap into a large orange barrel that sits on the corner. Sparky and Sparkle, my two grey squirrels are still doing their acrobatics at the bird feeders and wouldn't you know the spring peepers are migrating up and out of their cold, muddy dens and out into winter's last patches of snow. The green is ever so slowly appearing in the lawns and fields and a tinge of red hue budding in the underbrush and the yonder horizon of woods. Around five o clock each evening a large herd of thirty to sixty deer climb the hill kitty corner from my house and graze on the unharvested soybeans from last fall...very skinny but beautifully silhouetted before they run into the night, flicking their white tails and kicking up their hooves. So happy to survive to see spring.

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The Shock

I'm sitting in the Hilton Hotel in Albany after having a short walking tour of the states capital, the Egg and a few other historical buildings. Completely out of my element. We are having a Brown family holiday and rented three small, cozy cabins on Fish Creek in a dilapidated town out side of Rome NY called Taberg. We toured Fort Stanwick on probably the coldest day of the year one day and skied Woods Vally with the kids the next. Now we are in Albany for two nights. Bill's nephew's wedding is this evening. I'm trying my best to get on with things. My sister is gone as Ma described it. "Cancer reared its ugly head one more time and took her." I just don't know how to write about it. From which angle. I just don't have words to describe the shock and the loss of the emptiness. She's gone. The gray days of winter certainly don't help me...I pray for the powder blue skies of winter. The same blue color her eyes turned as she passed into the skies of heaven, leaving me in this undescribable shock of living out the rest of my life with out her. Last Tuesday was her birthday. She would have been 52. There was never a more beautiful and more feisty a woman as my sister.

The Last Days Of September

It's been a beautiful Indian Summer here in Central New York. Loving this time of the year! Bill and I had a so so crop this year. The garlic, Kale, swiss chard, potatoes, onions and tomatoes all did well. The pole string beans were awesome as well as the parsley, chives, oregano and mescaline mix. My basil sucked and I still can't grow a pepper to save my life. We are hoping to plow up a new area out back in the spring and start new. I have a few more gigs left up at Stillwater and a private party booked this Sunday at the Brackel for Mel Predmore who is an ole friend of the family. It should be a fun time! I had a gorgeous hike and said my morning prayers on the Brookfield horse trails which got badly bruised in the blowdown July third. Many many trees are down. A bipolar summer to say the least and it's fading fast. I'm hoping for another three or more foot of snow winter with many snowmobilers headed Stillwater way. Bring them on!

I Bought A Juicer

After two hours of blanching, squeezing and chopping the plum tomatoes that never plumbed up because all it did was rain this summer. I decided to buy a juicer. I bought the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. I LOVE it! The first run, I juiced Kale, cucumber, green apple, carrot and ginger. I drank a half a juice glass and I swear I felt high. Delish! The next day I picked a bucket of the plum tomatoes and juiced with them green pepper, basil and parley to make the best Bloody Mary I ever had. Stillwater is hosting a wellness weekend on October 18th and 19th. I'll be at the head of the juicing table and also will be doing kayaking tours during the day and playing music on Saturday night. More to come on this.

This Time Of Year

A time I love I guess is all I need to say.

I Met Carlene Carter

So, there's this most awesome place only 6 miles from here. The Earlville Opera House. I'm not even gonna go into how awesome this place is or the history. Just google it. Right now I'm writing this in the middle of the night totally burned out from living out of knapsacks, baskets and bags on the road in-between here and the ADKS. Bill and I went into full force cleaning mode and got the Country Side...the house that grows dirt...clean. Today he was a moper. I guess the overnighter at camp Stillwater wasn't enough to satisfy his ADK craving. But I'm done. I need to settle and focus. On what I don't know. So after having the successful eye surgery, my life's most recent miracle. I decided to treat myself to a show at the Earlville Opera House. I got on the phone and as luck would have it, there was an open seat in the front row for 40 bucks. All mine to sit and see Carlene Carter! Claudia Peck turned me on to Carlene back in the 80's when Carlene was this hot blond, kick ass, country pop singer. She really did put some cunt in country. So in-between Cat Stevens, Joni and the Johnny Cash records my father would play (only on Sundays) I found that I loved the rock a billy stuff, Carlene would play and loved the outrightestnest of her lyrics so un Jonie-like and covered several of her songs. They were and still are good bar drinking songs.. To Drunk To Remember, Cry Cry Cry, Foggy Mountain Top and another one about Sandy...I was a huge fan. So, there I was in one of those diagonal front of the shop parking spaces, way to early for the show only because I was bored stiff and needed to get out of the house...Talking to my old friend Val in San Diego to hear the news of Moira..who isn't well and is planning a visit east in late September. After this conversation I get a text from my other old friend Jen saying she's drinking cold beers and listening to Carlene Carter on Pandora. I tried to coax Jen into coming to the show earlier, but Jen doesn't leave her house after her long day of work and has a real hard time doing anything fun anymore...whatever. So right after I read her text of drinking cold beers an listening to Carlene, I look up and out of the the double doors of the EOH walks Carlene Carter lighting a cigarette! A Beautiful woman with skinny legs and gorgeous brown hair! I was like...Well there she is. She was looking across the street over to the Earlville park where her man Joe was. He waved her over and exhaling a puff of smoke, across the empty street she went. So I grabbed my nikon, waited a few minutes...I didn't want to appear to eager, and followed. I can't remember exactly what I said but it was something stupid like.."As I live in breathe in the Earlville park...Could this be Carlene Carter!" I'm a huge fan. I told her. She laughed and grabbed me giving me a hug and asked me if I was going to her show in which I replied...Front row girlfriend. We bonded. Steve Blias suddenly was there a announced that dinner was served upstairs and invited me to join. I had a lovely few minutes with Carlene and her man Joe talking of on the road hotel nightmare accommodations..(mine being at Hotel Indigo in Nashville...Carlene didn't seem to have a whole lot of regard for Nashville..) After dinner I checked out the new blue stone patio, helped with some flower arranging in the cafe then carried the Carlene Carter girl denim jacket up to her dressing room. A roadie. OH and somewhere after I got the text from Jen drinking cold beer etc..I texted back..."Well, I just happened to be having dinner with Carlene Carter!" Anyway...Carlene was wonderful and has the potential to be an even greater wonderful. She put on a show with her stories of Big John and mother Junie. She shared many memories of her Carter family experiences, the helicopter landing in her front yard where Chris Kristopherson stepped out, mowing the front yard for a dollar and why she married 4 times because Junie said she had to marry before she could sleep with the man, Her piano playing was beautiful. Her guitar playing on the up and her auto harp made me want to dust off mine. Her voice as strong and vibrant as it was in her earlier days yet she sang with more tenderness, sorrow and knowledge. And Joe. Her man. Her gift...He was wonderful AND funny. Together a great balance. They had a fun, Hee Haw banter going in-between them when he joined her in many of the songs with his most lovely tenor Irish voice. A very special night. Sitting there in my 40 dollar seat...BEING ABLE TO SEE and watching them perform together...It was if I were watching Johnny Cash and his beloved June on that stage. Carlene, Your momma and step dad are clearly with you and watching over you...A blessing to behold. May you carry on.

Not The Rolling Stone...I'm Not Complaining

My 8th CD that I recorded and released last August 2013 with Steven Skollar got a nice review...a year later! Oh well The review was written up by another hard working CNY musician, John Keller. I'm very honored to have made the cover of August's edition of Mohawk Valley Living magazine! A great magazine honoring the heritage and history of the cities and towns of the Mohawk Valley.

An Adirondack Inspired Cat Tower...And A Cataract

Well. Here we have a shot of Larry bathing in the high peeks of the Adirondack inspired, cat tower, seasoning from the fallen maple. Summer has flown by once again. Not one of my better summers...due to a cataract in my left eye which will be removed this Thursday. It will be wonderful to be able to see. Dr. Novak is doing the surgery and will remove the cataract (which feels like I have a nickel shoved into my eye) and replace it with a lens which will allow me to see close up for reading. Next year my right eye will need to be done. I'll have a lens in that eye to see distance. Bionic Mono-vision Pamme. The cataract. A gift from the stupid tattoo I got on my ankle 4 years ago. I had an allergic reaction to the red ink giving me a skin infection. I was on prednisone then on a sulfur drug which I had another allergic reaction to causing the doctors to put me on more prednisone...Anyway the prednisone sped up the growth of the cataract that was already there but I wouldn't of gotten it till later in life. My luck! For this surgery though I really can't wait. So I'm on a stay-cation house arrest for a few days doing the eye drops. Life is good.

Chittning Pond ~ Larry And The Frog

It's the little things in life where I find the most happiness. We took some time today to paddle on a peaceful place not so far from here on Rte. 20. Chittning Pond. There were several fisherman there with no luck on their lines, a gaggle of Canadian Geese, a great blue Heron and the most beautiful stands of cat tails surrounding and blowing quite serenely around the pond. A very short kayak. I miss my smaller boat! It felt good to be in her again as she is much lighter than my Delta. We came home to do another job in setting up the pump in the old whiskey barrel in the garden by the house where I got the shots of Larry and the frog. They were very good posers. Lovely day. And now it's time to get a fire in the outside kitchen for shrimp on the barbie. Yes it's the little things.

My Fourth Of July Weekend

A micro burst blew through here on July 3rd. I filmed it and it's on my website at www.pammeswan.com. It lasted about three and a half minutes which was the longest three and a half minutes of my life taking down hundreds if not thousands of trees in the Earlville, Poolville, South Hamilton, Brookfield and Bridgeport area. So much for my Back To Eden Arboretum. So sad. I'm very lucky none of the seven maples...my guardian maples as I call them, I'm very lucky they still stand and didn't fall on my house. As you can see we have a lot of work to do. The cats love their new tree play ground and I can live with out this maple. My lilacs now will have more sun for blooming. I'm sick about losing the ancient pines in the back. My land will never be as picturesque as it once was ever again. I'm heartbroken. But damn...I'm been through it all so I can get through this.