Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Why do I eat that lime-flavored Tostito chip?


Because it's there! So ends another Week Of Eating Dangerously at Nags Head. Among so many other things, the week at Nags Head means food, unlimited, delicious food, from the dinners (along with desserts mostly including ice cream) served by cooks nothing short of expert, to the ham and cheese biscuits thrown in as a lagniappe by somebody one morning for breakfast, to the Dagwood-style sandwiches we all indulge in every lunchtime (if not some pasta thing leftover from dinner the night before) to another lagniappe, huge oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies tossed out of the oven by somebody else, to cheese dips, humus, flatbreads, and chips of every description, and boiled Virginia peanuts, all just sitting there, meant only to be consumed. I stopped by a farm stand on the trip down and bought at least 10 pounds of beautiful tomatoes, totally oblivious to the fact that Tom and Rick always fly in from Toldeo with offerings from their own yearly bumper crop. We ended up with at least 30 pounds of tomatoes--and we went through them! Folks got creative and every dinner featured tomatoes in some form, and lunch sandwiches weren't considered complete without at least a slice. By the time Thursday rolled around I made some comment to the effect that it will be interesting to feel hungry again, if I ever do, and everyone else chuckled in understanding. This group gives the song "Food, Glorious Food!" a whole new meaning.

Otherwise, we were blessed with the same matchless September weather that we always have, despite the fact that we are at hurricane central and always fearing the worst. Hanna started raining on the Outer Banks literally the moment our tires hit the beach road on Friday at about 1 pm, and we had high winds but only light rain the rest of Friday and about half of Saturday. By 5 pm Saturday we were sitting on the beach as if there had never been any disturbance. Also by that time, we knew that the next hurricane, Ike, had decided to head west, not north. Right from the start, we knew we were home free. (Sorry, Galveston!)

This is the traditional start of the new year for us. The Nags Head trip serves as the cap to summer; the cooling weather turns our attention to concerns and activities of the new season and we start planning for them. For me it means more outdoor work, in the form of staying ahead of the everloving maple leaves out back (the silver maple--the gift that keeps on giving), cutting back the foliage on perennials now that they have nourished their bulbs for as long as the weather will allow and, eventually, bringing in all the plants from the deck. Soon the Thanksgiving cactuses will be setting buds for their yearly spectacle, which I will share with you.

Thanks to you die-hards who checked in faithfully even when there was nothing new to look at. I've got a project ahead of me, trying to retrieve those lost posts from the google archive. With the clarity of hindsight I discovered that the loss was my fault, not blogger's. Life goes on.

If you're curious, here are a few more Nags Head pictures.

14 comments:

Mim said...

Ralph
You are right I didn't want to miss out on any posting.. was actually curious if the storm hit you. As I am a lover of Nags Head, I'd hoped you were enjoying glorious sun and sand but really sounds like it was glorious food instead.
That was good.. I enjoyed hearing about the food.
Now it's extra walking and stark eating right?

Ralph said...

Hi, Mim! My walk this morning was still the shorter course, just to warm up after the long absence. Tomorrow I'll add that extra mile. And yes, food intake will get back down to normal, too. I figure an occasional pig-out is OK as long as I'm good the rest of the time!

How did your re-glazing project go, or has that happened yet? What house project are you up to now? The back porch?

Peewit said...

Welcome back, Ralph.

Us Brits always moan about the Weather (it gives us something to talk about) but what we get really doesn't compare to the hurricane season.

the worst we got was this
http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/Resources/Weather/Severe/oct87.html

I was out that night and (although rather drunk) just thought it was a little windier than usual!

Ralph said...

Hello, Peewit! Interesting about that storm. It looks like you may have gotten what was left of Hurricane Floyd, which hit our east coast in the first week of October. (Can't know for sure but the timing is right.) By the scale in that link it looks like we had Force 9 winds in Nags Head during soome of Saturday. It didn't feel all that strong (and I wasn't drunk)--guess because strong winds and the beach at Nags Head sort of go together....

Anonymous said...

Ralph, it seems as if you are all having a wonderful time! My friend just came back from Nags Head and said how lovely it was.


The food just sounds incredible! Enjoy it while you can.

Ralph said...

Thanks, Peggy. We're back living a normal life in Arlington now, but it was great while it lasted!

Ravel said...

Fun pics of a great time with friends. I can feel it's spirit of it all from here. Nice pics of you and hubby!
And of food. Wich is wich?
(joke).
Take care!

Mim said...

Hey Ralph,
All my August peaches did us in here.. too many calories! Ha add that to our love of breyers vanilla ice cream. Yikes! It was fun.
Getting my permit tomorrow for the back porch.. with roof.. oy... so expensive... but will be great.
The reglazing is scheduled for Nov.. do you believe it... they are so backed up. And I went with the $8/sq ft. and with white. I can't wait.
Am taking before/after pics and will show when finished.
I just loved all your food descriptions at NH!pics good too.
Don't laugh.. we spent two days at the Tyson's corner Ritz.. it was great... subsitute for not getting to go to Nags head this sept as usual!check out what i wrote tonight on my blog..

Cuidado said...

You made it safe and sound. i like your attitude about the occasional pig out because it is mine as well. I'm disciplined most of the time and allow myself the break from it.

nan said...

Welcome back, Ralph! We missed you! It looks like you had a wonderful time. Great photo! Nice haircut!

Ralph said...

Cuidado, I've always thought the ideal thing would be to have all that food around all the time and just have the discipline not to eat it constantly. But we can't do that, so we just don't have things like cookies, chips--snack foods in general--around the house. A snack for us is a piece of fruit or maybe a pickle. Works fine until we get around the bad stuff. Then it's literally kids in the candy store. Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Ralph said...

Heh, this haircut is different, isn't it Nan? My head was starting to look like the onion dome on Saint Basil's Cathedral so I told Rick to chop it off. (The hair, that is, not my head.) It'll be back to normal for winter.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Ralph! Ever faithful I did check in every day and knew you'd turn up eventually! Never been to Nag's Head - but it looks darn close to my version of heaven!

Ralph said...

Hi, Jeff! Try Nags Head once and you'll be hooked. There's the Atlantic and then there's the Atlantic at Outer Banks. The beaches are wide and the water is untamed. You feel a bit closer to what it's all about down there.