Wednesday 19th October
On a balmy like early evening after day's temperatures of 80f, we went to dinner with our new-met friends in their lakeside house on Wickiboag Lake in West Brookfield. A much bigger lake than we are on and just as beautiful with its fall colours.
We sat on their terrace overlooking their (shared) beach and heard about how Carole and her first husband had owned this house, the house next door and the one next to that at one time. After his untimely death she hadn't wanted to go there much because of memories and I guess the other houses got sold off, but since meeting Jim, they have made it their home and Jim has put a lot of work into improving it since retiring. A close knit community here too - they know all their neighbours, share boats and paddle boards and maintenance of their grounds between themselves and obviously socialise with them on the communal front open space. In the summer they rarely cook more than once a week as they all take turns in cooking outdoors for each other. A good life for 60/70 year olds.
They have both lived full lives, Jim is a Vietnam veteran and was wounded and sent to a Japanese hospital at the age of 20. Then had his own business for several years. Carole travelled a lot with her husband and lived in Kensington for a year with 2 small children. She also lived in Paris as her husband was researching for a book he was writing and because she had time whilst he did this she took a cordon bleu cookery course. Needless to say we had a great meal of rare beef with bernaise sauce, baked pots with sour cream and corn and salad, an American slant to traditional food but very tasty.
It was the evening of the third Clinton/Trump debate, so we watched the first 45 minutes with them before excusing ourselves because it somehow feels too intrusive to watch something so emotive with people you hardly know. They have no problem with expressing their opinions though. We have again had our eyes opened to a different view listening to their take on it all.
It was an interesting evening with easy outgoing people who made us feel very at home and comfortable.
Perhaps we will see them in England one day as we have swopped contact details.
On a balmy like early evening after day's temperatures of 80f, we went to dinner with our new-met friends in their lakeside house on Wickiboag Lake in West Brookfield. A much bigger lake than we are on and just as beautiful with its fall colours.
We sat on their terrace overlooking their (shared) beach and heard about how Carole and her first husband had owned this house, the house next door and the one next to that at one time. After his untimely death she hadn't wanted to go there much because of memories and I guess the other houses got sold off, but since meeting Jim, they have made it their home and Jim has put a lot of work into improving it since retiring. A close knit community here too - they know all their neighbours, share boats and paddle boards and maintenance of their grounds between themselves and obviously socialise with them on the communal front open space. In the summer they rarely cook more than once a week as they all take turns in cooking outdoors for each other. A good life for 60/70 year olds.
They have both lived full lives, Jim is a Vietnam veteran and was wounded and sent to a Japanese hospital at the age of 20. Then had his own business for several years. Carole travelled a lot with her husband and lived in Kensington for a year with 2 small children. She also lived in Paris as her husband was researching for a book he was writing and because she had time whilst he did this she took a cordon bleu cookery course. Needless to say we had a great meal of rare beef with bernaise sauce, baked pots with sour cream and corn and salad, an American slant to traditional food but very tasty.
It was the evening of the third Clinton/Trump debate, so we watched the first 45 minutes with them before excusing ourselves because it somehow feels too intrusive to watch something so emotive with people you hardly know. They have no problem with expressing their opinions though. We have again had our eyes opened to a different view listening to their take on it all.
It was an interesting evening with easy outgoing people who made us feel very at home and comfortable.
Perhaps we will see them in England one day as we have swopped contact details.
View from Jim and Carole's
No comments:
Post a Comment