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Spring is here!
Love the earlier time change * Love that I got almost all of my Winter projects done * Love that I'll be spending a lot of time this season in the bleachers cheering for Charlie's Middle School baseball team and Sarah's Parks & Rec softball team * Love the climbing temperatures (though I'm sure we'll still have a cold snap or two) * Love that even with an early Easter there's still time to get our ducks in a row before the season hits * Love that people are still reading this newsletter, Madame Du Canard's articles and the queenbeaches blog * Life! I'm Lovin' it!
(My deepest condolences to the frog pictured above.) |
| Between the Lines
Reading Recommendations from the Cottage shelves |
 My major reading binge that started right before the holidays just came to a screeching halt. The last month has been incredibly busy- spring orders, fall catalogs, Easter preparations, baseball practice, dance carpools, travel, you name it- I haven't been able to keep up the pace I set this winter. Plus a lot of what I've read lately are advances for upcoming books that won't even be out until summer (and nothing has yet to knock my socks off.)
I'm just finishing Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller's memoir of her unusual upbringing as a white colonial child in the tumultous Africa of the 70's and 80's. My kids and I just watched the movie adaptation of Into the Wild and found it satisfying. Sean Penn did a good job of bringing the story to the big screen and Emile Hirsch really stepped into Christopher McCandless' shoes. Chris tore through Letter to a Christian Nation (Sam Harris) and is now working through The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins). We both have a lot of experience with religious hypocrisy so this subject strikes a chord with him. I did peruse most of Skinny Bitch (Freedman & Barnouin), the latest offering in the diet realm. If you're ready to go hardcore vegan and don't mind some pretty graphic realities regarding factory farming, this book might just be for you. It's not for me. Fred just read Body of Lies by David Ignatius and reports 'a pretty good book. Lots of suspense.' He also had this to say about the upcoming (April) book The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine- 'a modern Arabian Nights. Much beautiful wording. Probably a seller.'
Charlie is on the First Flight Middle School Battle of the Books team which won the County contest earlier this month. They move on to regionals in April. America's Battle of the Books is a terrific reading incentive program and the competition is a bit like Book Jeopardy meets Family Feud - there's a list of books the teams need to have read from which questions are taken in a 12 question/12 round competition. Teams have 20 seconds to provide the correct title/author and are awarded points for correct answers. For more information, use the link below. It's a great program!
What I really want to read next- Kevin Brockmeier's new short story collection, The View From The Seventh Layer. I found his debut novel, A Brief History of the Dead, inventive and fascinating. Also- Jumbo: This Being The True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World by Paul Chambers. The title of this slim non-fiction tome pretty much says it all. I'd also like to get some time for Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger - Lucy really liked that one. The new paperback God's Spy by Juan Gomez Jurado looks pretty interesting, too.
Jodi Picoult has a new novel out- Change of Heart. Haven't heard any reader reviews yet but am sure it will please her fans. Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party, Tracy Chevalier's Burning Bright and Daniel Mason's A Far Country are all out in paperback.
New on the cottage shelves is the essay collection Mullet Roar: Stories of an Outer Banker by William K. Brown. Brown has lived on the beach since the 1950's- his father was famed Outer Banks publicity photographer, Aycock Brown. Mullet Roar is a wonderful collection of stories about growing up on the Outer Banks and is beautifully illustrated with Billy Brown's own paintings and photographs. We'll get this up on the website soon- signed copies available! .
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| Going Over the Bridge
In which we travel to NYC |
I love Santa Claus. That jolly old elf brought the kids a trip to New York City for Christmas and, naturally, we got to go along! We just returned from a wonderful 4 night stay in the Big Apple and while the list of things we did, saw, ate and drank is way too long to share here, I do have a few recommendations. A: the Affinia 50 hotel on 50th Street near Lexington. Excellent location, stellar accommodations, top notch staff- we particularly liked the pillow menu! (try the buckwheat model) B: next time you're in the City, take a stroll out onto the Brooklyn Bridge for a truly unique experience and great skyline views. C: for your sweet tooth at least one trip to Dylan's Candy Bar is a must (Sarah's fave) D: frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity (thanks to Carol F. for this tip!) E: lunch at 'Wichcraft, Tom Colicchio's gourmet sandwich chain. Try the garbanzo bean w/roasted red peppers and kalamatas. F: Nizza's on 9th Ave. in the Theater District. Great antipasti. Looking for some more perspectives on our New York foray? Check out my recent entries on www.queenbeaches.blogspot.com.
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| Flotsam & Jetsam
Footnotes from life at a coffee shop |
Well, the rumours are true... a 'now hiring' sign for the first chain coffeeshop on the Outer Banks was spied last week at the Marketplace in Southern Shores... right next to Rita's Italian Ices which is across the street from Wal Mart right down the road from Home Depot. Look, I remember the days when Roses and Ace were the only games in town and while I do appreciate the options we Outer Bankers now have, I'm sure I don't have to remind you once again of the importance of shopping locally... okay, lecture over... with Easter coming so early everyone's spring sprucing is underway and lots of business doors are already open... college spring breakers are already out and about.... North Carolina daffodils have amost come and gone. ... China, the cutest dog in town stops by every day with her mistress, Lisa Mann... China is a toy Australian Shepherd with blue eyes, floppy ears and if she ever has puppies- I want one!... the permanent Stage and Picnic Shelter at the Duck Park are finished and are beautiful- lovely additions to this awesome community complex...stop in Angelo's Pizza and say hi to Chris Thibodeau who's cooking up some new and inventive offerings (they're still serving the best pizza in Duck)... would somebody please buy and reopen The Point restaurant across the bridge? we can't imagine a summer without dinners on the screened porch...we'll be unveiling a cool new T-shirt design this year along with new mugs and hat colors... as soon as they are available we'll have them up on the web site for online ordering... One last New York story .. Charlie and I are big fans of Bravo's Top Chef and were thrilled when Harold Dieterle won the first season. Harold has since opened a restaurant in Greenwich Village and dining there was at the top of our to-do list. It's called Perilla and is a great little spot (only 18 tables) with old village feel (pressed tin ceiling) combined with new world details (cool modern lighting). Everything we had was delicious and well conceived- we tried the crispy pork belly and seared diver scallop apps; Charlie raved about the pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin (he also loved the pork belly); Chris and I both had fish (snapper and sea bass) that was perfectly cooked and garnished with flavor enhancing accompaniments. We all loved the Faro risotto but Sarah's favorite hands down was the Vanilla scented doughnuts with lemon curd and chocolate ganache. She ate every last crumb! If the Big Apple is in your future, be sure to check out this Top Chef...
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| Blast from the Past
All newsletters, all the time |
 Duck's Cottage newsletters are now archived and available for access! Every issue of Notes from the Pond going to back to our inaugural issue from March 2006 can now be found using the link on the home page of our website. Miss a month? New subscriber who wants to catch up? Can't remember the name of the book I liked last Winter? Or the cookbook from this past summer? What was the name of that restaurant in Charleston and where is the website with the reading group guides? It's all waiting for you in our newsletter archive- bringing the world of Duck's Cottage to your fingertips.
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Have a lovely Easter!
Here's a bit of holiday trivia- to determine the date of Easter in any given year, locate the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon after the Vernal Equinox (March 21). Thus explaining why Easter moves around so much, can never be earlier than March 22 or later than April 25. Just in case you didn't already know that, you learned something new today!
Thanks to Ed Veasley for the Hawk N' Frog picture! Do you have a good photo taken on the banks of our little pond? Please share! Email it to jamie@duckscottage.com (be sure to let us know if we have your permission to use it in the newsletter). Thanks to Sarah Shotton for the great New York pix! The family photographer!
Have an awesome in-like-a-lion, out-like-a-lamb kind of month!
Jamie Layton
Duck's Cottage
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