Greasy Spoon Cafe

You know those pain-in-the-ass guys who are forever posting pictures of food and beer? Me too. I borrowed Lorna's camera to take a shot of our breakfast this morning at the Pastry Shoppe. This is a Brett Special, which varies depending on what he has on hand and what he wants to cook, so it could vary from table to table. I am normally not a toast guy, but Brett  baked the bread this morning for the toast and the raspberry jam is homemade. I picked apart the omelet a little: bacon, sausage and ham - onion, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, with magic spices. Oofda, you betcha that's good, ya know.  Oh yeah, we split a fresh baked cinnamon roll for desert. Life is very good. ("Oofda" was rejected by spellcheck, but it gave no other options. How else would you spell it?)

Art

Thanks to Bob Hovey for this.

Marie Marie

For my longtime friend, Maria Guadalupe de Reseda, who lost her mother three days ago.

I've posted this one before, maybe twice. No matter, if God played slide he would sound like Chris Miller. Maybe he is throwing in a little extra mourning because the song is for his lost friend.

Fiorenzo Magni

A great champion and very tough man died today.

Collarbone broken in two places, Magni places second in the 1956 Giro,
 pulling with a wood plug clamped between his teeth. A hard man.

Urban Pedal

On the Blood and Ivory Kvale - White Industries pedals, MKS "deep" toe clips, Velo Orange leather covers.

To Tony,
See photo below of Lyotard Marcel Berthet M23 pedals. So, my choice was, spend mega bucks for the original, or merely big bucks for a knockoff which was probably better. I opted for the merely big.

The Spud Boy Diner

Two of the neighbors at our cottage in Lanesboro are Gordon Tindall and his wife Valerie. It is hard not to admire a man who's only car is a 1951 Hudson Hornet.

Gordie is a cook and a...a...a restorer. He works on old houses, old cars, old things that need saving. He fell in love with vintage diners and has restored and operated three of them.  The first one, in Decorah, Iowa, he sold to a man who shipped it to France. The second one, the Red Rose Diner, is in Towanda, New Jersey. He ran that one during the day and at night he completely rebuilt another one that had been found in Ohio, stored in New York City and eventually shipped to Towanda. This one is special because of it's age - at least 1927, and the fact that it is the only one left with wheels. It was tentatively going to be the Yellow Rose Diner. When he completed the rebuild he dubbed it the Spud Boy Diner and he shipped it to Lanesboro, Minnesota.

Vintage bicycles? There are a number of blogs devoted to vintage diners, Here's one with a long pictorial history of what has become the Spud Boy diner in Lanesboro. Gordon had a friend in Towada who recorded a lot of Gordie's life, including the diners in YouTube videos. We should all have friends as caring as Gordie's. A YouTube search of Spud Boy or Gordon Tindall yields a lot of videos. Here is a couple of the videos. 

My brother and I will be having noon lunch at the Spud Boy tomorrow. :-)

1968? Galmozzi

A Blood and Ivory Update

Chris Kvale.
I was going to wait to post pictures of this bicycle until it was done done finished. I am coming to the realization that this one is a process, not an end product. It ain't never going be done. I still have pipe dreams of Ghisallo rims and a Guu-Watanabe bag.

This is a SunTour Power Hanger. It replaces the straddle wire set-up giving you a better mechanical advantage - as if I need more braking power with Paul cantis and Koolstop pads. I mean, I'm a Clydesdale, but this set-up is ridiculous. This one is a vintage Suntour, but I'm sure someone out there must be making a modern knockoff. The nuts and bolts on the cantis are for the front rack, which exists only in my imagination because I have never gotten around to leaving the bike with Vincent Dominguez to make the racks.

I don't know what to say about this, other than there is a lot of nice work by master craftsmen.

The minimalist rear rack will bolt onto the centerpulls.  If and when....

Down the Growlery Path

Visitors (and myself) have been walking through dirt to get to the Growlery. I had some old 6 x 8s that had laid in the weeds out back for a couple of years. Early in the season I fashioned some primitive steps to keep from slip-sliding on the grass. I like to recycle things - I had further plans, but not much material with which to execute them. Then a couple of months ago I hit the mother lode; Lorna's sister, Linda and Larry committed to building a house next door and there were old bricks that suddenly needed a new home. The bricks had been a patio which over the years had become covered in moss and soil, so it was hard to tell how many there were. Lorna and I went into action, digging them out and wheelbarrowing them over and stacking them on the side of the Growlery. They were from the same tower as my existing path bricks, but they were various sized wedges and arcs. This made it a little challenging, but I think it gives the path more character. After I get some plants to soften the edges and moss growing in the cracks I think it will be pretty fine.

On a run to the City Dump I noticed a particularly harsh colored flamingo sticking out of a bin, calling my name. Flamingos are nice - they are classic kitsch and they help my garden from becoming too rarefied.

 Next year I'm  going to put a little pocket garden in it's location, lay the pile of cement bricks, and build a couple of facing Gabus benches with wide, flat arms to set bottles on outside the Growlery door.

Autumn Walk

Before I start this, I'd like to share a review of the Lanesboro Bakery Shoppe. They gave it a low grade because they didn't get it. Brett Stecher isn't a smiling face at the door. He is an artist who happens to work in food. Give him a vague outline and let him feed you. It's just amazing.

"While the fantastic pastries from our bed & breakfast came from here...when we went to eat there was a grease board with a couple of items on it. There were no menus and they were out of everything on the grease board so they just said, "just tell us what you'd like and we'll figure it out".

Some of the the internet reviewers are assholes who have been so fastfooded they don't recognize real food. Treat Brett with respect and he will fix you food that will make you weak ...and then go to his car and get free beer for you to take home and sample.                                     

It's fall. It's beautiful. A little hazier than yesterday. Lorna and I took a walk from Church Hill, down to the village and back. Enjoy.

View to the SE of the cottage

Marv and Carol's B & B next door

West down the hill

Bud wrapping the leash around Lorna's ankles

In front of Wilfords

The north bluff

Still west, getting steep

The west bluff

View south from Church Hill

Now it's seriously downhill

Pauline's backyard

The wild garden behind the blue hotel that will never open.

Starting back up the hill

1951 Hudson. Looks a little rough, but only has 22,000 miles on it. It's Spud's daily rider. :-) 

Short cut through the neigbor's backyard back to the cottage.

Church Hill deck.