Ketchum Hemingway House Benefit

I spent last weekend in Ketchum, Idaho attending the third annual Hemingway Festival there and being the featured speaker at the Nature Conservancy's one thousand dollar a plate benefit dinner. The proceeds will be used for the upkeep of the Hemingway house which was bequeathed to the non-profit conservation group by Ernest's widow, Mary Hemingway in 1986.

Drinks and hors d'oeuvres were served on the newly paved patio after which the twenty-four guests partook of a very elegant dinner in the large diningroom overlooking the Big Wood River, with a view of high mountains and sagebrush hills. I think both Ernest and Mary would have been proud of the feast, an elk tenderloin, preceeded by slivers of smoked wild duck and partridge filled pastries. Soup, salad and pear tart completed the meal which was accompanied by a variety of wines. The house was open to the guests for inspection and for photographs.

As I drove back to Bozeman, I noticed the changing of the colors in the trees, yellow, red, orange and rust. The fleeting autumn season, gone before it hardly begins, was apparent as the first snows descended on the distant mountains. All I encountered on the highway was a heavy rain but I have lived in these parts long enough to know it could turn to snow at any moment