Owls of disbelief

My life has somehow started to revolve around owl pellets. The Girl took hers in to 'share' at school the other day, and everyone was wild for them so her teacher asked if I could get hold of some more to use in a science class. I thought Five Rivers would have scads of the things, but they could only sell me five. BUT they gave me the name of their supplier.

So, I looked up Pellets, Inc. Wow - a whole business devoted to supplying owl pellets! I though it was all a bit of a joke at first, then I found myself reading the 'About Us' section of their website and was completely moved by the passion and sincerity of this enterprise. I'm a sucker for anyone who has found their passion in life.

Though maybe I'm just a sucker. Maybe this Pellets guy really runs a barn owl battery farm, feeding the owls on the produce of his vole cloning factory. How would I know? He lives in Washington State, I can hardly just drop in and check.

Is it better in this world to have a trusting heart or a cynical soul? Discuss.

So good I'm writing about it twice

Thought you might like to see the views from the apartment we stayed in. We were on the 15th floor (though strictly speaking the 14th since there wasn't officially a 13th).

The large building at the end of the street is the Museum of Natural History. Just behind it are the trees of Central Park.


The turreted building on the far right is home to various celebs, such as Madonna. I'd have waved to her, but I think she was away adopting Malawians this weekend.

Manhattan project

We set off on Friday lunchtime, the Girl and I, with friend J and her daughter. J drove us in her hybrid car, all the way into Manhattan. We were staying in her good friend's apartment on the Upper West Side - and since he happens to be a millionaire it was a very nice apartment, not big but beautifully furnished and very handy for Central Park.

As far as the girls were concerned, the sole purpose of the trip was to visit the American Girl Place, an emporium of dolls and doll-gear. So that's where we went first and my English Girl indulged in a spending frenzy (she'd been saving up her pocket money since Christmas for this).

We also had formal tea in the cafe, a fancy affair of tiny sandwiches and cakes and an endless supply of pink lemonade. Accompanying dolls had their own chairs and miniature cups. OK, I know it might not appeal to everyone, but for certain girls at just the right age it was all very special.

Over the course of our day and a half in NYC we took in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Little Italy, Central Park and the Museum of the City of New York. Also a diner round the corner from the apartment, where the girls raced in ahead of us, sat themselves at the counter and announced 'We're not with them, they're just gonna pay'. The Mexican waiters seemed to find them adorable, and J and I got to eat a civilised meal together, so it was an ideal arrangement for everyone.

It was just a fleeting visit to New York, New York - but enough to remind me that NYC is its own planet and that there's a reason Albany is known to Manhattanites as 'Smallbany'.

Man and Boy

The Man writes...a glorious sunny day in Albany, with temperatures reaching 67F. Only four days ago the daytime high was barely above freezing. I suppose that's Spring for you.

This afternoon, the Boy and I did a little light yard work in the sunshine, before exploring a new model shop, and then moving on to see the newly released Monsters vs. Aliens, which we both enjoyed. We got home just in time to welcome the girls back from...well, I'll let Albaniana tell that story herself after she's caught up on some sleep.

Gunk and Junk

The Man writes...one final image from last Sunday's trip to the Shawangunk Mountains (or "the Gunks"). This is Lake Minnewaska. At one time there were two large hotels around this mountain lake. Being two thousand feet above sea level, the area boasts spectacular views, but the water was still half-frozen.

With the girls off on their road trip, the Boy went out to dinner straight after school with his best buddy. I understand this consisted of three packets of crisps, a fizzy drink and ice-cream with raspberry flavour sprinkles. What would Albaniana say?

For lunch a couple of days ago, some colleagues and I went to a Chinese restaurant. As usual the meal ended with "fortune cookies", complete with slogans that were uniformly poetic, but quite weird and largely unintelligible. By contrast, on my previous visit my fortune had read: "You will soon be $6.95 poorer ($8.95 if you had the buffet)". Rather prosaic maybe, but eerily accurate as it turned out.

Golden syrup

I had another teaching assignment at Five Rivers this morning, unsupervised for the first time. It went pretty well, especially the bit at the end when the kids all got to sample the maple syrup. They always clamour for more, but we can only afford to give them a tiny amount to taste: genuine maple syrup is liquid gold in more than just colour. Even local people are shocked at the prices this year. With global warming reducing the harvest time it will become an ever more rare and expensive treat.

This evening the children were watching a bizarre DVD called The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It's a live-action movie from the 1980s about a kitten and a pug dog. I'm pretty sure real animals were hurt (or at least traumatized) in the making of it - dogs and cats getting nipped by crabs and lobsters, dropped down pits, half-drowned in the sea etc. It was originally made for TV in Japan. It was all very odd, but the kids liked it.

Tomorrow the Girl and I are off on a little adventure, so you'll get to visit the Man's world for a day or two...

It's a knock-out

Another day, another dental appointment. Today I had some quite heavy-duty work done which required a cocktail of drugs, including a tranquilizer. Not my favourite pill, that one. I did indeed feel fairly tranquil, but I didn't like the way it made all my thoughts sort of slide together and fall over. When I got home (a friend drove me) I dropped into bed and slept heavily for two hours.

I then wondered if the effects of the drugs had completely worn off while chatting with the Boy this evening:

Boy: Mum?

Me: Yes?

Boy: Know what feels funny?

Me: Tell me...

Boy: Pouring rocks on your head. Some always end up in your underwear.

No, I didn't enquire further. Sometimes it's best not to ask.

Hot and Bovvered

Another leg-punishing day for me. The Man dropped me at Five Rivers first thing, in plenty of time for me to teach my first 'Marvellous Maples' lesson. It went ok, in spite of the freezing cold which made it even harder than normal for a group of 1st and 2nd Graders to stand still for longer than thirty seconds at a time.

From there I marched over to the YMCA. It took the usual thirty minutes, which meant I arrived just in time for the rink to open. After an intensive hour on the ice (you can work up quite a sweat skating) I walked home. I then spent the afternoon working on the quilt (see link above).

I made a trip to Price Chopper this evening for a much-needed re-stock. Imagine my horror when I went looking for Marmite and, in its place in the British section, found only...BOVRIL! Similar-shaped jars, I grant you, but NOT THE SAME AT ALL.

Whatever next?

Spreading my wings

Yesterday's Visitor Center really was a very lovely building. Designed to fit in with the wooded landscape, it incorporated tree-trunks and other natural building materials, and had a wall of windows from which to view the forest and nature trails. The exhibits inside didn't differ hugely from things we've seen before, though we enjoyed this one, which I offer to you now as a caption comp:

Trails and tribulations

The Man came up with another plan to take us somewhere new. This time we travelled south, to the Mohonk Preserve within sight of the Catskill Mountains. It's an area the Man remembers from his previous life here in the US.

After a brief stop at a very attractive Visitor Center, we moved on to the trailhead of what the Man told us would be an easy two-mile hike. It led us beneath a cliff-face which many climbers were scaling. The kids enjoyed scrambling about on the lower rocks, discovering caves and tunnels. The path then continued on and round and on and on some more. About halfway round the Man realised we were actually on a five-mile hike.

We all made it, and by the end everyone was in a good mood and singing 'Yellow Submarine', which had not necessarily been the case for the greater part of the journey. 'Still,' we told the kids, 'At least you have the satisfaction of knowing you can walk five miles.'





'Anyone can walk any distance,' the Girl retorted, 'It's managing not to whinge and ask are-we-nearly-there a million times that's challenging.' How very true.

Ped Xing

It has been another sunshiney day, making it all the more tragic that we ended up in Toys 'R' Us. I hate that shop. Not just the back-to-front 'R', but the stuff. Acres of space devoted to pedalling must-have-today, forgotten-by-tomorrow amusements to over-indulged children (and yes, I admit, I am the parent of two such little poppets). How did we let life come to this?

On the bright side, we managed to get out without actually spending any money. The Boy was tempted by a plastic Club Penguin igloo, but couldn't quite bring himself to part with thirty hard-saved bucks to buy it (he's definitely our kid). The Girl, meanwhile, is saving up her dollars for an upcoming event - more on that in a future episode.

We did manage some outdoor activity, too, during the day. The Man and kids spent time at the playpark this morning, and after lunch we all took a long walk around the neighbourhood.

Even on our shopping trip we eccentrically made use of the sidewalks and pedestrian crossings rather than getting in the car to cross a main road - we like to entertain the locals from time to time by engaging in this sort of odd behaviour.

Seasonally adjusted

The children were off school today, or at least only had to go in briefly for Student-led Conferences - i.e. they each spent half an hour showing the Man and me their recent work. It was interesting to see what they've been up to, though both were shy about showing us their written work, so we're not much the wiser about their inner psyches (or whatever it is their writing reveals).

With characteristic precision, public radio informed us that Spring began at 7.48AM EST today. Although it has been rather cold, blue skies have given a spring-like feel to the day and the kids have been out and about on scooters again mingling with the neighbours. Hibernation is definitely over. Hooray!

Identity parade

A little photo challenge for you - what's going on here...


and here...?

Party at your own risk

Today I walked to the Y, skated hard for an hour, set off for home and came across a nature trail I must have passed a thousand times but had never noticed before. So I explored that half mile forest detour (it'll be worth revisiting when the trees have leaves again) before continuing back to the house. No wonder I fell asleep in a chair before tea.

The Boy received a birthday invitation recently from a classmate. Attached to the invitation is a liability waiver form issued by the gym where the party is being held, which I am required to sign:

I am fully aware of and appreciate the risks, including the risk of injury, paralysis and even death, as well as other damages and losses associated with participation in this gymnastics-inflatable birthday party...

Wow - how could anyone not be in a party mood after reading that?

This land is your land... is this land Ireland?

Top o' the mornin' to yer, at all at all at... oh all right then, that's enough generic Oirish blarney. But you wouldn't believe how big St Patrick's Day is over here, much bigger than it's ever been in Ireland I'm willing to bet. Every other person I've seen today has been wearing emerald green. They can't all be Irish, surely?

I doubt the majority of Americans know when St George's Day is, in spite of the many English expats and people of English descent. Maybe this April 23rd I'll go to town and decorate our porch with the flag of St George, a suit of armour and a cute dragon. And I'll stick an inflatable Shakespeare on the lawn for good measure.

Or maybe you can think of something more original. How would you choose to represent olde (or newe) England through the medium of yard ornaments?

So far sew good

I taught my second sewing class at school today. The room was hot, the children tired and hungry, yet they still had a good stab at stitching pincushions - here are some examples.

I spent most of the rest of the day at home, sewing there too. I hope to finish my quilt project by the end of March.

I note that our friend the Exile took his Christmas lights down yesterday - to make room for some last minute sparkly green shamrocks, perhaps? St Patrick's Day decorations are all the thing this month (have been since just after Valentine's Day, actually). Our front porch looks very dull and lacking in Celtic jollity, with not so much as a leprechaun or pot of gold to be seen.

All washed up

Does anyone else have to physically drag their kids out of bed in time for school all through the week, only to find that on weekends they naturally get themselves up before 7am? The Boy had me out of bed and playing Albany Monopoly at dawn this morning, sneakily introducing new and personally (to himself) advantageous rules into the game before I'd drunk enough coffee to be capable of stopping him.

It has been another springish day. The Girl felt inspired to wash the car (she got the Man and the Boy to help): it's now spotless, having been Windexed within an inch of its life. We did some more yard work and the Man tidied the garage. The scooters came out again.

Work on the New England Aquarium model has been suspended and the Boy is now working on a cardboard re-creation of the Boston Subway system.

Springtime believer

A friend of mine is moving house soon so I spent the morning helping her pack. When I got home at midday the Man was about to set off on the mile and a half walk to town with the kids - anything to get them out of the house and stop them bouncing on the new sofa.

It was a lovely sunny day and not too cold, so when we got back from town (I'd followed in the car to save everyone's legs on the way back) we set about some yard work, and managed to scrape together quite a good pile of twigs and branches for the municipal garden waste people to collect later in the week. The kids (ours plus some extra ones from next door) had fun zipping up and down the driveway on scooters.

All but the most obstinate heaps of snow have gone. The landscape is very bare, but taking a closer look the trees all have buds now. They may not pop for another month or more, but I'm finally tending to believe spring really will happen again - even here.

Ten past

All week I've been practising those pesky backwards crossovers at the rink, and today the instructor seemed genuinely amazed at how much progress I'd made since the last lesson. I felt quite proud of myself.

On the way out of the YMCA I ran into Exile #2 and E5N1, which was a bit of luck as I was without a car again and pretty exhausted after a long skating session. I not only scrounged a lift, but lunch too (thank you!). Then, energy restored, I hiked home to do some quilting.

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary. The Man's too, of course. 'You've been married for a whole decade!' announced the Girl - funny how that somehow sounds longer. But ten years or a decade, the time has flown by since that happy day in a daffodil-bedecked barn.

A houseful of super models

Around about this time last year we took my parents to the Maple Sugar Open House day at Five Rivers. Well, whaddaya know? - this year I'm learning to be a maple sugaring instructor. I did the first training today, mostly outdoors and never mind the bitter cold. The main customers are going to be young: pre-schoolers up to 2nd Graders, so the lesson is pitched accordingly with lots of hands-on activity and pretending to be trees and such.

When my 'twigs' (fingers) and 'roots' (toes) had defrosted enough I ventured out again for more skating practice, followed by a haircut. For once I got the supposedly 'chatty' member of the CheapoCuts team, so I was disappointed to find him rather silent. Then halfway through the trim he explained that for the last ten minutes he'd thought he was about to sneeze so he hadn't been able to talk.

The kids have been working on a scale model of the Boston Aquarium made out of old cereal boxes. The Boy started it a few nights ago with seal and penguin enclosures. Last night the Girl helped him add a turtle tank and this evening I think they've been developing a jellyfish feature. Even the Girl, often grudging in praise of her little brother, admits that the Boy has quite a way with box models. Our house is full of them.

Sofa so huge

We welcomed a new addition into our household today - a sofa!

Funny, in the shop it looked quite modest, even small. I guess that was just in comparison to all the giant American furniture around it. Next to our British stuff it looks ENORMOUS. And the Boy literally has to climb to get onto it.

Still, at least our tall friends might be keener to visit us now that they will no longer be forced to sit on tiny chairs with their knees up to their chins.

Careful on the road, Tufty

I walked to the YMCA and back (with some skating in between) at lunchtime. The main road to the Y is a miles long one leading all the way from Albany and, unusually, it has sidewalk running along the whole length of it - until the last 400 yards before the fitness centre itself, when suddenly the sidewalk disappears and you are at the mercy of every passing truck. Presumably this is to encourage us to get in our cars and drive there every time: after all, why would anyone want to wear themselves out walking before they got on a treadmill?

But me, I took my chances and hiked anyway, and got a few funny looks from passing motorists for my trouble.

When I got home I noticed a crocus shoot in the newly snow-free flowerbed in our front yard. The Girl and I had planted a load of bulbs back in the fall. Wow! A bona fide sign of spring! I took the camera out a bit later to snap this exciting evidence for the blog - but by then a squirrel and dug it up and eaten it.

Stitchin' time

It snowed again today, though it was that unsatisfactory wet-mix-turning-to-rain sort, so there's nothing to show for it now.

I started my sewing class (postponed from last week) at school. Five eager students (two of them not entirely unrelated to me) wielding needles, thread and felt. We just practised the very basics - threading, tying knots, running stitch and whip stitch. Next week we'll get started on some actual projects. Everyone's madly excited. As a lifelong sewing enthusiast myself, this makes me happy.

Last night I took the Girl along to a local skating club's annual show. It was very enjoyable. Had I gone a year ago I'd have dismissed most of the skaters as being pretty hopeless - a lot were very wobbly. But knowing now just how blinking difficult skating is, I sincerely had as much admiration for the wobblers as for the ones who made it look effortless.

Spot a kill

Fine weather again today, and the Man took a fancy to visit somewhere new. We headed to the Plotter Kill Preserve, just beyond Schenectady.

The children of course expressed their traditional disdain for an outdoor adventure, but once we got there seemed to enjoy themselves very much, snow-filled sneakers notwithstanding. The Man had promised us waterfalls, but though we could hear rushing water, and glimpse it through the trees, we couldn't get to it dry-footed on account of dozens of treacherous snow-covered streams all along the route.

So we'll just have to visit Plotter Kill again later in the year. By the way, there are a lot of 'kills' in New York State. The word comes from the Old or Middle Dutch for 'creek'. 'Plotter Kill' does have quite a villainous ring to it though, and we were not entirely surprised to come across this grisly scene in the woods: deer versus coyote, I suspect.

Summer rules!

It has been quite warm today, and for the first time since December we can see sizeable patches of grass in the yard, even here on the shady side of the street. The Girl celebrated by rushing outside in a sleeveless t-shirt. She made herself a sticker to wear, too - I've borrowed the words on it for my title.

This afternoon the kids played on the swing-set for the first time in months. In the foreground is part of the tree which fell down during the ice storm, then was buried under snow before we could finish chopping it up.

The warmer weather comes right on cue as we 'spring forward' tonight with Daylight Saving Time. We lose a precious hour, which won't be so much of a problem tomorrow but we're dreading getting up for the school bus on Monday. It's going to seem painfully early.

Will the warm temperatures stick around? That remains to be seen. It won't surprise me if we see more snow before the month is out.

Pedestrian crossover

Today in skating I was trying to learn backwards crossovers and two foot (ie feet together) half turns while moving. Two more shakily executed manouevres to add to my repertoire.

I was carless again, which meant I had to walk to the YMCA where I have my lesson. As with everywhere I choose to visit on foot, the journey took about thirty minutes. On the twelve or so days of the year when there's no immediate danger of freezing, drowning or collapsing from sun stroke it's actually quite pleasant to hoof it round here. But as a friend said, 'Walking to the Y? You'll never be an American, will you?'

The same friend met me at the rink, gave me a lift home and stayed for lunch, so that was good. Then I cracked on with layering the auction quilt, ready to start quilting it this weekend.

RAAD-ical ideas

I believe it was World Book Day in Britain today? Meanwhile, over here we were celebrating Read Across America Day.

The school librarian had once again laid on a mini-bookfest: puppets, writers, historians, storytellers. Once again I got to sit in on several events. I was particularly impressed by James Bruchac who led a writing workshop with the middle schoolers (12 to 14 year-olds). Bruchac's background is in native American storytelling. We explored the role of monsters in traditional cautionary tales, and were set the task of coming up with our own monsters to deal with classic (and some modern) behaviour issues. It was a lot of fun.

After lunch there was a whole school assembly with songs, more stories and the annual book character costume parade. Classic and modern featured again - Alice in Wonderland and Pippi Longstocking were represented; Harry Potter (of course); and somehow an amoeba friend of Spongebob Squarepants managed to slip in there too. The Boy went as Fudge, from the book series by Judy Blume. The Girl, for reasons best known to herself, went as... Hmm, can you guess? Clue: character most likely to say to her fellow gang members 'Oh, not another beastly adventure! I'd much rather do the washing up!'

Miss Marmite (tee-hee)

Today has mostly been devoted to sewing, plus lunch with Exile #2, which was a happy interlude. Being carless for the day, I walked round - about 30 minutes at a brisk pace (and the briskness was inevitable because conditions are still below freezing and breezy with it).

This evening we briefly had the company of toddler E5N1 while his sisters had their skating lesson. He is always good value. At one point he was sitting eating fruit next to the Boy's Pete-the-Repeat parrot. When the parrot unexpectedly spoke to him his mouth dropped so far
open that a grape fell out.

The Girl had her Girl Scout 'international' meeting tonight. She took marmite sandwiches for everyone to try. Apparently this resulted in multiple trips by her fellow scouts to the trash and the water fountain. The Girl was unabashed and gleefully wolfed down the leftover sandwiches (I suspect this was her masterplan all along).

On the right track

Having done the training and observed lessons, today it was my turn to lead a class at Five Rivers. 'Outdoor Discovery' and Snowshoeing were the themes, and we had the perfect day for both, what with yesterday's fresh snowfall and clear, crisp conditions all morning.

I had a (mercifully) small group of 6th Graders from Schenectady. Since it was my first go, I also had back-up from one of the most experienced instructors at the centre, so that was especially handy when relevant nature facts completely escaped me. We started with a warm-up (in every sense) session indoors, before strapping on the snowshoes and getting out in the cold.

There were plenty of tracks to spot and identify - deer, rabbit, mouse, cross-country skier. There were a few birds around, including a hawk. But the children got the biggest thrill of all from sighting white-tailed deer out and about. They were all city kids, not used to seeing wild animals at close range in their natural habitat. It was great to watch their reactions as they spotted several groups of deer in the course of our hike.

I enjoyed the whole experience, but definitely the biggest reward for me came as we headed back to the nature centre and one boy (who had quickly turned into the keenest tracker of the party) told me he wanted to come back to Five Rivers soon with his mom. The magic of the place had worked on him. And that's really what it was all about.

Chutney challenge

A little snow fell in the early hours, more during the day, but we were on the far edges of the big storm that hit further east of here and have got off lightly with just a very few inches of settled snow. Even so, everything's white once again, and the temperature is well below freezing.

I had been scheduled to begin an after-school sewing class today, but it was cancelled on account of the weather. I managed to creep the car along to the ice-rink for a practice, and to the supermarket for some supplies, but otherwise spent the day working on my latest quilt project.

I had a yen for some mango chutney in Price Chopper, but didn't have much luck finding any. All I could find was one small jar that claimed it was British, made under the brand name 'London Pub'. Call me picky, but London pub-quality chutney isn't really what I'm after. I guess my next stop (weather permitting) had better be the Indian food store on Central Ave in town.

The Man has just pointed out that I might have done slightly better in the supermarket's designated British section. Follow this link and see if you can spot it...

A long March begins

March is the longest month here in the northeast. Not literally, I mean it doesn't have more days than December, say. It just seems interminable because winter has been around so long already but it's still nowhere near over. I have a friend who hates March so much that she leaves town and goes south for the whole month. Now, right on cue, we are expecting snow again overnight and tomorrow.

The kids and their over-nighting friends played all morning, somehow managing to negotiate occasional short-fused moments caused by not enough sleep. Late in the afternoon our family headed down to the local park. An area is flooded and frozen as an open-air ice-rink for the winter. It's in pretty bumpy condition at this point in the season, but that didn't stop the Girl from putting on a nice show for us.

Her doll, Molly, also donned skates and bravely ventured out onto the ice.