House

The Man writes...you may remember when we returned from our trip to England we found that the wood across the road had been cleared. Look what has happened in exactly one month.



In fact once the concrete basement had been put in, the wooden walls seemed to go up in only a day or two. Much like Albaniana's own efforts in fact.

Guest who's confused?

I noticed the other day in Price Chopper that the Customer Services section calls itself "Guest Services". Do you think of yourself as a "guest" at your local supermarket? To me it suggests "overnight guest", though I'm sure they wouldn't want me to make up a bed on the shelves. Or "be our guest" as in "what's ours is yours so help yourself" - and I don't suppose they want me doing that either.

I was chatting to a woman last week at the Farmers' Market who gave the advice that the best way to shop in a supermarket is to stick to the edges. In other words, shop for the fresh goods and avoid all the highly processed stuff in the middle. A reasonable suggestion as far as it goes, though rice and olive oil are in the middle, and have you looked at the list of ingredients on a pot of flavoured yoghurt (an outer edge product) recently?

The Man's main complaint about supermarkets here is the illusion of choice. Shelves groaning with dozens of brands of...identical products. The same things with different names. Like calling customers "guests", it doesn't add any pleasure to the experience of shopping. It's just confusing.

Spaced out

No school today - Yom Kippur. The Girl met up with a friend and had fun making silly videos. The Boy managed to finish a project he's been working on for several days, a cardboard-box model of NASA HQ. It then had to be moved down to the basement to make room for his next effort, a 'boat shack' and harbour.

In case you missed it, here's a video clip of a young friend of ours that we've been enjoying very much today.

Lack of Sun-day

It being the day after the day before we didn't intend to do very much. Plus the weather has taken a turn for the gloomier and wetter. But by late afternoon some members of the family had energy to burn, so rather than let them take it out on the couch we drove up to Thacher Park for a drizzly hike.

We found the Indian Ladder escarpment in deep fog, and the locked gates of the car parks near it indicated that we were not encouraged to use the trail. Instead we had a bit of a damp trudge through the forest elsewhere in the park. It was just enough, though, to stomp the sillies out of the kids and allow for an uncontentious evening.

We're now enjoying pouring rain, thunder and lightning - the works. I've pulled on a thick sweater for the first time in months.

Swarms of kids

So the great day of the Five Rivers Fall Festival dawned. I was down there at 8:30am to set up. There was a chill in the air but (to everyone's relief) clear blue skies and sunshine too.

I love that feeling just before an event opens, the sense of anticipation. There had been some anxiety about turnout for this festival as we knew there were several similarly attractive events going on nearby today. We needn't have worried. Turnout was even bigger than last year - the highest ever.

I believe there were all sorts of exciting activities on offer at our festival (there generally are), but the only ones I got to see were in the craft area. We had a constant stream of small customers for the entire four hours, and only just managed not to run out of materials completely before we closed at four o'clock. We supervised the making of nearly 400 items: painted rocks, decorated birdfeeders (made from plastic milk containers), foil fish and bug costumes. I mainly helped people assemble the latter, and by the end of the day had sent a hundred child-sized bugs flittering merrily off around the festival grounds. I was very happy to overhear more than one parent planning to copy the design with a pre-school class or at a birthday party. You just can't go wrong with cost-nothing crafts made from cereal boxes and newspaper.

And that's that for another annual triumph. I'm ready for an early night.

The time of her life

I think it's safe to say the Girl loved every minute of her school trip. And what wasn't to like? Canoeing, archery, climbing-walls, campfires, silly songs, a creek to paddle in, cabins and bunkbeds, bacon for breakfast - and three whole days to hang out with her friends. She didn't want the experience to end, and when I came to collect her from school she sent me away so she could have just ten wonderful minutes more.

I asked if she wanted to tell me all about it or if we should wait until her Dad was there to hear it too. She thought she'd wait - but she couldn't. Eyes shining, she talked without drawing breath for at least an hour and half, and I think I probably now know everything there is to know about camp - possibly more even than anyone who was actually there.

Needless to say, we're thrilled she had such an amazing time.

Business breakfast

I get up to all sorts these days. First thing this morning I attended a breakfast gathering hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce. There was a presentation on social networking, which I'm reluctantly trying to get my head round as a means to promoting fair trade events. It was followed by a presentation on employment legislation, which I fully expected to snooze through, but which turned out to be strangely riveting. I'm now certain that I never want to become an employer - what a bureaucratic nightmare, worse even than applying for a driver's licence.

I've received a report from the Girl's camp - they are all, I'm reliably informed, "having way too much fun". Mustn't be too awful then.

One goes off to camp

It was a big day for the Girl today. Every year the school organises a trip away for all the kids in 4th through 8th Grade*. Three days and two nights at an outward bound camp up at Lake George, in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Today was departure day.

There has been mounting excitement at school all week. This morning when we delivered the Girl there with all her stuff the place was positively buzzing. Kids from higher grades, old hands of this annual adventure, were eager to tell the younger ones what an awesome time they were about to have.

We sent her off with a camera, so with luck we'll be able to share some photos with you after she returns on Friday.

*I've taken to the American use of "through" in this kind of phrase. It seems much more efficient than the British "up to and including".

More fun with pipe cleaners

Remember this? Albany Airport gallery can't get enough of chenille stem art. I snapped this yesterday while waiting for the President. Can you believe it's made out of pipe cleaners? It's Art, Jim, but not as we know it... See more examples here.


And look at all this lovely tupperware:

More here.

Chief among us

Now I don't usually do this sort of thing, but for you, dear readers...

Guess who flew into Albany today? If you are reading this in the UK you probably have no idea, but here's a clue - he has his own plane, and it's BIG.

President Obama came to town! Oh yes! Though not strictly to Albany. He had a speaking engagement across the river in Troy at the Hudson Valley Community College. For some reason he made his speech in a mechanics' garage, but that's by the by.

So anyway, purely for your benefit I took myself off to the airport this morning to see what I could see. First I saw a lot of retired people who had come along for the show. Several had brought their knitting for the wait, which was sensible. Later on we were joined by a woman with a toddler who had just come to plane spot and didn't even know the President was expected.

After about an hour and quarter, a plane landed. But it was an American Airlines one, so that wasn't what we wanted. Some secret service men took up position on top of a cherry-picker. A woman with a pair of binoculars told us one of them was rather cute.

Then Airforce 1 came into view, and as it descended to land there was an intake of breath all round as we saw just how very huge it was. It rumbled past, then turned round and parked. The press corps exited from the tradesmen's entrance, then the steps were wheeled to the front, and we waited some more and then...

That's him in the middle. Yes, I know it's a rubbish photo, but it's entirely representative of what I actually saw, so it stands as a true record.

As the plane was landing the woman next to me exclaimed,
"My spine is tingling! Can you believe it? It's our President!" and I felt touched by her awe and delight. Presidents don't often come to the Capital District. Though in the end it was all a bit of a blur, seeing him arrive today was way cool.

Moo-seum visit

Perfect weather today - comfortably warm and a cloudless blue sky. So we drove up to Cooperstown, about an hour and a half away, to check out the Farmers' Museum. It's one of those historical recreation places, with transplanted buildings and costumed people interpreting the exhibits.

We practically had the place to ourselves, it being the "shoulder season" between summer vacation and Fall leaf-viewing. So we had personal guided tours of several properties, and free rein on the Empire State Carousel with its extraordinary range of saddled creatures.

The kids enjoyed watching the blacksmith at work in the forge, we saw how flax is turned into linen, and how pills used to be made, and we all tried our hands at milking a lovely cow called Buttercup.

We then made a quick visit to the nearby shores of beautiful Lake Otsego, before heading home through Cooperstown. It is, allegedly, the original home of baseball.

Pressing engagement

This morning I helped out on a Friends of Five Rivers stall at the Farmers' Market. I'd volunteered to promote the Fall Festival, coming up next week. I was quite pleased with this little display which I threw together first thing, having just remembered that I had a pile of pressed leaves left over from last autumn (like you do. Though perhaps you don't?).

The Man and I ate a lunch of ingredients from the market, and very tasty it was - fresh organic salad, and potato latkes, which the stallholder explained were a "different kind of knish", further emphasizing my lack of Yiddish. They were delicious though, warmed up and served with sour cream and apple sauce.

This afternoon the Boy had a play date and the Man had outdoor jobs to see to, and the Girl and I went on a little shopping trip together. Even though we didn't manage to find everything we were looking for, we so rarely get to go out just the two of us that we had a lot of fun.

Wake up and smell the coffee

The movie I went to see last night was Black Gold - a film about coffee and trade. Pretty heavy stuff. If I've ever wondered if fair trade advocacy is worthwhile, this assured me that it is. It's humbling to realise how much the average coffee farmer has to go through, for pitiful remuneration, so that we can enjoy a swig of caffeine of a morning.

The film was followed by a question and answer session with Dean Cycon, a pioneer of fair trade coffee in this country. He knows the subject inside out, having travelled and traded widely in the coffee lands. He was open in admitting that the fair trade coffee farmer still earns a dismal living by developed nation standards - but better by far than that of the farmer who is not in the fair trade system.

He also warned against trusting big coffee companies who make claims that their coffee is "fairly traded" - often as not, it isn't. If you want to be sure that your cup of coffee was produced in the least exploitative way, look for the fair trade mark - here's the US one.

Your choice affects the lives of others - it really is worth making the effort.

Things to pond-er

Short post tonight. I've been out for hours at a fair trade film event and I'm buggled eyed, hungry and tired. It was a thought-provoking film though, and a surprisingly large turnout for it, so that was all good.

Earlier today I was down at Five Rivers learning how to teach a lesson about pond-life. Very cool. Tomorrow I may share with you some random pondy facts, but I can't remember a single one right now - I probably need to sleep on it.

Open odd hours

I've been slaving over a hot computer much of the day, with some quite good results for the fair trade campaign. But in the early afternoon I strode halfway to town to visit a bike shop and buy a new inner tube for my sadly neglected cycle.

The shop has rather idiosynchratic opening hours. I was twenty minutes early so sat on the curb outside, though I was aware of bicycle repair activity going on within. On the dot of three they let me in to make my purchase.

It's a real cycle shop, run by cyclists. So much American shopping takes place in the faceless "big box" Walmart-type stores that a speciality shop like this is, well, special. A row of bicycles in the window and every shelf stacked neatly with all the odds and ends a cyclist (and only a cyclist) might ever need. I felt the same delight as when I enter an old-fashioned hardware store (a rare thing nowadays, but there's an excellent one near my parents' house) - all those slightly mysterious items to wonder about, and that particular, faintly oily, smell. Lovely.

Mid-September

We've had beautiful weather today but it's not set to last, so once the kids were home and caught up with themselves I whisked them off to Five Rivers to make the most of it. We hoped we might spot a beaver, but it wasn't to be. We did see a beautiful heron, though, and I managed to snap some pictures of various other wildlife:

Sole searching

I had to step out of my comfort zone for a while this afternoon as I went round visiting various cafes and stores to see if they want to be part of a Fair Trade Shop Hop that my little FT Town outfit is organising. The idea is that we'll make up "passports" featuring all the local places where fair trade products are available. People will take these passports and get them stamped as they visit each location, and once they've collected a certain number of stamps they can be entered into a prize draw (or "drawing" as it's known here).

"Cold calling" is something I've always hated, no matter what the context, and it's always the hardest part for me of anything I get involved in organising. But once I'd done a couple today it did get slightly easier, especially as I got one very positive response. I'm waiting to hear back from others tomorrow.

I had to take the kids shoe-shopping this evening to buy new trainers/sneakers for the Boy. But it was not a wholly successful outing as the only pair of shoes that would fit his narrow feet was the pair he decided were unwearably ugly (i.e. no flashing lights, superball soles or other evil marketing gizmos - all of which will be banned when I rule the world). I bought the "ugly" shoes anyway - so now I've just got to get him to wear them...

Good fellers

This afternoon we joined in one of those work days up at school that we occasionally attend. There were jobs to be done indoors - such as getting staples out of the walls in preparation for a new year's worth of work to go up. Also outside - re-filling the sandbox, putting down new bark chippings under the play structure and other such tasks.

Meanwhile the school's trail blazing project continues apace, and there was much roaring of chainsaws and piling up of branches as another new path was cleared.

There was a good turnout to help, the scheduled jobs were soon done and some of the workers rewarded with doughnuts and apple cider.

Bounty hunters

You've got to love the school that recognizes that even though its kids have three months in which to do their summer vacation projects, they will be needing an extra week once school starts in order to actually finish it. Or, in fact, start it.

Anyway, today was our designated "Get it done day". With some reluctance on the part of the kids in question, two pieces of homework were completed - well ahead of Wednesday's submission date, so that's pretty good going. This meant that both children were free to go their separate ways and hang out with friends for the rest of the day, and the Man and I were free to go apple and blueberry picking at Indian Ladder Farms.

I love that place. The lines of pumpkins for sale, the rows of trees laden with apples, the happy chatter of families picking-their-own - and the Helderberg Escarpment a backdrop to it all. The blueberries were, we told, "slim" - but we found plenty enough, and when we got them home I baked blueberry muffins. This is a bountiful land, for sure.

Soaring ambition

The Man writes...the ski jump hills at Lake Placid are pretty impressive from below:



but standing alone at the top, it is simply mind boggling to think of jumping off at 60mph and flying over 100 metres.


Few of us get will ever have the chance to fly like an eagle...







But we can all have our dreams...

Seated comfortably

Back to school. The Girl was certainly ready; the Boy not quite so eager; and I, for all I've been waiting for this day to come, felt a little sad to see the school bus trundle away down the road first thing this morning.

But not for long. I have plenty of projects to work on, and it was great to have a long uninterrupted stretch of time to get stuck into some of them.

The children bounced home later in the afternoon, with positive tales of their first day back. They are happy with their new teachers, happy to see their friends again and most of all (from what I could gather) happy with the special seating arrangements - a couch in the Boy's classroom and beanbags in the Girl's.

This evening: a family trip to the YMCA swimming pool, but great disappointment that you have to be nineteen to go in the spa, unlike at the hotel in Lake Placid...

Summer's end

A couple more photos from our Adirondack trip here, to round off the summer...


The Boy had a friend to play much of the day, and they set to work making something mysterious out of cardboard boxes. There was more creativity later when we met up with a new friend at a local craft-space called the Albany Art Room and had a go at printing.

It has been another day of lovely weather, though it was hard to spend time out of doors in our neighbourhood on account of all the building noise - not just from across the road where they are digging foundations for the new house, but from every other driveway on the street. I think the guys laying the drive to the new place must have been round offering to re-do everyone else's drives too. Setting out for the library after lunch I had to weave through a slalom of diggers and rollers and heaps of stone chippings.

Today was the last day of the summer vacation - I can't believe it's finally over.

Highpoints

We fitted in another swim and another outing on Mirror Lake before check-out time this morning. Then we took a quick look at the Olympic ice-rinks. Budding Olympians were twirling and jumping on the practice rink, and seeing them whetted my appetite for the skating season which will begin locally later this month.

In the afternoon we visited High Falls Gorge, where a nature trail beside the waterfalls provided the perfect hike to burn off the Ben and Jerry's ice-cream the kids had just scoffed.

Before going book-shopping for an hour the rest of us dropped the Man off at an Olympic site he was particuarly eager to see - can you guess what it was? NB: the answer is not unrelated to yesterday's question.

Summit up

We're all quite sleepy this evening after plenty of mountain air. We went up Mount Whiteface, though admittedly not on foot. We drove nearly to the top and completed the last 270 feet in an elevator. We spent a couple of hours up there in the September sunshine, admiring views of some of the six million mostly unspoilt acres of the Adirondack National Park.

After the mountain we took to the lake. Our hotel is on Mirror Lake, so we borrowed boats of one kind and another and had an oarsome time paddling around. Then we took to pedalling around in a pedalo - the kids were very impressed that it had six in-built cup-holders, almost as many as our car.

In the morning, while the kids were in the pool, the Man took a look around the Olympic museum. He reports that while Robin Cousins got a mention as the Men's Figure Skating Champion at the 1980 Lake Placid games, a much more famous British Olympian featured more prominently, even though he didn't compete in the Olympics until eight years later. Any guesses?

Go Placidly

In a couple of days I'll post some photos of where we've come for a last minute mini-break, but we forgot to pack the uploading cable so for now you'll have to wait.

Anyway, we have driven up to the North Country and we're staying by a lake. There's a whole lot of Olympic structures around...so if the title didn't give it to you I'm hoping you've guessed by now where we are.

The children, as ever, are less impressed by the general destination than by the fact that we are staying in a hotel, and they have been making full use of the pool and spa bath, the in-room microwave (for popcorn) and - of course - the TV.

The Boy has asked me to report that he has learnt to swim today with his head above water, so our trip has been worth it if only for that. But I hope it will have many more delights as we explore the area properly tomorrow.

An awful lot of accordions

We've been out and about today. First we visited the local Farmers' Market, which seemed to be doing a roaring trade. There was musical accompaniment in the form of a band of accordion players. "That's a lot of accordion players," the woman with a jewellery stall two tables down from them told me, with feeling. Presumably she had had to enjoy them all morning.

Then we moved on to Staples office supply store, to stock up on school supplies. I am much better at doing this after two years here, and managed to accumulate everything in one visit.

Once I'd collected the Girl from her sleepover venue, we all ambled round the corner to our neighbour's pool party for snacks, badminton, a little swimming and neighbourly chat. Then the Girl moved on to another play date, and the rest of us went mini-golfing (this time it was the Boy's turn to trump his Dad with a hole-in-one). And finally we ended up at the Girl's friend's house viewing Jupiter and its moons through a telescope.

Jam-packed

Well, I can't speak highly enough of the Indian Ladder Farms' Barn School. The Girl has enthused about it (to anyone who'll listen) from start to finish. She has worked hard, made new friends and today she even managed to catch a chicken. Plus she has presented me with a pot of jam (or should that be jelly?) she made from berries she'd picked herself. Excellent.

The Boy had his buddy to sleep over last night and to play most of the day. Meanwhile the Girl went straight from Barn School to her friend's house, and we won't get to see her again until tomorrow. The social whirl is ramping up.

Speaking of jam/jelly, I made myself a traditional American staple today - the PBJ, or peanut-butter and jelly sandwich - just to see what all the fuss was about. It was actually pretty nice. What peanut-butter and jello (US for jelly) would be like I'm not so sure.

Deal braker

Last week when I had the car tyre replaced at the dealership, the mechanic noted that the front brakes needed fixing. The guy I spoke to at the desk implied - no, actually told me - that I would need to get the brakes seen to otherwise the car would fail its annual inspection (due in October). Also that one of two things could be wrong, and while the first would cost $250 to repair the other would cost more like $450. And if it was only the first problem now it would turn into the second if I left it too long, so I should get on and get the matter seen to as soon as possible.

So, today I took the car in, fully expecting a two and half hour wait and a large, possibly huge bill at the end of it. An hour or so into the wait I was told the brakes were fine, good for several thousand more miles, they couldn't understand why I'd brought it in.

Well, what was I to make of that? On the one hand, I was happy not to have the expense of replacing the brakes. On the other, I'd wasted a whole chunk of the afternoon taking the car in and hanging around for no good reason - not to mention I'd had to impose on Exile #2 to look after my children.

I've been in America long enough now, I realise, to feel ok about politely expressing a grievance (so long as it's not against a hairdresser, obviously). The upshot was, I received an apology (not from the bloke who'd misled me, however - though apparently he admitted to having perhaps been 'slightly alarmist' in his dealings with me) and no charge for having the brakes examined. And quite right too. Hmmph.

Back to school...

Not for lessons yet, though. This evening we marked the start of the school social season with the annual pot-luck picnic. It was a chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones and (for those so inclined) swing on the monkey-bars, race round the field and catch frogs in the stream. Truly this school is just too much like fun.

Other news: today I got in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce to introduce the Fair Trade Town concept. I've already received an enthusiastic 'how can we help?' type of response, so that's pretty exciting. The Girl had another happy session with her animal friends at the farm. And the Boy has turned the sitting room into a 'penguin exhibit', by draping white sheets all over it.

Animal magic

The Girl had another great morning at Barn School. When we went to pick her up at lunchtime she hopped into the animal pen and proudly introduced all the livestock to us by name. Here we have Isaac and Curry:

and here are Otis (calf) and Teddy:

There are a whole lot of other animals, too, including Eeyore the donkey and Rosie the Highland cow. Also a bunch of chickens and turkeys (but they don't have names).