Dam fine day

So. Yesterday we went to explore the Lisha Kill Preserve, about 40 minutes from home. We drove in convoy with the Boy's buddy's family. At first we overshot the Preserve (it has a tiny, subtle sign marking the entrance - not for nothing have I heard it described as "Niskayuna's best kept secret") and we ended up on a rather bleak mudflat beside the Mohawk River instead. The kids all loved this and got stuck into building dams in a little stream.

When we did eventually persuade them to come in search of our target destination it was already nearing dusk. Still, it was well worth seeking out the Preserve, which boasts ancient woodlands and a beautiful gorge. The trails offered a few challenges, with some steep parts and a lot of rootiness underfoot. Though the children began to get tired towards the end of the two-mile hike it was definitely a great outing.

City Break

The Girl and I got back from the City after midnight. We'd had a good trip - some retail therapy (for the Girl and her friend) tempered by some culture (museums) and a bit of hoofing it through the amazing Manahattan canyons.

Yesterday evening my friend J and I left our daughters in the borrowed apartment playing wih their new American Doll accessories while we crossed Central Park to visit the Guggenheim. It was my first visit - awesome place! The main exhibition was a Kandinsky retrospective, and the chronological progression of the paintings really lent itself to the spiral gallery. Though the artwork was interesting, to be honest I was much more impressed by the building itself. It's a truly amazing space. My efforts to capture it on camera failed dismally, alas.

Back in the Capital District, after a lazy morning we headed out to a new destination in the afternoon - but more of that tomorrow, I think.

Getting on the treadmill

The Man writes...currently we are borrowing a library DVD called "The Family Man", about a single man who wakes up one day to find himself in an alternative life with a wife and two kids. With Albaniana and the Girl in New York, and the Boy at his best buddy's house all afternoon, my experience today was roughly the opposite.

I took the opportunity to catch up with a couple of temporary exhibitions at the New York State Museum - one on "Photographs of the Great Depression" and one entitled "1609" about the Dutch who first sailed up the Hudson to this part of the world, and the Native Americans whom they met here. Both exhibitions were small but carefully put together.

After wandering around the bleak, lonely and windswept Empire State Plaza, I then made my way to the YMCA where for the first time I checked out the extremely well appointed fitness room. It's so long since I've been on a running machine, I hadn't seen one before boasting a TV with 77 channels. Despite all that entertainment, it was still one of the longest fifteen minutes of my life. And of course I had only burnt off the calorie equivalent of about 1oz of chocolate.

Albaniana AWOL

The Man writes...currently Albaniana and the Girl are out of town - or rather "On The Town", enjoying 24 hours leave in New York city.

None of us had the energy for the Black Friday sales, which were apparently predicted to draw 134 million people this year, many of them queueing from very early morning - in fact we all went ice skating instead.

Turkey trot

We've mostly been at home for our third Thanksgiving here, spending time together and separately as the mood has taken us. We've diverted ourselves variously with card games, computer, jigsaws, books and snoozing.

In the afternoon, with the weather better than forecast, we headed out to Five Rivers for a bit of a hike. As we drove along I remarked on the general lack of Thanksgiving lawn ornaments - normally such an integral part of a US celebration, at the very least I expected to see an inflatable turkey. But no, nothing...

...unless you count this - and yes, it is, it is! An inflatable Pilgrim turkey!

Once at Five Rivers we met the same real live wild turkey I'd seen last time I was there, smugly stalking around the parking lot making known that it had survived the day. We saw several deer too, and a whole family of Exiles.

I served up dinner this evening. It wasn't anything particularly special - the kids still won't eat anything but their usual fare, and I managed to char a piece of salmon almost beyond edibility. And yet it was one of the jolliest meals we've had together in a while - raucously sociable. It was easy to feel thankful for being a family.

Space missions

The kids are on their Thanksgiving break already, and since the Man had the car today I got to enjoy their company at home all day lo-o-o-ong.

No, it was pretty good in fact. The Girl is on a mission to make her bedroom into a cool and trendy hangout, so we spent quite a bit of time in there rearranging things to make exciting spaces.

The Boy, meanwhile, mainly busied himself with some Space-related projects of his own.

Many American friends have asked me over the last few days if our family will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Clearly it doesn't have the same resonances for us as it does for those brought up with the tradition, but even so it's a holiday I'm happy to embrace. I have a thousand and one reasons to be thankful, and time spent reflecting on that fact is time well spent indeed.

Strictly Come Line Dancing

It was Special Friends' Day at school today. Our neighbour from across the street came as our guest and demonstrated just how special she is by nobly sitting through a whole programme of songs with barely comprehensible lyrics being sung by kids she doesn't know. But I suspect even she was impressed by the Girl's class performing the Cotton Eye Joe dance routine.

And I was pretty astonished to watch my daughter enthusiastically leaping about on stage, hair flying and grinning from ear to ear. Was this really the same Girl who on previous occasions has had to be practically dragged on stage?

For your delectation and delight, here's a very brief reprise (in our sitting room) of that show-stopping performance:

Just sew story

Monday again, school sewing day. It was bedlam as usual, but most of the kids somehow or other managed to make a bird decoration.

Putting it on ice

The Man writes...I have spent several frigid hours this weekend at the local ice rink. Yesterday I took the Girl for her weekly lesson, where she practised her backward swizzles, crossovers, and bunny hops.

This evening I returned to watch an ice hockey game involving a work colleague. The speed of the play is very impressive at close quarters. I had joked beforehand of wanting to have a go, but if I had been allowed I think I would have been crushed. Even my friend (#27)'s stick was several inches taller than me.

The Girl enjoyed what may fairly be called a "hundred mile sleepover" last night. During the long trip to drop her off I turned in desperation to a local FM channel which has started running non-stop holiday music. However, since in a total of little over an hour's listening I heard "All I want for Christmas is you" three times, I don't think I will be tuning in all the way up to December 25th.

No Hessitation

I've just got in from an evening in Troy. The Capital District Local First organisation has been holding a 'bash' there - lots of local businesses selling their wares and advertising their services. I was there promoting fair trade, as usual.

It was quite fun. As I hoped, I had some interesting conversations and made a few potentially good contacts. I was surprised at how many people from my side of Albany had made it out to Troy on a November night, possibly just for this event. There was live music, and an improvised fashion show incorporating clothing and jewellery from various stalls.

A friend had driven me to the venue, but the Man and Boy picked me up (the Girl, as usual, is off on a sleepover elsewhere). We planned on having a quick glance round the stalls together, but right by the entrance the very first thing the Boy laid eyes on was the Hess collection of his dreams, being sold by a salvage merchant at rather keen prices. He has had his heart set on the Hess helicopter for many a month since seeing it on a collectibles website. There it was! Lucky Boy - thanks to a kind-hearted Daddy, now it's his!

Hard spun

The teacher had me trying all sorts of new things in today's skating lesson. Backwards one-foot glides. Bunny hops (more like a little pony gallop). And my first go at a spin.

Think of the London Eye, revolving almost imperceptibly: that's about how fast I was spinning, and yet it left me feeling completely dizzy and sick. In fact I still felt slightly queasy a whole two hours later. It was worse even than sitting on a kids' roundabout at the playpark. I guess that blows my chances of dazzling the crowds at the next Winter Olympics - shucks.

Egged on

The Man came home from the supermarket the other day with some Sandwich Pockets - wholegrain pita bread pockets, pre-opened for ease of filling.

Well, I don't know about needing my pita bread pre-cut, but it seemed to be made with healthy ingredients at least. The Man and I were both struck, however, by one of the serving suggestions on the back of the packet: 'Fill with scrambled egg for your ride to work'. A scrambled egg sandwich? That's just not right! And the thought of trying to eat one while driving to work...

Any ideas for other food-on-the-go no-nos?

Well eeled

I've been out this evening at the Friends of Five Rivers AGM. There was an interesting speaker from the Nature Conservancy, talking about the Hudson. I hadn't realised before that much of the mighty Hudson River is actually an estuary - it is tidal for 150 miles, from the Atlantic all the way to a dam at Troy, just beyond Albany.

Also, great lengths of the river look nothing like they used to, having been extensively altered by man over the centuries to accomodate shipping. Though there are efforts afoot to try to re-naturalise the Hudson, if it completely reverted to its original state it would soon be difficult to navigate again - so there's a tension (as there nearly always is) between doing right by nature, and giving up a human benefit.

We also learnt about the mysterious 200 foot deep sink holes that exist in some parts of the river, and (another mystery) the migratory habits of eels. They live in the Hudson for thirty years, then head off to the Sargasso Sea - and though no-one has ever seen them do it, presumably they spawn there for thousands of semi-translucent baby eels come swimming back.

One heck of a sparrow

I spend a lot of my time these days slaving over a hot computer writing up fair trade-related stuff, and so it was this morning. But after lunch I was determined to enjoy the sunny day that was going on outside, so I fixed up to meet Exile #2 at Five Rivers for a little hike.

We saw deer and birds and a frog, and even a little troll guarding a bridge. But the most remarkable sight was spotted round the back of the visitor centre. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this on a British bird table.

Leaf it out

The Man and I were raking leaves in the backyard yesterday until it was too dark to see. Today I finished up, loading the remaining leaves onto a tarpaulin and dragging them round to the collection point on the front lawn. There's a mighty heap out there now, and the job is pretty much done for this year.

Most of my sewing class managed to finish their little bears from last week, though some of them got so distracted arguing over who got to use which colour of glass-headed pin to stab their creations with that I'm amazed they managed to get any stitching done at all.

Launch-ready?

Another day, another Fair Trade Fair. Again it went well - a whole different range of lovely crafts on sale, plenty of visitors and more signatures and useful contacts for me.

I wasn't involved in the planning of either of this weekend's events - they were arranged independently by two different local churches. This community just seems so ready to become a Fair Trade Town!

The Boy, meanwhile, had an exciting few hours launching rockets - he has found a new passion!

Fair Trading post

I spent most of the day with leaflets and petition at a Fair Trade market held in a church hall (and don't be thinking pokey little English church hall - this was b-i-i-g). There were loads of traders representing craftspeople from many corners of the developing world - Malawi, Vietnam, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, to name just a few. The event was well attended, some stalls virtually sold out of wares, and I had some good conversations and added four more pages of signatures to our growing petition. Everyone agreed that it was a great success.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the same again, but in a different church hall with different vendors.

The rest of the family has also been busy. The Boy joined his buddy in a rocket-building excercise (the launch will take place tomorrow, weather permitting). The Girl started her new session of skating lessons and apparently enjoyed it, and has since been having a giggly time with friends. And the Man has been chauffering us all around, visiting Price Chopper and such-like excitements.

(Swim)suited and (ice-)booted

Skating lessons resumed today, so I was back at the rink trying to remember how to do crossovers and turns and the like. Being on the ice also gave me a little preview of winter coldness - before the hour-long session ended I had lost all feeling in the toes of one foot.

Otherwise, apart from a dining assignation with a Man (yes, that Man) in town at lunchtime, I've mainly been preparing a display to take to two fair trade markets happening locally this weekend. I'm hoping both will be opportunities to collect petition signatures and rally support for our Fair Trade Town campaign.

The Man has gone out swimming this evening, though it took us so long to track down his trunks that we wondered if he'd ever make it. But why is it that things always seem to turn up (after half an hour of searching) right there in the first place you looked?

Hold the front page!

I've had a busy day, to-ing and fro-ing, attending meetings and running errands and so forth. I bought a copy of the local paper because I'm in it this week! I'm quoted verbatim, which makes me sound almost sort of inarticulate I would say, but no matter. This evening I baked rosemary bread, which is quite unusual of me, so the house smells very nice.

What are you all up to?

Mail order

The children were off school for Veteran's Day today. It was sunny out, so in the morning I had them leaflet the area with flyers for a couple of fair trade events. There were predictable mutterings about this idea when I announced it, but of course once we were out on the street racing from mailbox to mailbox it all turned out to be quite fun.

Mostly, though, we stayed at home. The Girl had a friend round. My sewing student came over and sewed a doll's apron - a satisfying project, completed in a single session.

This evening I've been reading Jeremy Strong's My Brother's Famous Bottom to the Boy. (NB If you are secretly reading this at work with the sound on, sorry if you followed that link...) Much chortling. It's the sort of daft humour that just hits the mark with seven year-olds. He's hoping to persuade his teacher to read it to the class and share the joy.

Far flung field trip

The Girl's class is studying the Iroquois, and today they had a field trip to the Iroquois Museum, about an hour away from school. I got to go along too as a driver/chaperone.






The Museum building is reminiscent of a traditional longhouse and contains a great assortment of Native American artefacts and artworks. As part of our school trip we had two presentations from a history professor of Mohawk ancestory.

The native people's story is long and complex, especially following the Europeans' arrival on the scene, so that part of the presentation was hard to follow (though fascinating, and definitely something I plan to revisit). More accessible was the display of tools - "Not weapons" - spears, arrows etc which the professor had crafted himself using traditional skills and materials. The undoubted highlight of the trip was when, asked how far he could throw a spear, he led us all outside and showed us. Far! He used what he called a throw-stick, like a hooked extension of his arm, to propel the spear about a hundred feet further than anyone expected. 50,000 year-old technology, still highly effective.

Ready, teddy...

...no, hang on. Not ready yet. The kids, in between eruptions of great silliness, managed to get about halfway through making these little bears in sewing class today. Most left their works-in-progress with me, nicely labelled, for completion next week. A couple, including my youngest student (who is only five but has about the best concentration of any in the class) insisted on taking theirs home to finish.

The Girl, meanwhile, was at Computer Club, learning to programme games. She declares the process to be "Not as exciting as the alpine slide at Jiminy Peak, yet not as boring as...being bored". Computer programmers out there, feel free to comment.

Get behind him

The annual Halloween-party-with-panto scheduled for last weekend was postponed, due to flu, and took place this afternoon. A fun time was had by all, oh yes it was. To be honest, though, I'm not convinced that our hostess has yet brought America with her when it comes to pantos, and neither is she - even after three years of trying.

The Girl and Boy, meanwhile, feel keenly that they are being deprived of their British birthright because they no longer get to see panto in a theatre come the holiday season. The Man has been looking into the possibilities, but alas, it looks like the nearest one is in Vancouver.

Tomorrow (Monday) I hope you will all be downloading this cheesy little number. You can do for Children in Need, or just for the lead singer: believe it or not he's our friend Maths Expert's nephew - oh, yes he is!

Horsing around

The Boy made other arrangements, but the Man and I accompanied the Girl to a horse-riding experience with her Girl Scout friends. They were there to earn their 'Horse Lover' and 'Horseback Rider' badges.

To qualify as a Horse Lover you have to know something about horses and how to look after them, and a thorough instruction programme was laid on by the 4Ms Farm in Castleton. First, an introduction to equine vocabulary (mares, geldings, withers, girths, measuring in hands etc). The girls were taught the basic anatomy of a horse (did you know horses have very small stomachs but their intestine is 75 feet long?), and learnt about horse welfare. They tried their hands at grooming, and then at last the horses were tacked up ready for the Horseback Rider part of the action.

Most of the girls hadn't much, if any, riding experience (our Girl had none at all), but the horses were all very used to kids and novices and were reassuringly placid. The riders all did several circuits, led round by stable assistants, and those that wanted had a go at trotting. There was some sort of horseback frisbee-throwing contest, which the Girl won!

Everyone agreed that they'd had a great time. It was, however, perishing cold out, and by the end of the session I for one was happy to move on to a cafe for a warming cup of hot chocolate.

Official colours

We had to pick the Man up from work this evening, and the Boy siezed the chance to take a quick spin round his Dad's office on a wheely chair. I took to musing on the colour grey.

What does grey evoke for you?

An overcast day.
The concrete of a multi-storey carpark.
Old once-white underwear.
Dullness.
Depression.

Office furnishings.

Why are office furnishings so frequently grey? Is it a deliberate effort to create an unstimulating environment? Is there an unspoken rule that work is meant to be dull, therefore your surroundings should epitomise all that's dreary? Or is it simply that grey doesn't show the dirt? All I know is that my heart sinks whenever I enter a grey office, and I'm so glad I don't have to try and work in one.

Having said all that, I have to be honest and tell you that the Man's office isn't 100% grey. There's a daring splash of beige here and there, for 'accent'.

Holey moley

I looked out on the backyard this morning, and saw some of these:

It's not the first time we've had moles. They seem to come and go, and since we're not too fussy about our lawn we tend not to mind them. But out of interest, does anyone have any mole eviction tips? For such tiny critters they do seem able to make a disproportionate amount of mess - hmm, not unlike a couple of smallish inhabitants of my house, come to think of it.

Dolled up for winter

Meet Eliza. She was sewn together (by the Girl) a week or more ago, then was left sitting around bald and naked. Tonight we added her hair and got her dressed - in borrowed clothes for the moment, hence the air of rummage sale chic. She's well wrapped up because we're into another cold spell, with even a slight chance of some snow tomorrow.

Election day

The Man writes...of course the famous Revolutionary phrase "no taxation without representation" doesn't apply to us, but for American citizens today was election day. (Is it really a year since that day?) The public schools were closed and a huge range of posts, from Town Supervisor and Town Clerk to County Coroner, were up for grabs. I wonder what is the difference between a Democrat coroner and a Republican one?

Yesterday evening I went to a public talk about Nanomedicine, which turns out to be a huge and potentially exciting field that is growing particularly quickly over here. I'm sure we will hear a lot more about it.

On our trip to the Fields Sculpture Park, the camera battery suddenly ran out. But I think even with a very basic camera phone and relatively few pixels you can get an idea of how striking this scene was.

Lady of the rake

Among other things I managed to rake the front yard this morning, moments before the municipal Noo-noo arrived to schlurp up all the leaves. That's pretty much it for the front, as there are almost no more leaves left to fall in it. Just the backyard to deal with, then bring on winter.

This afternoon my sewing class was up and running once more, and the children were in energetic form again after all that poorliness last week. We made mice. Quite nice.

Fields trip

A new adventure today - a visit to the very wonderful Omi Fields Sculpture Park.

The Exile took his family there a few weeks ago. What a cool place! At first the kids (our own, plus a remnant from last night's sleepover) just wanted to run between exhibits, so we spent some time doing that. Then we returned to the visitor centre and they refuelled with Kettle Chips before doing another circuit of the grounds, taking in a whole different set of sculptures and installations we'd missed the first time round.

Recent wild winds have blown down most of the autumn leaves already so the trees in the park were bare, but this lent them a sculptural quality which made the man-made exhibits look very much at home amongst them. Today's weather was calm and mild, the sky was blue and our spirits were high. There were hardly any other visitors at this excellent (and free) venue - I can't understand why.