Air-crafty

With it being quite mild today, and not at all humid, it's been a good day for yardwork and other chores. I cleared a large area at the side of the house ready to plant some grass, and had a big tidy-up in the basement.

Meanwhile, the Girl had another lovely morning at the farm, washing goats and clipping their toenails. And the Boy had fun designing and making paper aircraft, his current speciality.

Whale of a project

Somehow the Boy managed to persuade me to make a Wailord (thankfully a scale model, not a full-sized 47'7" Behemoth). It took some thought, and a lot of stuffing, but turned out quite well. It's now the favourite toy to cuddle, much envied by the Girl.

Art Ducko

The Boy after all decided against farm camp, but I took the Girl for her first session today.




It seems to be just as excellent as last year. She got to feed the goats, bottlefeed Charlie the kid, muck out pens etc - all good stuff.

When I turned up to collect her, she and her fellow campers had all just finished painting with ducks and chickens. Yes, with. I don't think it's a standard farming activity, but who's to say ducks and chickens don't want to express themselves artistically? And apparently they enjoyed being bathed afterwards, too.

Hypertension

The Man disappeared in the morning and came home at lunchtime thoroughly despondent. He'd been to watch the England-Germany match, of course. We was robbed, etc.

There's some (ungracious) consolation in the fact that the US are out of the World Cup, too - although that doesn't do the cause of soccer in this country any good. I spoke to a friend this evening who is genuinely interested in all sorts of sports but who told me that when the US team lost yesterday he said to himself, ok, now I don't have to watch any more of that.

But as his wife pointed out, soccer will never be that big in the USA anyway, on account of its incompatabilty with commercial breaks. I'm no sports fan, but I can see that even a goal-less soccer game can be pure tension throughout each half. Whereas the main sports here seem to have been developed specifically to accomodate ten minute breaks for advertisements after every five minutes of play, creating no tension at all. Which could be better for everyone's health, I suppose - if only it didn't make for so many opportunities to fill up on junk food while-u-wait.

Take me back to the ballgame

We made another visit to the Joe Bruno stadium to watch some baseball.


Friends were there, too.


There was some of the razzamatazz we remembered from last time...


...and plenty of unhealthy snacks.


Shame most of the scoring action happened in the first four minutes (and we arrived five minutes late).


But at least it all ended with a bang.

Having a blast

Today was blast-off day at rocket camp. Yesterday the campers had started making real rockets, and this afternoon a small crowd gathered on the field to watch them being launched.

Conditions were perfect - blue sky and little wind, and it wasn't even too hot and humid for the spectators sitting in the sun. I was surprised at just how high the rockets flew before floating down again under their mini parachutes. The kids all managed to retrieve theirs, but the science teacher used a more powerful grade of engine which sent her rocket so high we briefly lost sight of it, and she will have to go exploring in the woods beyond the field if she ever wants to see it again.

All in all it seems to have been a great week of camp for the Boy, and he would gladly do it all again.

Not in my back yard (please)

I think (fingers crossed) our chipmunk problem is over. I haven't seen much of them since we opened the pool - probably they don't like all the activity, or the noise of the pump. Also, before we removed it, they'd taken to running across the safety cover in search of wind-blown seeds, and this perhaps is why one of them soon ended up in the pool, taking a first and final swim. Very sad.

And apart from the dangers and disturbance of the pool, we've had a new visitor from a couple of doors down who regularly stalks the patio and may have seen the rest of them off: a large and rather mean-looking cat.

At least it's not one of these.

Gotta pick em all!

The Boy had a great day at camp today, making little paper rockets launched by blowing through a bendy drinking straw. Evidently he and the other kids also had fun making "explosives" by mixing Mentos and diet coke - something we should try at home, too, I think.

When he got home he insisted on us making a pet Pokemon out of fleece. This is the third I've made. They're generally quite small and not too complicated to sew. But ominously, he now has his sights set on one called Wailord, which as far as I can tell is pretty much a life-sized whale. That may be a challenge too far, even for me.

This evening we picked and ate some home-grown fruit, including black raspberries. Just a few berries so far, but there are lots more to come - yum.

As to what the Girl has been up to all day, I couldn't tell you. I dropped her at a friend's house yesterday morning and haven't seen her since. The Man has just set off to collect her...

DMV

The Man and I had some business to attend to at the Department of Motor Vehicles this afternoon. I collected him from work and we drove across town to the large office we had grown to love so well on previous visits.

What we needed doing was a date change, before July 1st, next to the "temporary visitor" (aka "dodgy foreigner") stamp on our driving licenses. Potentially quite a simple exercise, but earlier experience of New York state bureaucracy had made us wary. We'd found nothing online about our particular situation, and we were doubtful of getting a useful answer if we phoned. Hence we went in person.

We parked the car, but as we were climbing out the Man asked, "Did you bring that envelope?"

"What? The envelope you've just now told me about for the first time? Er, no."

How we laughed on the drive home to pick up the envelope containing the relevant paperwork and our passports!

Not quite as much as we laughed when got back and showed the man at the information desk said paperwork and passports (and our still-legal licenses) and he told us, politely, that we also needed to bring in our Social Security cards.

So, let's see. We bring in two forms of photo I.D., with additional biometric information, and ourselves to compare the photos against - but they also need to see a piece of card with a number printed on it?

Okaaay.

You can imagine our mirth as we drove home, and then back to the DMV, again.

The good news is that we did, eventually, succeed in submitting the relevant forms. In the process we wasted nearly as much fuel as that broken pipe in the Gulf of Mexico, but that's just how it goes sometimes I guess.

(By the way, if you've bothered to follow all - or any - of the links, you'll be wondering what could have possessed us even to think of turning up at a state office without our SSN cards. We must just have wiped the memory of all those earlier traumas from our minds...)

Rocket science

The Boy started camp today - a week of activities from 9am until 3pm, with a rocket theme. He was quite reluctant to go this morning (he never likes the prospect of a new experience), but when I picked him up later he seemed very happy with his day. He'd been doing experiments involving balloons, and also studying flying bugs. Tomorrow, we understand, the campers will be moving onto something a little more explosive...

Meanwhile the Girl and had a quiet day at home. I spent some time trying to discover the source a plague of caterpillars in our pantry. I'd check in every hour or so and find another batch of them crawling across the ceiling. I examined all our cereal packets, but couldn't find any trace of a nest. It was only when I tipped out a packet of strangely wriggly muesli that I found where they'd all been coming from. Lovely.

Left to their own devices, the caterpillars turn themselves into Indianmeal moths and are a complete nuisance. Hopefully I've managed to put paid to this little lot - and I shall shortly be investing in some airtight containers for the pantry.

Hot, but not bothered

There was a brief wild thunderstorm in the middle of the night, but today has been sunny and hot again. We didn't aim to do much except hang out by and in the pool, and we succeeded very well at that.

It couldn't really have been a more perfect summer's day - except that of course it isn't really summer yet. That season doesn't officially begin here until 7:23am tomorrow.

"This is the life!"

Steel high span

To round off our adventurous day out on Tuesday, we stopped on our way home to take a look at the Walkway Over the Hudson, New York's newest State Park, near Poughkeepsie.

Unusually for a park, it's actually a bridge, and a magnificent one at that. A steel cantilever structure, when it opened to trains in 1889 it was the longest bridge in the world. It was badly damaged by fire in 1974 and stood abandoned and crumbling from then-on until a group of volunteers got together to save it and convert it into the world's highest footbridge. The fundraising and renovation took about seventeen years, and the Walkway was opened to the public in October last year. Yay for those volunteers - that must have been a proud day for them.

Although once on the bridge its architectural structure and railroad past aren't very evident, it's still a splendid sight, and it's clearly very popular with walkers, cyclists, roller-bladers etc. We'd already had some serious exercise that day, so decided not to walk the full 1.28 mile span, but enjoyed the fine views of mountains, boats, trains and nearby road-bridge from 200 feet above the Hudson.

A night out

...but not in the best way. The Boy gave us all a scare by taking ill rather dramatically last night at bedtime. He'd been complaining of stomach pains during the day. On medical advice (over the phone), his Dad whisked him off to hospital. He had to go through a gamut of tests which literally took all night. The Man finally brought him home at 6am with a prescription for antibiotics.

Well, happily it looks like the drugs do work. He made up for lost sleep during the morning, then bounced back, as right as rain. We had to take him to see the paediatrician in the afternoon, where he was full of chat and giggles and no obvious symptoms. We then went on to visit the Exiles and he chased around, hurled himself over the back of the sofa etc, and generally demonstrated that he was feeling very well indeed.

It's all been a bit of a mystery but we're relieved that, whatever it was, it seems to be over. The Man, who has made it through the day on virtually no sleep at all, is having an early night tonight.

Right side of the tracks

Once we'd scrambled back down the ridge yesterday we were all hot, tired and thirsty. So we headed over to the nearby town of Cold Spring to visit the Depot.

This is a place the Man remembered from a previous New York existence nineteen years ago (he'd first climbed Breakneck Ridge then, too). It's a cafe/bar in an old railway depot, hard by an active track. Every fifteen minutes or so a train thunders by on its way to NYC or Albany or Montreal or Niagara.

Needless to say, the Boy thought this was very neat...





...if a little loud.

Rocky road

Today had the only clear forecast for the week - no clouds, no rain - so the Man took a day off and we piled into the car and drove south for a couple of hours to a spot by the Hudson, just beyond Beacon.

The Girl had been dubious about the prospect of a "boring hike" along a level path - maybe because we hadn't told her that our destination was called Breakneck Ridge. When she took in the rocky trail and near-vertical inclines there was no stopping her. The Boy also rose enthusiastically to the challenge, and they took off up the slopes like a couple of mountain goats.

There was no question of the hike being too difficult for the children - just some occasional doubts about whether it was all too much for the grown-ups.

We hiked for about three hours. The going was tough and the sun was hot, but the views more than rewarded the effort.

We all agreed we'd had a great adventure.

Consents and sensibility

The Man writes...before we came to America our bank kindly gave us a "consent to lease" for our Linton property. This piece of paper cost us £499 even though our mortgage agreement stated that it should cost £75. Bafflingly, the mortgage ombudsman thought this was entirely reasonable.

Now I had to ring the bank to discuss having the "consent to lease" extended. I had three identical conversations:

"No problem, I'll make an appointment for you at the Cambridge branch."

"I live in New York so that isn't very convenient."

"Oh...please hold while I have a minor panic. Then eventually I'll come back on and pass the buck to someone else".

Thus I rang the National Helpline, who told me to ring Cambridge, who told me to ring the National Helpline, who finally told me they would email Cambridge and ask them to ring me. I'm not holding my breath.

On a happier note, thanks to a promotion in a local supermarket I filled up last week for 10.9 cents (about 7.5 pence) per gallon. This struck me as a very good deal so, being of a prudent nature, I drove around for a while beforehand to make sure the tank was good and empty before I started.

Birthday bash

We were invited to a birthday pool party this afternoon, but constant drizzle and a chill in the air didn't make the water look that inviting. The kids weren't put off, however, and they had a good time splashing around.

The activities moved indoors, or at least into a barn-loft - the hosts live on an old farm. There was a den made out of hay bales to play in and scramble over, and chickens to chase. A pinata was suspended from a roof beam, until the children managed to smash it down (they started with a stick, but ultimately did the business with a baseball bat). More hay bales were laid out as benches for cake-eating when the time came for that. Then the kids ran off into the woods to play.

It was pretty idyllic, all in all.

It looks like there'll be lots more rain in the week ahead - great for the garden, but not best vacation weather, alas. Time to come up with some creative crafty projects, maybe.

Tied and emotional

The Girl was spending a day at a friend's house, and the Boy as usual was round at his Buddy's, leaving the Man and me with a free afternoon. How lovely, I thought. Even though it's raining, maybe we can go off and do something nice and cultural or perhaps see a movie.

But apparently there was some sporting event on that the Man just had to see.

England playing the USA competitively at football (ok then, soccer) for the first time in sixty years. Fair enough, I guess we had to see that.

We headed into Albany to Wolff's Biergarten, which was making an event of it - they'd closed off the street and set up a marquee with four large TV screens.

The place was packed, mostly not with English fans. There were several people dressed up as Uncle Sam. Even before kick-off, there was thunderous booing every time Wayne Rooney's face appeared on the screen. We kept a low profile - but somehow found ourselves in a little cluster of fellow England supporters (at least one of them was Mexican).

Great moment in the opening minutes when Gerrard scored for England - yay! Not so great when Green fumbled the ball and let in the US goal - groan! The Man stood beside me miserably for the rest of the match - honestly, men and sport, why do they put themselves through it?

The TVs were cranked to full volume, and the crowd around us bayed U-S-A continually at the tops of their lungs. When the match finally ended - a 1-1 draw/tie (but I'm sure you already know that) and we left the marquee, we realised we had actually become deaf.

I was genuinely surprised at how many Americans turned out in the rain to watch a sport I thought they weren't very interested in, and at how passionate they seemed to be about beating us. History runs deep: after the first goal a drunk behind me referred to the England players, jovially, as "....ing Redcoats".

And how did I feel about it all, given that I couldn't care less about sport and dislike displays of nationalism? Deep down do I really wish England had won hands down against my generous host nation?

Hell yeah!

Making a difference

This evening I've been at another fundraiser, this time raising money for a venture in Ghana - Kekeli - started by a woman called Carrie Brown.

Carrie is quiet and seemingly unassuming, but a very happy person, and totally inspiring. Single-handedly she's doing great things with some of Ghana's most disenfranchised youngsters - orphans, children of cured lepers and kids with special needs. She teaches them photography, giving them a skill not many local people have and thus providing them with the chance to earn a living in the future. Perhaps even more importantly, in a society where these kids expect to be shunned, she offers them respect and friendship - a priceless gift.

I first met Carrie back in May when she had a table at the fair trade chocolate event. I was really glad to have the opportunity to go and support her event tonight. She returns to Ghana at the end of this month and I wish her all the best.

Fruitful visit

I can't seem to get enough of Indian Ladder Farms at the moment. We thought we might not make it today as it seemed set to rain all afternoon, but around four o'clock the sky cleared so I packed the kids in the car and off we went.

We had the pick of the strawberry crop as no-one much else had been out in the field today. We filled our punnets to the brim (and a bit beyond).

Back at the buildings, we ran into the woman who runs the "barn school" summer camp that the Girl attended last year. She told us they'd had baby chicks hatch just that afternoon, and invited us to come and have a look - what a bonus! The kids got to pet them. And then the Girl had to get reacquainted with all her goat and pig and chicken friends, and meet more new arrivals...

Both children are now insisting that I sign them up for farm camp this summer.

School's out

We've been at school for another graduation night, and once again the leaving 8th Graders did themselves proud with their speeches. Traditionally they dress for the occasion, too - the boys in suits and the girls in party dresses. I note that ra-ra skirts and puffballs are back with a vengeance - who knew? Truly, in fashion everything comes round again, even things that really shouldn't.

And with the speeches and presentations and songs all over (with not so many tears this year, it seemed to me), it was time for the kids - from toddlers to teenagers - to dance the night away. Or chase madly around. Or stuff their faces with cake. Or any combination of the three.

Home and late to bed, then - but at least there's no bus to be up early for in the morning.

Endless summer

The kids set off to school excited today - Field Day, which this year involved a whole-school run around the campus trails, some silliness with water, and cooperative games. They seem to have had a great time, and the Boy was so pleased with himself for having run a mile that he went for another run round the block with his dad this evening.

I drove up to Indian Ladder Farms for more strawberry picking, and took a long route home through the countryside just to admire the leafy greeness everywhere. During the winter here, summer seems like an impossibility. This time of year, winter is just a dream.

Unbelievably we're about to launch into the summer vacation, starting at lunchtime tomorrow. Where did that school-year go?

Duck and cover

The Man writes...don't ask me why, but I'm very fond of covered bridges, so when we noticed a sign to one near Ithaca last week I felt we should go and investigate.

Newfield covered bridge over the Cayuga creek is one of only 29 covered bridges remaining in New York, and the oldest in regular use, having been built in 1853. A plaque nearby explains how these picturesque and distinctive "timber tunnels" were popular in nineteenth century America, and often became a place for social gatherings.

The bridge was going to be torn down in 1972 to be replaced by a steel and concrete structure, but was saved largely through the efforts of a local couple. I trust they received prominent thanks in the community newspaper for their achievements (unless of course a family of ducks had been rescued from a drain that month).

Shelf life

It rained hard today. It's brought the temperature down to comfortably cool (almost chilly tonight) and made the plants in the yard perk up and stand taller - all except our lettuce seedlings, which are lying down flat.

There have been strong breezes, too. Late in the afternoon, when the rain was over, I was tending the vegetable patch when we heard a mighty crack from high above, and a large branch came crashing down behind me - a little unnerving.

All the rain has mostly kept us indoors today, though. I made the Man laugh by setting to and relining the pantry shelves (tatty and floral) with some new sticky-backed plastic. Fair enough, of all the jobs in the house that need doing, this was probably not the highest priority. But isn't it satisfying when you can liven up a whole area with very little effort and in less than half an hour. It's the kind of home improvement I like best.

Home shopping

It's been an at-home sort of day - if being at home can include visiting the local farmers' market (the first of the year), the pool supplies store, Indian Ladder Farms (to pick strawberries) and Hobby Town (for the Boy); and if, for the kids, "at home" can include being at other people's homes half the time.

Man and Boy have braved the pool ("the Polar Plunge" as we're currently calling it), but I've only managed to dip a toe in so far.

Art of possibilty

There was a mega-assembly at school today. First, the after-school African drumming club performed. They range in age from 5 to 14 and played brilliantly together. Then we all sang "Lean on Me". And then the Girl's class presented a series of comedy skits loosely based on legends of the Greek gods. They were pretty funny. The Girl had a speaking part in one which she'd co-written - "Medusa Makeover", in which Medusa visits Aphrodite's beauty parlour for some serious work on those snakey locks.

This evening I've been attending an art auction organised by my friends at the local Middle School - the kids who helped out at my recent Fair Trade Chocolate event. The artwork on sale tonight, for just a few dollars apiece, was all made by children from around the world - the school has contacts with them through a website. So there were drawings from Costa Rica, paintings from Russia, embroidery from Bangladesh, illustrated Irish blessings, manga cartoons from Japan... I was particularly taken by several pastel illustrations of village scenes from India. It was an amazing international effort. The nearly $1,000 raised will go towards an orphanage being built in Uganda.

All sewn up

We had the last sewing class of the school year today. Unusually, it was a calm and peaceful affair.

Last week a student asked if we could sew popsicles, and I was pleased to oblige, especially when I realised it could also be a chance for the kids to practise embelleshing with beads.

So here it is, the unmeltable ice-lolly. It's a silly thing (what do you do with it?) but everyone went away happy with their efforts.

For my part, I've enjoyed the challenge of coming up with projects week after week, and I'm very happy that all the kids I've taught this year have managed to master a creative and useful skill.

More Greene

I mentioned on Saturday that we stopped in a town called Greene on our way to the Finger Lakes. It was appealingly old-fashioned and full of friendly people greeting us with warm smiles as they stepped out of stores, even though we clearly weren't about to shop in their wedding gown boutique or whatever.

Greene has a grand looking library building, and olde worlde storefronts (incuding a proper ironmonger [hardware store]) along a wide main street. There's a choice of eateries - we went for a bakery-and-cafe and were very happy with our lunch there.

Greene is also home to these mystery items, for you to identify:

Green day

Barbeques, eh. An awful lot of trouble to go to to half-cook a hot-dog just so that you can throw it up in the middle of the night.

We assume that's why the Girl was heaving in the wee small hours, anyway - she'd been at a friend's cook-out yesterday afternoon. The upshot was that she had to have the day off school, even though by this morning she was perfectly ok again.

But we had a good time, finishing a sewing project, playing games etc.






Intermittently I popped outside to tend to the pool, which was opened this morning. Not unlike the Girl, it started out dispiritingly green, but just like her it rallied after only a few hours. It should soon be swimmable (by penguins at least - boy-oh-boy it's cold!).