Birthday Reflections

The Man was up at dawn for a run around Mirror Lake, and was treated to these views:

We spent another day here in LP, took in a short hike (not a popular choice with absolutely everyone, ahem) up Cobble Hill, spent more time variously on the lake (in kayaks), in the pool and just sitting around reading.  And I turned another year older, but that's OK.

A Placid place

The Man has some time off work and today we have come up to Lake Placid to enjoy it.

We're staying in our favourite hotel (the Golden Arrow) and we're doing all the things we like doing here, without having to think very hard about it.  So some of us have boated on and swum in Mirror Lake, and some of us have eaten at Wyatt's Mexican cafe; some have been to the bookstore and some to the popcorn store; most have swum in the hotel pool, and we've all been out to dinner at the Italian restaurant that serve fries.

It's fun and exciting to visit new places, but sometimes it's easier and more relaxing just to go somewhere familiar.

Zud!

The Man had never been in our local hardware store.  I went there with him this evening to buy some screws.  What a Shangri-la it is!  And with that lovely hardware store smell about it!  And it stocks some awesomely named cleaning products, including this one:

Just a few good reasons to shop local.

Making waves

The Boy has lately taken to being a one-boy wave machine, resulting in a lot of water washing out of the pool altogether.  So it was just as well that today we had one (in fact, two or three) of those torrential downpours typical of this time of year to top it up again.

It has been a this-and-that sort of day, but at least one of the "thats" involved taking a car-load of toys and sundry items into Albany to donate to Grassroot Givers.  I hope they will all find happy new homes.

A couple of old geysers

 We felt the need to get out of town, yet didn't want to to travel too far, so this afternoon we made our way up to Ballston Spa for the Saratoga County Fair. 

Fried food and noisy rides aside, it was a classic old-timey country-type event - with a few exotic twists.  A zebra in the petting zoo, for one thing.  Camel rides in addition to the more traditional ponies.

There was a tent full of rabbits and chickens (and - another twist - a couple of reindeer).  A shed full of goats.  Draft horses.  A big old barn stuffed with 4-H handiwork. An "agricadabra" show that involved a man with a balloon over his head.

And we watched pig racing, something I've always secretly wanted to see.  To be honest, it is not all that exciting, just pigs running round a pen, but the presenter did her best to make a show of it.  The pigs had punny pop-culture names, like Miley Swine-us and Lindsay Loham. 

On the way home we stopped in at Saratoga Spa State Park to collect some spring water (avoiding the nasty-but-allegedly-good-for-you [I personally don't believe that] mineral water) and to visit a geyser. 

There are springs of one kind and another all over the park, but the geyser (OK, OK: spouter) is fairly spectacular, as is another one we found which has made its own weird rock formation.

A (common)wealth of blueberries

This afternoon we took the Boy and his buddy fruit-picking at Indian Ladder Farms. 

The Man and I left the boys picking raspberries and crossed the road and a pleasant meadow in search of blueberries.  We have had mixed experiences of blueberry-picking at ILF.  Sometimes we've arrived just before or after the proper season and struggled to fill a punnet. But not today!  Blueberries were fat and ripe and plentiful, and very much delicious.

This evening some of the family got into the spirit of the Commonwealth Games and swam some races, including a keenly fought 10m freestyle final.

Seemed like a three way tie.

A room with a zoo

The Boy rearranged his bedroom today and was amazed to discover that if you remove the extra mattress covered in cuddly toys you create masses more space.

As well as doing that, and swimming with a friend and playing Dr. Who Monopoly, he has been playing on a favourite old computer game: Zoo Tycoon.  He seems to have developed some good management skills, as he has kept the same zoo operating for several days, and even won some award (in the game) for Best Zoo. But his sister got involved tonight and inveigled him into some "cheats" she'd found online.  Next thing you know, they've got a unicorn and a mermaid!  I'm not sure where it all goes from here.

Table at the Stag's Head

We'd been having trouble finding one the right size, so at our neighbour's suggestion the Man and I went looking for a 5' x 8' fence panel (to replace the one broken in the recent storm) at a lumber yard in New Scotland.

We'd passed Long Lumber a million times on trips up to Thacher Park, but had never thought to look in.  Well, what a treat we'd been missing.  Not just cedar fence panels of every variety and size (including ours), but also garden furniture and even rustic bed frames, all made there on the premises.  The showroom of course smells lovely and cedary.

Unusually (I imagine) for a fence-and-furniture store, the showroom also features a range of animal skins and stuffed wildlife. Hunting and taxidermy were apparently the great passions of the original Mr. Long, and his animals are kept on display for old times' sake. However Mr Long's sons are not particularly sentimental about their late dad's collection, and are selling it off on an ad hoc basis. So, if you are in the market for a bear skin, or even a whole stuffed bear, this is the place for you. Looking for a picnic table and a mounted stag's head?  It's your one stop shop.

"No more smelly car seats"

The Man's competition goody bag at the half marathon the other weekend included a money-off coupon for something called a Seatbrella.  It's a sort of bag runners can slip over their car seat before they drive home from a race.  It promises "no more sweat, mud or dirt on your car seats" and at full price it's "only $19.95".

I'd always thought running must be the simplest of sports, kit-wise - a pair of running shoes and, er, that's about it.  But no, as with every hobby it seems there's no end of gear if you're so inclined - from headlights to moisture-wicking leggings to cardio-measuring GPS watches... A specially designed alternative to throwing an old towel over your car seat is the least of it all.

Sleepless in the Capital Region

The Boy had one of his friends over to stay last night.  They camped in the living room,  At 2am the Man came down and found them just starting a game of Monopoly Millionaire...  The Boy is a bit tired this evening and has headed off for an early night.

Meanwhile, his sister is out sleeping over at her friend's house - so she can have a turn at being all flaked out tomorrow.

Summer nights

It has been weeks since any of us took a walk at Five Rivers, which is ridiculous.  This evening the Man and I righted this with a quick stroll on the Beaver Tree trail.

The place was noisy with plunking frogs and there were birds around, both small and really large (a heron standing like a lawn ornament in the middle of the water-chestnut-covered pond).  There weren't many other people about, but it was already coming on for dusk - we noted how much earlier it seems to get dark now, only a month past the summer solstice. (The Man adds...the internet says that's largely our imagination.  Sunset tonight was 8:28pm compared to 8:37pm at the solstice).

Water useful thing

A pool is useful for all kinds of things.  The Boy has been honing his swimming skills in it this summer.  He has got rather good at front crawl and butterfly and can now give his dad a swim for his money.

But apart from that, a pool is good for testing out puffle submarines (the Boy and his buddy tried a new one today, featuring a "capsule within a capsule" - it kept the puffle passenger half dry, at least). 

And a pool also turns out to be the perfect place to find out where the leak is in your rubber dinghy - as our neighbour did this afternoon with the Boy's assistance.

Plate stand

A busy day of mostly yard work.  Weeding, mulching, digging, trimming, planting grass seed.  As usual, hours of work didn't seem to make much of an impression - still, we know we did it.

There were interludes elsewhere, such as lunch at a Panera café.  In the car park the Man spotted a car with the personalized number plate: "NOHILARY".

Assuming the driver does mean that Hillary (correctly spelled), wow - they must really hate her, given that she hasn't even announced yet that she'll be running for President.

Another day

I painted a wall in the basement.  The Girl devoted three solid hours to finishing a rug-hooking project she started three years ago.  The Boy and his buddy made boats and submarines out of cardboard and packing tape, for old times' sake.  The Man got home from work and planted a couple of hydrangeas.

Maybe not the most exciting day of our lives, but with the news so full of horror this week - in Gaza, in the Ukraine - I'll take ordinary and be grateful.

Over to you

Lots to do, not much to write about.  What's going on where you are?

Harnessing her energies

The Girl is learning to do Axels in skating and has been practising in the harness.  This is possibly the same sort of contraption that enables Peter Pan to fly in pantomimes.  The Girl is strapped around the waist with a belt attached to a rope, the rope goes up through a pulley and the other end of it is held by her coach.  When she goes into the jump her coach hoists her up into the air so that she can safely turn and land.

It's quite entertaining to watch.  I rather fancy having a go myself but I'm not sure the coach would allow it.

And a panda

As he periodically does, the Boy is angling for a kitten.  "And a bunny..." he adds. "They could be besties!" 

Today he saw a video of baby pandas playing on a slide and now he thinks one of those would be lovely, too.  Sigh.

The Girl would rather have a goat.

Raining and pouring

It has been hot and humid again, despite loud torrential rain in the middle of the night - really it was like someone had unzipped the sky and all the water fell out at once...

...which was not dissimilar to our experience this evening, fixing the water supply to the drink-dispensing fridge.  It hasn't dispensed for a while, so we've been eliminating various possible causes.  Tonight, down in the basement, the Man discovered a blockage where the supply line connects to the pipe, so he unblocked it - with damply hilarious consequences (even though he'd turned the water off at the mains).  However, he soon fixed everything again, all is well, and cold water is flowing only where it should.

13.1

The Man and I were up unusually early this morning for a trip to Saratoga Springs State Park.

My plan was to sit on a bench and read a book.

The Man's plan was to run a half marathon!

We both successfully followed through on our intentions.  Obviously, reading a book didn't take much effort, but running 13.1 miles in 1 hour 46 minutes did, and had required a fair bit of training on the Man's part over several weeks.  This was the first time he'd ever run so far, and he came in smiling!  It was exciting to see him cross the finish line.

We spent the afternoon watching the World Cup Final - well deserved feet-up time for the Man.

The Man adds...this was the inaugural "Strong to Serve" Saratoga Half Marathon, with about 400 runners. The course was advertised as "fast and flat" (are they always?) but there were at least seven long hills, including a punishing one in the last half mile. The 7:30am start was a good idea in July, but it was still in the 70s and humid. However, the Park looked lovely, water and Gatorade was laid on almost every mile, and there were lots of friendly volunteers to cheer us on in our pointless torment.  It's a while since anyone has shouted "attaboy kiddo!" at me.

Jig gig

The Girl had a dancing gig this morning, at the farmers' market.  There's always music there of a Saturday, but Irish dancing was a bit of a novelty and seemed to go down well with the shoppers.  The group danced two short sets and won some applause.

Our own dancer gained herself a little fan club - a bevy of pre-school age girls sought her out in the interval and insisted that she played with them although they hadn't met her before.  When they first cornered her I heard one of them shouting gleefully "Mommy, we found one of the Irish dancers!"  They played hide and seek and had a lot of fun.

The afternoon has involved a few chores, but this evening there has been swimming and badminton in the back yard.

Bidding Wars

The Boy and his buddy devised a new game this afternoon.  It's called Bidding Wars.  It's somewhat inspired by Monopoly, without all the moving round the board and community chest and such.  Each player starts with $1.5 billion and has to bid on numbered squares reminiscent of Monopoly properties and... oh, there are many rules.  Tonight the rest of us were invited to be (according to the Boy) "the hamsters...I mean guinea-pigs!" to trial the game.

Despite my best efforts to go bankrupt and exit early, I somehow managed to win.  This was not entirely in the Boy's plan and he immediately announced that he needed to do some more work on the rules.

Chipping away

The Girl has been working hard today - at the farm all morning, then in the afternoon she volunteered at Grassroot Givers sorting book donations.  Tonight her efforts continue and she is busy tidying her room.

At least it's been cooler today, last night's storm having broken the sultry weather as well as many trees. Two roads near us were closed for much of the day so that fallen branches could be cleared. As for the mess in our own back yard, we enlisted the help of our neighbour (who happens to run a landscaping business and has all the right gear, including a mobile chipper) to sort things out for us.

Branch lines

A couple of brief but wild bursts of storm swept through the region today.  The first thundered over while I was at the ice rink in Troy with the Girl.  It felt safe enough inside the rink, but when we came out we saw there were leaves and branches all over the roads.

The second storm hit once we'd all got home for the evening.  The sky darkened, rain fell like waves and the trees whipped back and forth.  A large branch fell into our yard from next door.  Moments later, a larger branch fell off one of our trees into our other neighbours' yard, taking out a fence panel on the way.  Oh boy. 

So, we have damage to deal with and that's annoying. At least no one was hurt.

Friday finds

Here are more photos from Friday night, when the Man, Boy and I went into Albany for the fireworks.  We parked some distance from the plaza, but passed a few interesting things on our walk there and back.

Familiar sights at "The Olde English Pub" in Quackenbush Square:

Street pianos, a worldwide installation (in some sense) by British artist Luke Jerram (covered with plastic against inclement weather):

A ghost sign. Did you know more men wear Bond Clothes than any other clothes in America?

As noted before, a drive-in church, no doubt with "Pray and Display" parking (Thanks Ms Livid):

And a Moby Dick connection we were unaware of:

Driving reigns

The Girl is attending Barn School at Indian Ladder Farms this week.  While this is a Good Thing as it means her sweet self is not reclined upon the couch all day, logistically with only one car and the Man needing to get to work and the Girl to and from the farm it makes for a lot of driving.  Add in a buddy pick-up for the Boy and a trip into Albany on some errands, I feel like I haven't spent much time at home today.

Day of little rest

This morning I got up at 6:00am, to get some yard work done before the heat of the day set in.

I worked solidly and it was very satisfying to clock up three hours of weeding before breakfast.  The kids hadn't even emerged by the time I was done.  We're used to not seeing the Girl until late of a morning, but the Boy is usually an early riser.  However, he had two friends for a sleepover last night and they seem to have kept themselves up until the small hours.  Ho hum, at least they did it quietly.  Anyway, while I weeded they were stretched out all over the living room, snoozing off the night before.

I went on to do some painting in the basement, then after all those labours I felt quite OK about sitting back and watching the Wimbledon Men's Final.

Not too 4thcoming

Some friends came round for a bite to eat this evening, and we sat out on the deck where it was unusually (and pleasantly) cool for the time of year.

Our friends asked how 4th July celebrations are regarded across the pond in Britain, and were perhaps disappointed to hear that they are not regarded at all.  I suspect your average Brit doesn't even know why Americans celebrate 4th July (and they may not even know that they do celebrate it). We certainly don't have collective hard feelings about it. 

Countries, like individuals, tend to hold on to their triumphs. But when it's not your own moment of glory it's surprising how quickly you simply forget about it.

Loud Rock

We've never made it to Rockefeller Plaza for the Albany 4th July fireworks before.  We've watched them from a far-away car park and from the car while driving, but tonight three of us (minus the Girl) actually made it into town.

There was a big, good-natured crowd.  Lots of people were dressed in red, white and blue, some wearing Uncle Sam hats, some in American flag hot-pants. People had brought lawn chairs and rugs and set up little encampments.  There were food stands (the lines for ice-cream, fried dough and anything else fried were miles long; the lines for fresh fruit smoothies and baked potatoes from the Spud Shack - nah, not so much). 

The firework display was long and impressive and did I say long?  Lots more of the red white and blue theme.  There were several "false finales" with loads of fireworks going off at once, and the audience thought about cheering, then realized it wasn't over yet. 

The actual finale was like a whole  fireworks factory exploding.

Bear with him

The Man went for a run early this morning.  Along the way (just near the end of our road, in fact) he was rather surprised to encounter...

...a bear!  An actual bear!  In our neighbourhood!

It was quite a small Black Bear. He first spotted it as it meandered through someone's yard then disappeared into the woods.  Then all of a sudden it was running across the road right in front of him.

Well, it was a tale to tell at the breakfast table, that's for sure.

He looked a bit like this, but much bigger:

Bears have been in the news of late.  A bear wandered into Albany recently and came to a sad end.  The Man's little bear will be wise to keep a low profile.

Catalogue of Dreams

The Boy recently ordered an item through Amazon, .  Today his wrist-strengthening gyroscope ball, recommended by his drumming teacher, arrived. It's a jolly thing that lights up as you twirl it in your hand.

It was provided by a company called Hammacher Schlemmer, and they kindly sent along a copy of their catalogue ("Offering the Best, the Only and the Unexpected for 166 years").

It's one of those catalogues, full of things you could live without but, oh, how much more complete your life would be if it included... an Immersive Audiophile Pod, a set of Glow In The Dark Lawn Darts or a Nursery Rhyme Reciting Lamb.  I personally am not sure how I've made it this far without a pair of Fescue Flip Flops (lined with artificial turf to "create that sensation of walking on soft green turf while strolling down Fifth Avenue"); and I'm sure the next thing on the Boy's shopping list will be the Floating Lighted Pool Fountain that promises to turn our pool into "an effervescent light and water display."  I can think of one or two people who'd love the VW Bus Tent ("the waterproof tent that reproduces the classic VW bus"), and I'm sure the Man will be thrilled when I get him his very own jointed wooden necktie "that acquires its woodgrain pattern honestly because it comes from real wood."

Pop-eyed advice

Hot, hotter, hottest...into the 90sF today - not my favourite ambient temperature.

The Boy sailed through a regular "physical" (check up) his afternoon. He is now no longer off the bottom end of the centile chart, however the doctor did some quick calculations and revealed, to no-one's great surprise, that in all likelihood he will not become a giant adult.  He is healthy in every respect, and after advising him not to try e-cigarettes, to always wear his bike helmet and to eat spinach, the doctor cheerfully sent him on his way.