USCRI

Elsewhere in this blog I've mentioned Nipper, a giant dog on top of a building, and my favourite Albany landmark.  As far as I used to know, the Nipper building just housed Arnoff's Removal Company.  Tonight I went inside and learnt better.

On the ground floor there's an Irish-American Museum - who knew?  But I wasn't there for that.  I was heading up to the next floor to attend a volunteer orientation event at the local branch of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

USCRI is the hub of support for refugees in the Albany area - and much of that support comes from volunteers.  About 400 refugees arrive here each year, fleeing war or persecution, and they desperately need assistance.  Many, such as those from Burma, have lived for years in rudimentary camps in the jungle, and they arrive in this country with little more than the clothes on their backs.  USCRI sets them up with a place to live, basic resources and a case worker to help them begin the challenging process of settling into a brand new culture.  Refugees have just 90 days of fully funded, professional assistance - three months to try and find their feet in an environment so alien they may as well have landed on another planet.

Volunteers act as mentors, teachers and friends as they try to help refugees along the road to independence. They might lend a hand with booking medical appointments, or explaining paperwork, or teaching how to navigate the public transport system.  Some volunteers offer English lessons.  Others organise collections for needed household items, or help furnish an apartment. There are all sorts of ways to help.  

I know most of my readers aren't anything like local, but if you do happen to live around here, and if helping refugees is something you'd like to get involved with, there's lots more information here.

Fast and fiery

The other evening the Boy had been invited out to the cinema (Cars 2 in 3D, verdict: better than the well-liked original) and the Girl was hankering after Mexican food (never thought I'd get to say that about my daughter), so the Man and I took her to the Chipotle in Stuyvesant Plaza.

Chipotle is a Mexican grill fast-food chain restaurant.  Put like that it doesn't sound too enticing, does it, but I was actually pretty impressed.  They make a big deal of using fresh, local ingredients (they know what their middle-class farmers' market-shopping clientele is after), and I have to say the vegetarian burrito that the Man and I shared did taste very fresh and good.  The Girl enjoyed two beef tacos, with meat from hormone-free, pasture-fed cows and seemed quite happy about it (though she had to suck on ice-cubes afterwards to counteract the spiciness).

The decor was a bit industrial for my taste (polished concrete floors, unfinished ceiling etc), and the poor acoustics and wide range of choices plus our funny accents made ordering the food a bit of a chore.  Next time we'll rehearse our order before we go in.  Because I liked it enough to hope there'll be a next time.

On hold

We should have had tickets for our annual UK visit sorted out by now - only there's a glitch.  The Girl's passport needs to be renewed.  We had in fact cottoned on to this a while back and I submitted the old passport to the British Embassy in Washington DC some seven weeks ago, knowing this would give us plenty of time as the relevant website clearly states that renewal takes four weeks, six at most.

Or it did.  They posted a message on the website on June 16 to say that due to unexpected demand they are "experiencing delays".  And since they only got round to processing payment for our application on June 17, we know those delays apply to us.  In an effort to confirm when, if ever, we're likely to get our daughter's passport back, I've been trying to ring the inappropriately named passport "helpline".

Advice on the helpline costs money (72p a minute, plus tax) so the automated message when you first call up instructs you to have your credit card at the ready - otherwise no advice.  If you don't have a credit card that's just too bad, I suppose.  Anyway.  I listened to the message, then was surprised to get a real dial tone almost at once...but it cut out.  I rang again.  Listened to the message.  Listened to the dial-waiting and the soothing Scottish voice telling me that due to a heavy load of calls I might want to ring back later, or I could stay on the line if I didn't care about the cost of an international call... I hung on, got through to a real person (!!) and got as far as telling him I'm in the USA...and then the call cut out.

I rang again.  Listened to the message.  Listened to the dial-waiting message.  Eventually got through to another person.  She needed me to key in my credit card number.  I tried to do so via my on-screen skype dial-pad but it didn't register her end.  Neither did my keyboard.  She advised me to check on my "keyboard connectivity settings", or try another phone, but didn't offer to key in my number herself even though we were clearly two real people speaking to each other - she wasn't allowed to do that, don't ask me why.

I hung up.  Tinkered with my settings.  Rang again.  Credit-card message.  Dial-waiting message.  Dial tone... Cut out.

Bureaucracy meets technology, with tedious consequences.  I have given up.   I might try again - when I have regained the will to live.

Strawberry fields forever

Not just sheep encounters yesterday, but goats too.  The goats were at Indian Ladder Farms where we went to pick berries. 

Raspberries are just coming into their own now, but the strawberry season is pretty much over.  Much of the last fruit was spoiled by all the recent rain, too - more's the pity.  But the smell took me back to warm summer evenings in Oxford, rolling home along Binsey Lane from the Perch after a half of Guinness (I always have been a very cheap date); the light of the moon and the heady scent of rotting strawberries wafting over from the pick-your-own fields.  Happy days.

What scents take you back to times past?

Sheep-shape

We made a trip with the 4-H club today to Ravens Roost sheep farm in Hannacroix, about half an hour south of home.

Ross and Liz, the owners who kindly showed us round, run the farm more as an exercise in self-sufficiency than as a business, although they sell their surplus at a couple of farmers' markets.  They led us through their fields, where we met their chickens and, further out, their small flock of Icelandic sheep.  Both chickens and sheep are penned, but the pens are rotated around the meadow every few days onto fresh pasture.  So these were pretty happy, healthy creatures. 

 We were given a lesson in wool:  how to get it off the sheep; then how you have to pick it clean and carefully wash it; how you "card" it with spikey metal brushes to get it into a state to spin it using a drop-spindle or a spinning wheel;  how to twist the spun wool into 2-ply yarn; and how to wind it into skeins, ready for knitting.  We also talked about felting, and how to mould wet felt into hats and slippers or craft it into toys.  As Liz says, to have the patience to go through all these labour-intensive processes you really have to love doing it - or else why would you?  It happens that she does enjoy dealing with wool, and likes to keep traditional crafts alive.

If ever anyone gives you a gift made from handspun, hand-knitted or hand-felted wool - treasure it.  You'll never credit all the hours and effort that went into it.

Diversity

So, what to write about today?

I could tell you about the special event "honoring refugee cultures" that I attended at the Unitarian Universalist church in Albany this afternoon.  The hall was packed with refugees from Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, Senegal, Sudan...all in traditional costume, taking turns to perform music and songs and dance.  Day to day it's easy to forget what an interesting, colourful and diverse world we live in - this was a great reminder.

Or, speaking of diversity, I could give a hooray for New York State finally saying yes to Marriage Equality, giving gay couples the same rights as straight couples and making this corner of the world a slightly fairer place.  I hope other states and countries can be equally grown up about this issue and quickly follow suit.

Or shall I just relate a small but noteable incident that happened at home?  At 6:05 this morning a skunk passed through our front yard.  How do I know? Because it was so stinky that I had to get up and close all the windows.  No matter how long we're here, there are still new and surprising experiences to be had.

No-fly screen

It has never happened before, but this year we keep getting birds flying around in the house.  One got in while my parents were here, another got trapped in the three season room last week, and today two wrens came and flapped all around the downstairs until I opened a window and shooed them out.  Forgetting to close the sliding flyscreen at the back of the house obviously doesn't help, but I don't think we're being more careless than we ever used to be.  Anyway, today I just had time to note how different a bird looks when it's not in its natural environment.  Or maybe it's not the bird itself that looks different, but the way that you find yourself looking at it when it's perched on the back of a dining chair?

Meanwhile the kids got involved with a nature observation project of their own this afternoon.  Each had a friend over, and they spent a good chunk of their time together hanging out in a couple of muddy ponds that have formed on some land up the road.  The children discovered lots of tadpoles and froglets, and got busy with containers, moving tadpoles from the swamp most likely to dry up first to the deeper one across the road. 

They all ended up covered in mud, with their wellies full of pondwater.  Hooray!  You can't beat the summer holidays!

Grand memories

It has been another coolish, greyish, wettish day here.  I had quite a productive afternoon in front of the computer, but that's not very interesting to write or read about.  So I'm going to hark back to sunnier, more bloggable days and share a few more pictures of that oh-so-Grand Canyon:

Rain doesn't stop play

School's out, summer has officially begun...so of course it's pouring with rain.

No matter.  I've started my regular summer job - that of social secretary/cab driver for the kids.  After a couple of phone calls this morning I was picking up the Boy's buddy for the day, and delivering the Girl elsewhere so that she could also hang out with a friend.  Apparently she's having such a good time that she's not coming home until tomorrow.

As of next week the Girl will be starting the first of several summer camp experiences.  Meanwhile the Boy is planning on taking a DIY approach to vacation activities and will be inviting friends over to join him at Camp Puffle.

Moving up

Tonight the Girl attended her very last event as an Elementary student - the "moving up" ceremony. 

All the kids from her grade were there, dressed up for the occasion.  There were songs, there were speeches.  Diplomas were awarded.  There were some very tall girls, and some very short boys.  We were shown a homemade video of the school trip to Nature's Classroom, which was fun but left some of us feeling slightly seasick. 

Then it was time for cake and fizzy punch...and goodbyes.  Our Girl has only had one year at this school, but it has been an exciting year, full of new experiences.  And now she's officially a 6th Grader, a Middle Schooler, with whole new set of challenges ahead of her.  Moving up, and growing up.

But first, vacation...ahhh!

Field Day - warts and all

Today was Field Day at the kids' school.  I must say, I much prefer field day to the traditional British "Sports Day".  The annual humiliation of coming last in a running race, in front of the whole of the rest of the school plus everyone's parents has always been hard for me to love.  At field day it's all team games and activities, no onlookers, and what token element of competition there is comes far behind the main directive of the day - to have fun.

It's a whole day event, and I had volunteered to help for the first couple of hours.  As a newbie, I was allocated to a somewhat controversial activity called "Fungus Feet".  Actually, not its real name.  "Marble Toes" is when you have a paddling pool filled with water and marbles, and you sit around with a bunch of your classmates picking out the marbles with your bare feet.

As one of the teachers put it, "Hands up who wants a communicable disease!"  Though kids with suppurating sores on their feet were not allowed to take part, everyone else was welcome, athletes foot and verrucas (plantar warts) and all.  Traditionally, no-one changes the water throughout the day.  And when the game was over, the kids all shared towels to dry their feet, too!  Admittedly it doesn't match the infection-spreading ambition of a certain English junior school (see comments to this link) where the kids all had to bob for apples in a shared bucket at the height of the swine flu epidemic. Even so...

Ah, but after a full day of wet-sponge relays, capture-the-flag, skipping (jump-rope), face-painting, sno-cones and much, much more, what did both my kids think was the best activity of them all? 

Yep, you guessed it.  "That game where you pick up marbles with your toes."

Fairway or foul

Apparently there's a Northern Irish wonderboy who's been breaking records at the US Open Golf this weekend.  Maybe that's what inspired the sports-loving Man to take us all, plus the Boy's buddy, on a mini-golfing outing this evening.  He's ever-hopeful of enjoying vicarious sporting glory through his offspring.

But alas, with shades of their mother in her younger days, our kids (when not cheating outrageously) brought an attitude to tonight's game that was more McEnroe than McIlroy.  To be fair, much of their fury and frustration was related to the fact that we wouldn't buy them any soft-serve ice-cream, but even so, I suspect young Rory doesn't have too much to fear from us. 

Llamas' Market

For whatever reason (and frankly I don't care what the reason is, they are so gorgeous), llamas have taken to guesting at our local farmers' market.   Have you ever met one?  They're lovely.

I had a great time at the market - it's network central for me, the place where I catch up with friends and contacts, meet new people and get inspired to embark on yet more projects.  I came home full of news and ideas and inspiration, and the kids came home full of homefries, chocolate brownie and lemonade - satisfaction all round.

We rescued a frog from the pool today, the first of the season, and relocated it to our neighbours' pond.  Unfortunately there was a less happy outcome for a wren I fished out.  Wrens have been nesting under our three-season room (it's on stilts) and I guess they flew this morning, but one of them didn't make it very far.  So sad.

Tonight the Man has stayed home keeping an eye on our own kids plus a couple more that we carelessly accrued for the evening, while I've been partying all night (well, for a couple of hours, anyway) up the street at another neighbour's house. I poliyely declibed the vodka-soked shlices of watermelon - can you tell?

What's the opposite of "going Green"?

We have opened up the pool for the season.  First thing this morning it looked like this:

Fancy a dip?

Not so much, eh?

Don't worry.  Already after a good dose of chlorine and a few hours of filtering it has turned from lurid lime, through jade, to a rather nice shade of celadon.  Before you know it it'll be sparklingly clear.  So, stop by again in a day or two - and bring your cozzie!

On second thoughts, with the water temperature a bracing 60F, you might want to make that a wetsuit.

Map-reading for girls

I had to go for a routine mammogram today.  The hospital where I went to get it done has all been changed around since my last visit, and the mammography unit is now in a different building.  There is construction work going on, and just generally the whole site is confusing to negotiate.  Not really helped at all by a map on the parking lot wall that was obviously put up by a man.  Everything was back to front.

I have been scoffed at before now (by men) because I nearly always have to turn maps upside down when I want to find out where I am.  In fact a lot of women have to do this.  It's not because we're all thick, it's just that our brains are wired up differently.  There have been academic studies that show this to be the case.

So where am I going with all this?  Well, off in entirely the wrong direction if that map at the hospital had been all I had to go on - I'd probably be lost and wandering there still if they hadn't also thought to put up some arrows around the place pointing to the building I needed.  It really seems quite unfair at a hospital, where ipso facto most visitors are already feeling anxious, to put up a map that a large proportion of the population can't read without standing on their heads - don't you think?

Counting down the days

With the 5th Graders about to leave elementary school forever, there's no end of events scheduled to mark their transition.  Today in the Girl's class, parents were invited to come in and hear each student read out an essay saying what their school had meant to them.  Many of them who had attended for six years (counting Kindergarten) called it their "second home".  Our Girl, still a newcomer really after only one year, wasn't quite so fulsome, but still spoke warmly (and rather entertainingly) about this, her second American school experience.

The Boy was along to listen, too, although he was officially off school for the day, having just had his teeth fitted with braces.  Not the best day of his life.  The uncomfortable new metalwork will take a while to get used to - not to mention the absence of popcorn from his diet for a whole year. 

On a cheerier note, at least we managed to track down a new puffle for him this afternoon, and also a Boston Red Sox baseball cap for him to wear to his class's "Baseball Day" tomorrow.  His classmates have promised not to give him a hard time about his braces, but I'm not sure he'll get such an easy ride over his choice of team...

The slice is right

It has been quite a positive day.  Two projects I'm involved with for Five Rivers are progressing well, and a gathering is being planned to launch a regional fair trade coalition, which will be a great way to pull a lot of people together and give us all a stronger voice.

And in other news... I bought one of the Capital District's best croissants today.  The Placid Baker is actually based in Troy, but has a stall at the farmers' market which convenes on Tuesday afternoons at Delmar United Methodist Church.  I was passing there today and swung in to take a look, hoping the Placid Baker would be there.  I was in luck.  The croissant was the most delicious I've tasted this side of Paris, full of buttery yumness. 

And at teatime a bit of butter on a wodge of artisan baguette wasn't half bad, either.  Bread of heaven...

Scouting for puffles

The Girl had a "bridging" ceremony this evening with her Girl Scout troop as they moved up to Cadette level.  Cutely, it took place on an actual bridge down at Five Rivers, thanks to a bit of imaginative planning by the very nice Girl Scout leader.

And since then I've been on a wild puffle hunt with the Boy.  He was determined to wear a set of red, white and blue clip-on puffles on his shirt tomorrow for Flag Day, and was in need of the blue and the red.  Puffles?  Oh, you're not a Club Penguin afficionado then?  Honestly, if you don't know you probably don't want to - they're kind of pompom/gonk hybrids. 

Anyway.  We dashed madly from store to store...but alas, Albany is all out of puffles.  My son will have to put up with just wearing clothes in patriotic colours tomorrow, like the rest of his classmates (it's possible his patriotism may be differently directed to theirs - but, hey, who's going to know?).

Virtually on vacation

It has been another rather grey, unsummery day here - but no complaints from me, I like it cool. 

Though the kids have been out seeing friends, the Man and I have stayed close to home.  We've been working on various tasks, a major one being cleaning the filter before the guy comes to open the pool for us later in the week.  It took us a while to get rid of a whole lot of last season's gunk - which alas will be quickly replaced once the pool is up and running, because the water will be starting out pretty green (actually, not a particularly pretty green, though not quite as bad as the first time).

The children are about to embark on their last full week of school - just seven school days left altogether, in fact.  Then, like every other kid, they'll spend the lo-o-o-ng summer vacation out in the fields, harvesting the crops on the family farmstead...  Oh, no, we don't all do that anymore, do we?  But the Girl has a computer game that involves running a virtual ranch - d'you think that counts?

Pick and choose

It was perfect weather at yesterday's carnival.  This morning: torrential rain.  Too bad for the organisers and exhibitors of the sheep and wool festival we'd planned to visit at Thacher Park - that event ended up being cancelled. 

But by late morning things were clearing a little.  We made it out to the library and the Farmers' Market.  In the afternoon, a couple of us got up to Indian Ladder Farms to pick our first strawberries of the season - lots of lovely ripe berries practically falling off their stalks into our hands as we picked them.

Tonight, take-out Thai food (the Girl tried, and even liked, something new) and a family movie (Nim's Island) and...more rain.

Hoop-la hustler

This evening we all attended the school carnival which took place in the sunshine outside on the playground.  Since the school takes children from five years-old up to eleven there was a wide range of games and activities to suit all tastes, with a bit of a bias towards the younger end, but whatever age, everyone seemed to be having a good time . 

As a veteran of many a playgroup/infant school/fall fair I was happy to note a few nice variants on some old themes.  Instead of a lucky dip, there was "pick a pocket" (a woman in a long skirt with about fifteen pockets to "pick" from - each had a small prize inside).  Instead of face-painting there was nail-painting - much simpler yet incredibly popular (mix and match up to three colours!).  The most popular game of all was the cake walk - do we play that in Britain? I can't remember.  A sort of musical chairs, but  instead of chairs you step on numbered mats and if you are on the right one when that number is called you win a cake.  Kids were queueing for miles for that one.

Games were paid for in tickets, and if you won you received tickets in a different colour that could be exchanged for prizes.  The Girl did what she always does - identified the game she could most easily win and invested all her play-tickets in that.  Tonight it was a hoop-la.  She then converted her fistful of win-tickets into a haul of gotta-have plastic items.  Lately the Man and I have both been reading Bringing Down the House, based on the true story of a group of MIT students who worked out how to make millions hustling at blackjack.  Having watched our daughter in action tonight, we're beginning to wonder what sort of career she might be in training for...

Half Nelson

The Man writes...unlike my previous trip to Montreal, this week I stayed in the heart of the city. It was a pleasure on a sultry evening to wander the pedestrianised streets of the old town and check out all the glowing restaurants on the lively Place Jacques-Cartier (although even on a Tuesday, all the outside seating was taken).

I rose early on a brilliant morning and joined the joggers and skippers on the quais - the St Lawrence River here is so wide it almost feels like a sea front. Then I returned to Place Jacques-Cartier and found, of all things, Nelson's Column.  It is less than half the height of the one in London, but was built thirty years earlier by English merchants to celebrate Nelson's victory over the French in Trafalgar. It was probably the last thing I expected to see in a province, where since the 1974 Official Language Act, the only official language is French.

Au revoir

Yet another trip to Five Rivers this morning (and why not?), then up to Thacher Park for the view from the escarpment.  Only it was so hot by then (90F and rising) that the view was obscured by haze and the usual Albany landmarks, such as the university and the Corning Tower, were invisible.

We had lunch at Indian Ladder Farms and that was very good.  But then it was time to come home and pack the suitcases into the rental car, and say all the goodbyes.  My parents and aunt drove away towards Boston (and as I write they'll be just about taking off on their homebound flight).  I hope they had a good visit - I think they did.  I haven't mentioned half of what they've been up to in the way of art gallery outings, not to mention planting vegetables, fixing bikes, cooking delicious dinners and such.  We've all enjoyed having them to stay.

As ever, the house suddenly seemed very empty and quiet and I felt rather moochy...until the kids got in from school, and I had to take the Boy to a dental appointment (went well), and the Girl had a school party to attend, then both kids needed taking to another party...

The merry-go-round never really stops for longer than about five minutes, does it?

Top spot

Our visitors' last full day with us.  The Man has business in Canada for a couple of days, so he said his farewells this morning.  Once the kids were at school the rest of us took a gentle hike at Five Rivers. 

Actually we mostly stood still, which is also something well worth doing in a wildlife preserve.  The creatures came to us - we spotted two kinds of turtle, fish, a frog (we heard a lot more of those), a heron, a beaver and a muskrat.  A bit later, sitting at the viewing window inside the nature center, we watched woodpeckers (red-bellied and downy), a blue-jay, red-winged blackbirds, goldfinches, a hummingbird and a rose-breasted grosbeak - quite a colourful cabaret around the birdfeeders. 

Later still in the day, towards dusk, Dad and I took a brisker hike around a different trail and met a family of geese and lots of bunnies.  There's always something to see on the trails.  It may not have views quite as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon, but Five Rivers is still a great place to enjoy the wonders of Nature.

Shakers and bakers

It was a beautiful day to visit Hancock Shaker Village, which is where my Mum and aunt and I went today.  The sun was shining but it wasn't too hot.  The village was quiet and it was peaceful just ambling about.  I was, as ever, very struck by Shaker ingenuity.  They invented a chair that can tip back safely without denting the floor (it has ball-and-socket feet on the back legs).  In the museum shop I bought an elegant one-handed salad-serving implement made from cherry wood and hinged with a brass pin. 

This evening our same party of three set out to a quilt meeting in Clifton Park, half an hour north of home.  Mum had by chance been in correspondence with a member of the group and she'd invited us along.  It was all very jolly.  Several quilt shop owners were there giving presentations about new stock and upcoming classes.  There was a display of challenge quilts that group members had made.  There was a show-and-tell session.  The co-president's baby was passed around the room to be looked after by whoever had a free pair of arms.  And because it was the last meeting for the summer there were cookies - loads and loads of cookies. 

Apparently everyone (and there are more than 200 members) had been asked to bring along a dozen cookies to share.  With a sudden burst of mathematical genius I worked out that meant everyone was also expected to eat a dozen cookies.  Luckily they didn't all manage it, and I was sent home with a plateful of cookies for the family.  I'm liking this group.  I may just have to visit again.

Fort for the day

Just when you're thinking you've seen everything and been everywhere there is to go within an hour of home, you realise that just a 45 minute drive away there are interesting places you never even knew about.

Schoharie County is west of us.  It's not that I don't know it at all (in fact I was there with Dad just over a week ago, at the Landis Arboretum), but I don't know a lot of it.  Today we took a scenic drive to the Old Stone Fort.

This museum was once a church, which was fortified during the Revolutionary War.  The exhibits inside are largely military, though upstairs there's an eclectic mix, seemingly of anything anyone local has ever donated.  Antique toys and lace and buttons, assorted items from the Philippines, decorative wreaths made from human hair (impressive, in a eeuw kind of way), a replica dinosaur egg.  The kids might have just whisked through quickly, but fortunately there was a scavenger hunt for them to complete which encouraged them to give the whole collection a bit more of their attention.  The nice period-costumed ladies in the gift shop downstairs even offered them prizes for having found everything. 

In addition to the main museum, there are several other buildings to explore, including a one-roomed schoolhouse with slates for you to practise writing on, a fine old Dutch barn, and a house containing examples of early recording and broadcasting equipment.  A little further down the road there's a covered bridge - built, because someone thought that would be fun, in about 1982.

Ten minutes more in the car and we arrived at Vroman's Nose, Middleburgh.  A short but very steep wooded hike leads to a promontory that gives a grand, sweeping view of a wide section of the Schoharie Valley.  It was overcast today so the colours of the fields were muted, but it was all very impressive and lovely.   There are sheer drops off the top, and no barriers, so it's not somewhere I'd want to take an untamed toddler (I was nervous enough supervising a nine year old in a silly mood), but it felt satisfyingly adventurous.

All in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon.  Even our kids, who (typically) had expressed reluctance about going on a family outing admitted afterwards (as usual) that they'd had a fun time.

Flying Elvis?

I spent the morning "on retreat" with other Friends of Five Rivers Board members, brainstorming and trying to prioritise the activities we should focus on in the months ahead.  It was fun and quite productive, but of course the real challenge will come when we attempt to implement our ideas.  It will be interesting to look back a year from now and see what we've actually achieved.

Meanwhile other members of the household were pursuing a range of other activities.  The Girl was away at Scout Camp, making a birdbox.  The visitors and Boy went down to check out the local farmers' market as it reopened for the season (they found it thriving, with cuddly live llamas as a special attraction).  Then the Boy was whisked away by his alternative family while my parents and aunt headed off across the state border to visit the Clark Art Institute.

Once the Girl and I had been reunited at home, we went and met up with the Boy again at an event at the kids' old school.  It was good to catch up with a few people we hadn't seen for a while, and although it felt a little strange to be back in a place we're not part of now, still it was a beautiful day just to be hanging out on a field.

As I write, the Man is winging his way home from Vegas - at last. Whether or not he's still in his rhinestone-spangled jumpsuit remains to be seen.

Capitol morning

 My parents had seen round the New York State Capitol on a previous visit here, but since I'd still not been myself I was very happy to take my aunt along for a tour today.  And very enjoyable it was.

It's an interesting building, encompassing several architectural styles because it took more than thirty years and five architects to get it made.  If lavish is your thing, it might be right up your street - it contains masses of imported stone, intricately carved; craftsman-tiled floors; luxury leather chairs a-plenty; and, in the Assembly Room, a whole lot of pure gold cladding.  The legislators have sure known how to spend the taxpayers' dollars over the years (that gold I mentioned was only installed in 2003).  I can't help thinking that the people we vote into power might stay better focused on the needs of their electorate if their surroundings were a little less grandiose.  Discuss.

Having said that, I did appreciate the fancy lifts (elevators) - the OTIS company's oldest and finest.  There was also a jolly carpet version of the New York State seal (no, not the arf-arf flipper-flapping kind).  The guide talked us through it - the Eagle on top of the world; the sun smiling down on the Hudson River, complete with Dutch sloop; and the two goddesses, of Justice and Liberty.  Liberty is stamping her left foot on Evil, as symbolised by...the British crown.

They just never let you forget.

All shook up

Dad and I went for a walk at Five Rivers this afternoon and managed to get completely lost.  We somehow strayed off the trail in an outlying wooded area and before we knew it had wandered deep into the untamed forest, and possibly off 5R territory altogether.  Luckily, just at the point (as we stumbled over roots and picked our way through clumps of poison ivy) when it had ceased to be an amusing adventure and (almost) started to be a little nerve-wracking, we found ourselves back on a marked path.  So we didn't end up having to construct a shelter out of sticks or eat raw chipmunks, which was a relief.

Meanwhile someone in Vegas has sent me this photo, with no explanation.  Maybe I just have a suspicious mind, but it makes me wonder, has the Man at his "conference" decided to explore a new career path? 

Well, I guess it's now or never...

Uh-huh-huh.

In memoriam

This evening I attended a memorial for a fellow Five Rivers volunteer who sadly died last month.  In the style of the person we were remembering, it was an informal, unpretentious sort of event.  We met up at the preserve and walked together to a spot Mary-Lou had particularly loved, beside the creek. 

Most people there had known her much longer than I had - she had been a volunteer instructor at Five Rivers for 32 years.  They recalled funny moments with her and talked about what they admired about her - her passion for nature, her kindness to children, her generosity of spirit.  Tears were shed, but laughter was shared too.

Someone had wanted to release balloons in her memory, but as environmentalists of course we couldn't do that.  Butterflies would have been nice, but in the end we released a couple of bees - and that was a fitting symbol I think because she always worked tirelessly, and she could be quite fierce at times in support of causes dear to her.  Also because the world really needs bees, and it really needs people like Mary-Lou:  she cared about the Earth, gave unstintingly and lived joyfully.  She will be missed.

Rolling home

It's 1:30am, and I'm home.  Not the Man.  I've left him at the tables in Vegas, rolling for early retirement. 

Nah, not really.  He's attending a conference - that's how all this mega-mini-break adventure came about.  While I've been on the plane he's been uploading photos from the last couple of days - check 'em out!

It's been a long old day, starting early morning with one last view of the canyon. Since then, one way and another I've covered a lot of miles.  Definitely time for bed again.