Oh, Why Not?

So I was not planning to do NaBloPoMo this year. I was toying with the possibility of trying to write a novel or even doing the academic version of writing every day for a month, which apparently now exists. But both of those things seem to require more preparation and thought than I've given them, while blogging can be done a bit more on the fly.

This is my lame entry for the first day, just so there's something here.

Michael is currently driving across this beautiful country so he, too, can rejoin the ranks of the westerners. I will have more time AND access to photographs when he gets here, so I'll try to post lots of pictures of our ever-growing girl.

In the meantime, here's some of what I've been doing recently:

We had a great four days of Food Day celebrations last week, ending with this day of DIY Food Workshops, which were a big hit. You can read about the bigger plans and see the great coverage our local newspaper gave us here and here. The first article started on the front page and the second was the front page, above the fold of the B section. It was a whirlwind to put this together in the first seven and a half weeks on the job, but we did it and did it successfully!

Rainy Places Should Have Something Like This

This is a very purposeful blog post. At the north end of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (our current park) is the town of Milford, PA. There's a place there called Have a Hoot Family Fun Center and the times we've taken Darcy there, I am always overwhelmed by how much a place like Crescent City needs one of these. So I took a lot of pictures to show this point.

There are many elements at Have a Hoot. I spent one visit searching out manufacturers tags on some of them because, well, they're awesome. Most come from a company called Prime Play and, in fact, Have a Hoot is the featured photo on their Family Fun Center page. It's a better picture than any of mine for showing the overall set-up and a raised view of the high ropes course. But here's Darcy on the ropes course, too:

And a picture showing a few more of the high ropes elements from the ground:

There's a climbing wall in one corner that can be seen clearly in the linked picture, and then, on three walls of the building, is a multi-story human habitrail of fun. (If you don't know what a habitrail is, check one out here.) It's hard to show how completely amazing this is (I don't even have a picture of the trampoline part, for example), but here are some images:

Fun!! There's also a laser tag area (seen in the last picture; the top of it has more habitrail (or Ballocity, as it's properly called, I believe) and lots of arcade games, although they're definitely secondary attractions. Overall, it's an amazing, active, indoor play space that is even affordable! I think it's six dollars for a two hour session. This place also has a concession stand and a party area, so a lot of people have kids' birthdays here. For a place as rainy as the North Coast, it would make a world of difference!

The Missing Picture

Michael claims the picture was on the computer all the time. I still have my doubts. Either way, here is Darcy reading at the library on Monday afternoon:

And here's a picture from the hike Michael and I took a few hours before the library trip:

It's a little washed out, but that's a cute red eft hanging out on the moss. We took a "hike" a few weeks ago that ended up being a tiptoe through the over-200 efts on the trail. This time, we saw a dozen or so. Very nice amphibians they are.

Better Late Than Never? And Better Random Than Not At All?

So, yeah. I've been a little lazy with the ol' blog recently. Sorry about that. Moving to Pennsylvania and job-searching for months on end apparently does that to me. I know that pictures are the easiest path to forgiveness in this situation, so here are some recent stories and pictures.

Our small beast (feline variety) was recently ill. Last week, she was listless and stopped eating, and when I took her to the vet, her temperature was more than four degrees above kitty-normal. We didn't get an actual diagnosis, but the vet said that it happens frequently to cats and they DO know how to fix it. Paige got a shot of antibiotics and a shot to bring down the fever. It took many more days than I'd like, but she is finally back to normal, as judged by my 4:30am wake-up kitty snuggle today. In better times, Paige is very fond of bags:

Darcy, in the meantime, has turned into a full-time bookworm. She reads constantly and FAST. In truth, many of her chapter books aren't very long, but she often finishes one on the drive home from the library. Or in the library, as seen here:
(Well, you would see that here if Michael had sent it to the computer from his phone, but since he didn't, you'll have to wait patiently while I get him to do that for a future post.)

In the meantime, you can have this picture of Darcy at her bridging ceremony. She is moving from Daisies to Brownies next year and these transitions are celebrated in style. Each girl walked over the bridge and then shook hands with all the Brownies, who welcomed them into that level. It was very hot (third floor of an Elks Lodge with over a hundred people), but very cute.

Many weeks ago, all of us volunteered at a Hands-on-History event at historic Millbrook Village, on the New Jersey side of the park. I told visiting students all about food preservation methods, Michael worked in the mill, and Darcy helped churn butter. Sort of. Mostly, she wandered wherever she wanted and harassed teenagers who happened to put on Beatles t-shirts that morning. But in theory, she helped churn quite a lot of butter. We were all in costume (mine was of the oversized-flour-sack variety, with an apron to give it some sort of shape) and had a family portrait taken:

A good time was had by all. I warned students about the dangers of scurvy on long sea voyages and explained that one way to keep bad bacteria OUT was by letting good bacteria eat your food first. I'm not sure they all bought it, but they paid attention. Except the kindergartners who were on their sixth station; they paid attention to the spider crawling on the sauerkraut. It was pretty.

And there is a very random blog post that gives small glimpses into our lives. In other random news: Darcy has hit the first pitch in both of her last t-ball games (they pitch to them in late innings, but go back to the T after five or six pitches); I picked 3.5 pounds of beets from our community garden plot today and many pounds of potatoes are not far behind; we had a full house with grandparents, aunt, cousin, and friends for my sister's birthday weekend; Darcy has become friends with both cicadas and fireflies this summer; we are having insane amounts of rain here, including some thunder now; Michael is brewing beer at a steadily increasing pace this summer; and if you haven't tried the game Qwirkle, you should.

I May Just Be A Careless Mother

There's a photo I've wanted to share of Darcy and Paige-the-kitten for a while. It is absolutely adorable -- a picture I will love forever. The problem is, the photo was taken just after Darcy got out of the bath and she hadn't yet stood still long enough to get clothes on her. Any clothes. So it seemed like a bad thing to put on the internet.

But it keeps taunting me in the photo stream. So I've cropped it and decided to share:

Paige, as you may be able to tell, will tolerate almost any action of Darcy's. She routinely gets flattened to the ground when Darcy gets home; gets carried around like a sausage, held tight at the middle; and manages to avoid biting and scratching through it all. Maybe the extra toes (seen so clearly in this picture) give her extra tolerance. Or maybe she just knows that Darcy is the One Who Must Be Best Loved.

Paige has had a hard day today. She got scolded by a squirrel for five or ten minutes while she was sunning herself on the deck. Then her terrible mother brushed and cleaned her. And then her even more terrible mother managed to (almost completely accidentally) pour water on her while watering plants.

Luckily, Paige has Sluggy to soothe her. Her favorite toy, for several days running now, is a plastic banana slug. She carries it around, tosses it in the air by its tentacles, and bats it all over the house. I'd say she's probably played with it for a cumulative two hours already today and there will no doubt be more. She's a cat obsessed. Do you think that she would hunt down real slugs if she lived in Crescent City? 

Spring Has Sprung

One of the good things about being back in the northeast is the existence of four distinct seasons. I like that. We are now fully in the throes of a beautiful, fresh green spring. It's taken the trees a while to get with the program, but our view is slowly being taken away by leaves. I'm ok with that.

My favorite botanical part of spring -- by far -- is the bright shiny appearance of daffodils. I love daffies of all sizes and color combinations (although I don't really love doubles; a terrible thing to do to a daffodil). So we recently made a trip south to Longwood Gardens to admire the daffies at their peak. I meant to take the camera, but forgot it and was at the mercy of Michael and the iPhone for photos. I think he took less than 20. So sad. But here are a few of them for your viewing pleasure:

Darcy and the forsythia. 

The toothless garden princess. Wish it was a better view of her missing upper teeth!

In a field of small blue flowers.

In the amazing conservatory, where there is an expanded, awesome kids area since I last visited these gardens.

And finally, the bathrooms. Yes, this beautiful hall of living walls is the new(er) bathroom wing of the conservatory. Each of these doorways leads to a spherical, bright red private bathroom. They're awesome. You can see the interior here. (There are also YouTube videos of the bathrooms, but that seems excessive.)

We had a great day. If you live within striking distance of Kennett Square, PA, where the garden is located, you should treat yourself and go visit sometime. It was a great way to welcome and enjoy spring in the northeast.

World War I Reminders

Some of my regular readers might know that April 25th is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the day when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops first landed at Gallipoli. By the time that unsuccessful campaign ended, 8,700 Australian soldiers and 2,700 Kiwi soldiers had died. 

The campaign has been immortalized in film (Gallipoli, one of Mel Gibson's positive contributions to cinema) and song (I'll get to that in a bit). If you've never watched Gallipoli and feel a need to renew your anti-war stance, Gallipoli will do it. As I've learned this year, so will almost anything else that gives a moderately realistic view of the horrors of trench warfare. I had read some classic World War I fiction and poetry in the past, but this year seems to be the year of the first world war for me and the inhumanity of war has screamed out loud and clear.

In particular, Birdsong, a novel by Sebastian Faulk, caught me off-guard. It's part of the famous list of posts past. Yes, I'm still working my way through those hundred books. Many of the books I haven't read are books I know very little about, so when I borrowed Birdsong from the library, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Turns out that much of the novel is very graphic description of life in and under the trenches, with several key characters being members of a unit working to tunnel under and blow up the German trenches.

Much less graphic, but still a vivid reminder was, of all things, Downton Abbey's WWI episodes. They were the first bookend of my fictional foray into the trenches. I don't think I've yet come to the end of it and that's ok. As awful as it was to see and read about the horrors and incredible waste of trench warfare, it was infinitely worse to live (or die) through it or any other war and it's important to remember the sacrifices and work to make sure there aren't more in the future.

And so, on the American eve of ANZAC Day (it's almost over in the countries that actually celebrate it already), I'll leave you with a very classic song about Gallipoli, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, as performed very nicely by The Pogues.