Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Spring Break 2010

Gail and Ben and Miles and I have been walking more lately, a lot of the time on a retired railroad bed that runs from Saranac Lake through to Onchiota...



It's a gorgeous stretch of country, along a bog in a valley...



It's a great place to get Miles in shape for off-lead walking...lots of space in combination with lots of tempting smells...he's been great so far...



The weather has been pretty civilized, which makes it nice for walking, after a long winter inside...


Ben and I fueling up partway through one of the walks...


We could see a snowstorm sweeping across the valley towards us as Gail and Ben and Miles posed for this professional-grade photo...it arrived a couple of seconds later...huge wet flakes that covered, for a brief time, the ground and trees on our walk back to the car...


Beautiful swamp off to one side of the trail on our walk home...



Miles likes our bologna training method...



Ben and I headed down to Cornwall, CT (and subsequently into NYC) for the 1st week of our spring break...one of the treats of getting to CT was meeting Allie, this chihuahua/dachshund mix...



We babysat her a couple of time over the weekend, and she liked watching movies and running around outside with Ben...



She's a serious cutie...



Once in NYC, we made tracks to the nearby playground in Madison Square Park, which was curiously deserted (raining and 40 degrees...go figure)...Ben and I had fun in the park...



I love these manhole covers...



A recent placement of artwork around the park has placed a couple dozen of these eerie watchers on buildings surrounding the park...my deep-brain (unconscious) pattern recognition kept pointing them out to me as I played with Ben...



I may not know art, but I know what I find slightly creepy and offputting...



On the way back to the apartment, Ben and I were cold and wet, so we picked up some cannoli and sushi on the way home...we like NYC!



Later int he afternoon, we headed over to Madison Square Garden to see the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus...we got there early, and were able to go down onto the floor and mix it up with some of the animals and performers before the circus got started...



We had a great time...


It was a great show, a spectacle really, with amazing animals and acrobats and such...



We got home for some pizza and Ben read to the Anti-Sarah for awhile before bedtime...it was a full day...



Yesterday, as the Ark-inducing deluge continued, we went to an indoor playground, which featured a series of highly interactive water tables and some climbing opportunities...Ben had a blast for 2 full hours...



He was very excited about learning/understanding/hacking the systems of water-flow in the water tables, and it was a good thing that I brought a full change of clothes...



After the play-space, we headed uptown for a couple of hours in the American Museum of Natural History...mostly on the 1st floor, which contains the North American Mammals, meteorites and minerals, ocean life, and Rose Space Center, among other great exhibits...




The Ocean life exhiibit, with the life-sized blue whale hanging over everything is still a favorite of Ben's...it's a bit bizarre to see all of the people laying down on the floor, napping and resting, below the whale, like a cult waiting for the crushing end of days under the giant sea-mammal...


The space center was really fun for Ben...he was amazed at this materially enclosed ecosystem, nothing goes in or out (except light/heat)...shrimp eat the algae, and poop to feed it, and various microorganisms work to keep the system running smoothly...



He also loved the various scales all over the floor which told your weight on various celestial bodies...apparently, on a red giant star, Ben would weigh 0.026 pounds...

So far it has been a wonderful first few days of spring break, and we have lots of plans for the day to come...

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Composition with Dogs

We're having a quiet Sunday at home, and Gail is reading (for pleasure no less) with Miles and Cedar and a big cup of coffee.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Saturday Bog Walk

Not far from our house there is a beautiful bog that stretches for miles and miles along the floor of a valley...to make it even better, there is an ancient railroad bed, without tracks, that passes through the bog, making a delightful walk or ski or bike at any time of the year...we went out for a couple of hours along the railroad bed this afternoon...Gail and Ben and Miles and I...it was wonderful!


There's still snow on the railroad bed, but it is in the process of melting away...


Ben and miles loved exploring both ahead and behind us, and being able to see for a long way makes it easy to keep an eye on them...


Some of the material used to create the railroad bed came from right next to it, which created a canal/stream that runs alongside the trail, and Miles went for a swim to explore the other side for a bit, enjoying the big splash that he could make trying to leap across the canal...


There were lots of beaver dams, and tons of beaver sign along the way, Miles and Ben loved looking at (and sniffing) the chewed sticks and mini-canals that the beavers dig to facilitate their logging enterprises...


It was a nice day for a brisk walk along the railroad bed...cool and cloudy, but not windy...


Miles loves the sights and smells and sounds along the way...we saw and heard and smelled lots of wildlife on our walk...including some ducks...


On our way back, we came across this beaver-chewed birch tree...they had felled the tree, and then limbed it to take advantage of the tasty bark and twigs...just the stem of the tree was left lying on the ground next to the trail...

We have no idea what this official-looking sign means, but went home hungry after our walk...maybe a liminal message...

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Dogs Playing Poker

No, our dogs can't play poker, or at least they don't do it in front of us...so here's a picture of dogs playing poker...I may not know art, but I know what I like, and I like dogs...playing poker...


I've been meaning to get some pics of the dogs on the blog for awhile, but it is difficult...Miles is very busy, and Cedar is a grumpy old man...coordinating their schedules is tough...


This picture is the best of a number, but it still looks posed and stilted...Miles leaned over a second later to bite Cedar's ear, and a fight broke out...


Cedar likes getting comfy on pillows and quilts and couches these days, and has taken to sighing...a lot!


Miles loves Cedar, but sometimes in the same way that he loves his fleecy-man and his chunks of cow-bones...they do get along very well most of the time, and like to sleep on the floor or couch or our bed either head to head or butt to butt...

We're going to head out for a walk with all of the boys soon, and more pics may result...stay tuned!