Last Class...

Pottery is our last class. We all worked hard to finish up all our projects.

Then came some play once promised...

Garden Bounty and.....weeds....

The rain is wonderful for the garden but I don't seem to find a dry moment to get the weeds out and those are in abundance. The squirrel continues to wreak havoc. We have no zuchinni, three beets and no carrots. I wonder if weeds would help keep the ground moist? Would that work as an excuse? Maybe I will just have to weed in the downpours.

The strawberries, radishes and tomatoes are flourishing.

Central Park Picnic

Gael sitting on the beloved Balto, in Central Park.

The favorite slide of all time, the granite slide. In 1985 the New York Times announced this slide was suppose to end in a wading pool! Did anyone think about how slippery granite is when wet?! We are happy with the cardboard. I always thought the slide was much older.

We met Denise and her family for a picnic. Sitting in the trees was too tempting. The branches were perfect for it.

Lucien, Gael, and Charles

We had a beautiful day in the park. On the way out we picked up Yves' Shakespeare in the Park tickets for Twelfth Night. He and I went in the evening to see an amazing performance. We had a really lovely time. Hopefully, Yves will have as good a time in his Shakespeare workshop next week.

Summer Fun between Rain Storms

A city swimming hole. We will have to remember the lunch break though! We skipped the one hour break. I wish they would put swimming pools along the river, like the one that was in Vancouver during my childhood. And maybe access for small boats.....well I can dream.

Crazy Weather

This morning was so dark. We skipped our bagel breakfast on the piers. Dorina came over at noon with c and m. Eventually we made our way to the water park for wet fun that is wet between rain storms. Denise came with her two.

We all barely made it home before the sky opened up, again.

Later after dinner Yves noticed the strange clouds. I have never seen anything like them. We went to the roof to see them better. I photographed them but my camera registered the sky as more red when I saw deep blue. The clouds looked like smooth balls in rows, then a second layer with dark stormy clouds under and the sun shining in between. It was eerie. I was disappointed not to be able to photograph it properly.

Madagascar Pitcher Plant

Yves and I started to research the amazing plant we saw yesterday and found these links for Pitcher Plants.

This one we love, from Richard Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants. There is time lapsed photography of the plant maturing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWzDlRvv1M&feature=fvst

This one illustrates how the plant traps the insects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2ndp1OrPQ

This one gives a brief description and photos.

http://www.arkive.org/madagascar-pitcher-plant/nepenthes-madagascariensis/info.html

The Bronx Zoo

Today we went to the Bronx Zoo. We visited the Butterfly Garden where Yves tried to capture the butterflies on camera.





Everyone tried to identify a few.

This is a Palamedes Swallowtail.


Even the Koi are Butterfly Koi!



And a ferocious catepillar!




The Congo Gorilla Forest was beautiful. We were lucky to land on snack time. One gorilla was enchanting the children by catching her lunch as it was tossed down to her.

The Wild Asia Monorail was enjoyed, twice!

We quickly did the Madagascar building before closing at a very early 5:00!

Look at these amazing katydids!

And these flowers have a symbotic relation with certain spiders. The plant eats small animals and insects that slide down its slippery slopes.

As we were leaving everyone was ready to come back the next day, well except maybe me. How about next week?

One Quarter, some solutions

Origami at work? It took me some time to think out of the circle. The children were quicker.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Well I forgot to move the car today so with two minutes to spare we all jumped in but now where to go, all the spots were filled already. The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens! It was meant to be, as it turns out, Tuesdays there is no entrance fee!

We called friends who live near by and they promptly walked over while we waited in the Children's Garden. Yves found a ripe blueberry and let Gael pick it.

The boys had fun priming the pump. It is very loose and falls off. They held it together and got it working. Next time we will take a wrench!

It took team effort.



This is the favorite willow that everyone loves to climb. Today there was no such luck as a guard came immediately.

The bees were also busy. They were flitting so quickly around all the Hydrangeas.

We finished our outing with a picnic in Prospect Park. Then I went off for a relaxed coop shift and the boys took the subway home.

One Quarter, the problem

Cecilia showed this to me the other night after we had dinner. It was a lot of fun so I tried it on my children.





The problem is to divide a circle in quarters but not in pie slices.



The next post has some of the children's answers, try yours first!!

Have fun!

Midsummer Picnic

The end of this week has been lovely, well except the car needing a new starter but even that turned out well with Sharli's help. Thank you for amazing neighbors.






Wednesday we went to see Silka and her family. We had a lovely time. We really don't get together much and now she is moving to California, "only for a year or two", we'll see!





On the way home we walked along the Hudson, through the new grasses, on a wooden walk way. It was beautiful.

Thursday we thought the rain would never give up but eventually it did. Today was lovely.


Lucien, Gabriel, Gaël and I went in search of missing ingredients for our Midsummer picnic. Chelsea market was wonderful. At the fish store the boys were able to examine a lobster, a rather large one and pick him up or pet him. For the way home we went up on the high line. Okay one real fault: white concrete reflects the sun. Ooh was it too bright! But still a lovely walk, above all the traffic in the greenery.

When we returned we prepared potato salad, cucumber salad, devilled eggs and the gravalax that had been marinading for three days. Lots of dill everywhere, pickled herring, and strawberries to go with the cake Denise had made, not to mention the Swedish Meatballs and Lingonberry sauce! We couldn't eat it all!


There was music, singing, a midsommarstång (Maypole). All the younger ones had a great time playing games put together by the Parks Department. There were flowers for making garlands. And after the children ran around playing tag. By 8 no one really wanted to leave.




Grace adjusting her garland and adding more flowers.





















So for the second time this week we walked home along the Hudson. We stopped at the playground and generally played all the way. We even climbed all over the brass apple, clearly intended for interaction by the artist.






Did you know Manhattan has a roller coaster?