New Yawk

Okay, so we were in New York City last weekend, for a lovely three-night stay. We spent some quality time with our excellent friends Brian and Gary, and we also got out for some sight-seeing.

I really wanted to see the High Line, so off we went!

The High Line is a cool public park built on an old elevated freight line on Manhattan's West Side. Gordon looks like he's about to be sucked into that lamp post and off to an alien spaceship! I'm pretty sure the guy in the pink shirt wasn't photographing Gordon. Or maybe he was. Who knows?

Some kids were doing art there when we visited last Saturday. This piece was my favourite:

I go to the city, and what's the first thing I want to do? Find some green space! But the Empire State Buildling is poking up in the background, reminding you that yes, this is the city!

There are lots of beautiful plantings all along the High Line.

And oodles of milkweed bugs on the butterfly weed, in various stages of development:

And naturally I had to photograph some NEW YORK CITY BEES!

I'm sure everyone thought I was nuts, hunkered down with my camera two inches from the bees.

American honey bees are just as beautiful as the Canadian ones!

We walked the High Line in a leisurely hour with a stop for lunch included.

This amused the hell out of me.

This amused me even more. A viewing window over the roadway so you can sit and watch traffic. Gordon thought it was an art installation. I thought it was hilarious: let's visit the park so we can sit and watch traffic! ;)

We also made a stop at the Blue Bottle Coffee stand.

Gordon had an excellent café mocha. Because I don't like coffee (sorry, my Brit parents brought me up drinking strong tea!), I had some yummy hot chocolate.

And then we walked some more...

I loved the water area on the left, and the loungers on the right. Some of them move along the old tracks, so you can rearrange your seating!

And this was heavenly!

Huge jasmine bushes in bloom! I want to know what type of jasmine this is that overwinters in NYC. It smelled divine.

More NYC to come!

They'll be off to college soon!

We got away for three nights to New York City, and look what happens!

Our little BABIES are turning into ducks!!! I'm sure this one is a boy. I'm hoping none of the others are.

I love this little brown girl.

The chicks are growing like weeds too!

And  I turn my back for a weekend, and what happens?

Marcia goes broody! LIke I need more ducklings. But she's only sitting on three eggs so I might just let her be.

New York pics soon!

Not the farm...

Guess where I am? :)) Not, that's not the farm!

Happy weekend, everyone.

Nuages for Debussy

Well, since today is Debussy's 151st birthday, and since I forgot to post these weeks ago when I took them, I offer you clouds as a tribute to a great composer! One of the pieces I had to study in music school was Debussy's nocture Nuages.  I remember sitting up in the U. of T. Music Faculty library, listening to the piece over and over with giant headphones on my head. This was in the early 80s, before iPods and downloadable tunes. In my memory, I envision a reel-to-reel tape player, but surely it must have been a cassette tape.

Anyway, here are some nuages  from a storm that headed in at sunset a few weeks back. A pilot told me the first photos show a wall cloud, which apparently can spawn a tornado. It does look pretty ominous. We do get tornadoes around here but they usually aren't very big and don't do a lot of damage.

Here's to Debussy! I am a sucker for the romantics and impressionists. As I recall, we considered him an impressionist when I was in music school, but not everyone agrees with that. Regardless,  he wrote some beautiful pieces. I am still trying to master Claire de lune on the piano. It would help if I practiced more!

Dance of the Honey Bee

A beautiful little film that everyone should watch...

The honey bees need you!

Things from my garden

Calendula! My friend Pierre gave me these as seedlings. I am drying the petals to use in soapmaking.

Tomatoes! The oval one at front left is called Thai Pink Egg. Two thumbs up. I'll grow it again next year.

ANd this is not exactly from my garden....

Greek pizza. But the tomatoes and red onion on it ARE indeed from my garden.

And not quite my garden, but close enough...

It's not a bloody massacre. It's ducklings eating watermelon. THey LOVE it but they get very messy because they dive right in.

Nobody's bleeding.

It's all watermelon juice!

Mama and her youngster dig in.

The chickens like watermelon too!

Emma  and her ten chicks had a great time.

And after a long hard day of eating watermelon, it's time for a family nap...

Twitchy has started hanging out with Karène and the babies.

Zzzzzzz! Still sleeping in a warm pile every night.

And Tristan is doing great! He has healed up well from his surgery and he doesn't even need his t-shirt now, because he has been leaving his incision alone. He seems quite happy. :)

Cone free!

Tristan got his staples out today! We are trying a t-shirt instead of his cone. Just want to make sure he leaves his incision alone before we completely give up on coning!

It's my shirt from the OSPCA Friends For Life walk. He is stylin'!

WagWagWag! I think he likes it.

Zzzzzzz!

His incision is healing really nicely and he's doing well. We'll just take it a day at a time. 

Have a great weekend!

Oh how I amuse myself!

The other day, I left this box on the table. It was soon filled up with a three-legged cat. 

Then I decided to grab a marker and have some fun!

  

Look what we have here!

Hello Naomi!

A rabid cat! A highly unamused rabid cat. Bwaahahahaha! She was still there when Gordon got home from work. He thought it was hiiiilarious.

And the guineas have started laying!  I still don't know who's a girl and who's boy, or if there are any boys, but there is a definitely a girl...

It's a teeny-tiny beginner egg!

We got one yesterday, too.

Duck egg, chicken egg, guinea egg.

Everyone seems happy down there.

Post-bath duckling!

Tasting!

Squeeeeee!