Paddle Board

Every year or two friends invite us out on Owasco lake on their pontoon/ party boat.  This year they said they had "new toys" to try out, a paddle-board and a kayak.  It was a beautiful day to be out on the lake.

I decided to give the paddle boat a try.   It is a larger version of a surf board, only instead of riding the ocean waves,  you paddle you way around the lake, standing up, ideally.   I thought the hardest part would be just getting up onto the board.  I managed to do that.  You can paddle on your knees, or even sitting on the board.  But pretty soon,  to soon, I, got myself in a standing position.   I stood up on the board long before I had the feel for the way the board and the water interacted, much less how the board acted with a person on top of it.   Predictably, I soon took an ugly, awkward tumble, falling forward of all things, landing on my chest and then into the water.   Fortunately, I assured everyone, I was just fine, and went on to paddle on my knees and/or sitting.

This evening, I must confess,  I am feeling the consequences of that fall.  I don't know exactly what the pain means......a bruised sternum,  a cracked rib?   But clearly, now I can feel it for sure!  Thankfully, I managed to be fine until I got home!

Susie Gliding Along

Susie and Wayne go out every day, so they are pros.   In the picture you can see how it is supposed to be done.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  First we had a picnic lunch.    I enjoyed being in the water.  It was perfect.   We took a nice trip around the lake and looked at all the mansions.  We caught up on all the things that have been happening in our lives since we last saw one another.

Hopefully they will invite us again another year.


Next time, however, I think I'll take a pass on all the toys!

Grand-daughters

'Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of.'

Well, maybe not entirely, and I should know.  I have raised four daughters, successfully, I might add.  The measure of that is that they are all functioning adults, making positive contributions to society.  One has two daughters.  Another has one daughter, which means that I have three grand-daughters.  They are all employed, in one way or another.

 On Gerry's side, now we have added to the fold, two new great-grand-daughters.  Guess I'll leave the matter of having sons to other families, and hopefully it will all balance out in the end.

I am especially grateful that my grandchildren do not live very far away, and I get to see them pretty often.  The ones pictured here are Emma, five years old, and Sadie, three years old.   In September, Emma will begin kindergarten, and Sadie will be off to pre-school.    Once they are in school, it all goes so fast.   The teen-aged grand-daughter is going into her senior year of high school.   We'll attend all her senior year school events, as those opportunities will soon be over.   She is a talented singer/actor who often gets the lead in school plays.

So, when the oldest graduates, the next one will be starting first grade, and we get to do school events, a completely different direction,  all over again,  for as many years as we are able.

Thank heavens for little girls!

Emma and Sadie

After

Bye, Bye Beans!!

Two blogs back (It Takes Time), you can see the "before" picture.  Here is the after.  If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it!  At least, I saw the woodchuck eating the bottom half, so I can safely assume that he climbed the trellis all the way to the top and defoliated the entire bean plant.

Enough!  Enough!   If I am to garden in this spot ever again, a chain link fence will be required!

So devastating!

The High Line

Some enterprising New York City folk converted an old elevated, and abandoned railroad track into a city park!  The High Line Park is now quite a tourist attraction.  "We walked the Line on Saturday."   Actually, I sat for a while, because we had done so much physically  (a 1000 steps to the Mets game, tennis, walking in the city, etc.). My feet and assorted other places were hurting.  As I sat, I could not help but notice that people were speaking every language from around the globe.  Several asked me for directions as I sat, and of course, I could not be helpful, as an out-of-towner myself.

I guess the story is that some folks noticed a lot of random plants growing there on the abandoned tracks, and decided it would be a good place for a green, developed, creatively designed walkway several stories above ground level.   The "park" which extends several city blocks,  has lovely flowers growing,  ornamental grasses,  occasional benches,  some reclining chairs,  some water features, etc.

It was a popular place, with crowds of people, and not much room to walk, some of the time.  But along the way, you could buy food of various sorts, from ice cream sandwiches to wine to tacos to hot dogs to frozen ices.









Tourists lounging in the sun on wooden benches.

Gerry is in the green shirt,  Viki in the red shirt.






It is indeed a unique place.   Of course, we see greenery all the time in upstate.   Perhaps part of the attraction making this such a popular tourist destination comes from the lack of gardens growing in the city.  

I do think that is changing.  I saw lots of trees growing in Manhattan, and some of them were on top of buildings!