Things are moving on....

Time just races.  Memorial Day is a memory - recent, yes - but a memory.
We enjoyed two hikes over the weekend, having spent Saturday at home, actually and literally doing nothing, except getting pizza.
Saturday we hiked in Harriman, and we went to my favorite spot, on top of the mountain, over the rocks.

 The path, courtesy of hurricane Sandy

 On top, huge rocks, and below the view.

Above, walking on rocks, below broom, or Ginster in German.  

I've missed broom, I don't know where I'm looking when it blooms...

 And the lovely ferns.  

Years ago my parents visited.  We went for a walk in the woods, and my mother found some ferns she dug up, just a couple, and she found a spot in my yard for them.  She said, you'll remember me years from now when you look at them.  She was right!

And someone took our picture, after we offered to take theirs.

 The city (New York, of course), from Pyramid mountain park, where we went on Monday.

 Jack-in-the-pulpit above, and below a little snake, the first of the season that we saw.

No idea what is is - a garter snake, maybe?

All in all a very nice Memorial Day, hope yours was as good!

More Birthday Celebration

Katie turned two, and we went to her birthday party.  We invited Jackson to come along with us, and he did.
As usual, it was a great time at Chuck and Sue's in Maryland.  They have this great property with lots of room for kids and dogs to run around.  The boys enjoyed each others company, and Katie had her cousin there from Tennessee, they all enjoyed playing with bubbles and running and playing.
Katie wanted cupcakes for her birthday, not a cake, and so we had Minnie Mouse cupcakes to sing happy birthday to.
We had hamburgers and hot dogs, and marshmallows by the fire after.  The kids are getting so big!

It was an awesome time, we are looking forward to going back soon, to celebrate Noah's fifth birthday.
Thanks Chuck and Sue, for a really good time!

And happy birthday to you today, Chuck!  I know what we were doing 37 years ago!!!

Mother's Day and birthday

Well, my birthday has come and gone.  My wonderful husband, about whom I rave nearly  not enough, surprised me by inviting my kids and families to a bday dinner at a great restaurant.  It truly was a surprise and I loved it.  As a gift, as if that wasn't enough, the kids gave us tickets for cirque du soleil, Totem, which we sawing Saturday at Citi Field in New York .  As always, the performance didn't disappoint.

Mother's Day we met again, and had a great time at dinner in the same restaurant where we celebrated our wedding.
I've been meaning to show pictures of the quilts I'm working on, and here they are.  One for Katie, and one for Noah.  I'll show the other two the next time!

Green, green and more green

The week was  busy, and passed quickly.  I'm working on quilts for birthdays, and I am having a lot of fun with that.

I still haven't taken a photo of them with my camera, I'm using the iPad and the phone, but I can't add them to the blog from there.

Today we went hiking again.  To Pyramid Mountain, which is just a few miles from the house.  We are surrounded by woods, large forests all around, nature preserves, with houses nestled in the woods.

Compared to last weekend, look how green the forest is!  Amazing, the light green popped up and is so fresh and .... green.

Ferns... and below skunk cabbage.  

No idea why it's called that, supposedly it stinks when disturbed or pulled up.

I didn't want to try.

And violets and moss

And of course uphill.

No hike would be complete without an uphill battle.

A white dogwood, all by itself on the mountain.

Below workers on the electrical tower.

Part of the trails were closed because of the work on the towers.

Look how close we got the worker on the tower, and see below in the photo is

where we were standing and zoomed in on the workers on the tower.

View from above

And a wild columbine

Dogwood blooms 

And below a little flower, I think an Anemone, a different kind then I'm used to.

Tomorrow we're hoping to go to High Point State Park, I haven't been there for a hike before, and I actually never stopped there either, I just drove over the mountain, thinking I'll have to come back sometime.
I will report back!

Spring hiking

Busy week.  This is not a complaint.  Lots to do, just finished a couple of orders, started working on getting-ready-for-more-orders stuff, and promptly received a large order.

We babysat Percy, Jessica's and Matthew's Budgie.  They were on vacation, and asked his to entertain the bird.  Which with Sophie, the cat, in the house, was quite the responsibility.  But we all survived, and Percy was picked up on the way home by the family.  Michael had made a bird bath for Percy, which he rejected when he was alone, and promptly showed off how much he liked it when his family was there.

We went hiking yesterday (what else!).  This time we hiked a bit on the Appalachian Trail - indulge me, the Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia to Maine, about 2,200 miles, or 3,500 kilometers.

 Trail marker of the A.T.

  No, we didn't hike the entire thing, just a bit of it.  It's remarkable to me that the famous trail is just a small path in the woods.  We hiked for a while, and then went off it to make it a complete circle.  Very nice, on top of a mountain ridge in Harriman State Park, where we do a lot of hiking.
My brother Claus would not have liked it, we were in the woods for 3 hours, and ran into 9 people.  He would have thought it too crowded and not gone back there for a couple of years - or so he tells us.

Today found us in the woods again.  Greg wanted to do something with the boys, and asked us to go hiking. So cute!  Evan, who will be three this summer held up really well, didn't want to be helped at all, and climbed and clambered over rocks, and only on the way back did he realize how tired he was, and asked to be picked up by his dad.

 Roasting marshmallows in the woods