Wiscoy Creek

We got to visit Wiscoy on our way back from Houghton last weekend. If the water were warmer, we would have gone in, but we did hike/crawl all the way up to the dam at the top.

A Perilous Journey

This ant ventured across the bunny ear cactus which is pricklier than it looks...if you touch it at least!

More Lamberton

Doug thinks this should be called string of peas....

14 oz.

After hours and days of boiling, we think we have about 14 oz of syrup that is passable as actual maple syrup. These photos are from the first batch and beginning of the second.

Lamberton Conservatory

Doug and I visited Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park a few weeks ago so I could prepare for an upcoming field trip. I really liked the desert room. I learned that cactus spines are actually modified leaves and serve not only as protection from being eaten but also as sun protection (for some cacti that have a million spines). Here you see a Golden Barrel Cactus in the upper left, a Bunny Ear Cactus in the lower left and I don't remember the other 2 kinds!
Side note: if you google Lamberton Conservatory, Neil Cowley's website comes up as the 5th entry I think (we went to college with Neil).

A Lucky Dog

Daru had a run-in with some object in the woods last weekend and had to go to the vet for surgery. In the bottom left, she is recovering from the surgery. The top left shows some of her shaved chest and leg (for the IV) and the right side shows Daru in her day wear. She has to wear the lamp shade and shoes to keep from scratching her stitches out. The vet said she was a lucky dog since there were no major organ injuries.

I love seahorses

The Monterey Aquarium is opening a new exhibit on seahorses on April, 6th so Dawn and Nate will have to enjoy it for us, but we did get to ses a couple of different kinds of seahorses in their regular exhibits. Doug took this photo.

Not a great photo

But it has a better story! This is a female octopus with her eggs. Before we got there, she had left the eggs unattended and an unsuspecting starfish was climbing the window toward them (to eat them?). The mother octopus (though they don't think the eggs are fertile) jetted over, pried the starfishes arms off the window with her tentacles and threw it on the ground. I wish I had seen it!

Crab and more

I can't remember what kind of crab this is, but it is pretty scary looking (or it would be if it were larger!). We were really interested in the decorator crabs we saw, but we didn't get any pictures of them.

Monterey Bay

These are some facebook rejects- Andrew psots his blog rejects on fb and I post my fb rejects on my blog...

Meterology

We visited the Rochester Museum and Science Center when my family came at Christmas. Here Ryan practices weather forecasting for some weather incident that I don't remember. You could e-mail the video of your forecast to someone. We were entertained by ourselves.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Daru loves snow and won't come inside even when it looks like this!

Raccoon in the tree

The raccoons really liked the stinky fruits and at one point we saw 2 in the tree at the same time- yuck! They spit the seeds all over the ground. Here this guy is chowing down.

Deer Meets Raccoon

Sorry it is a little dark, but this is the best we could do with the crepuscular conditions.

Rocco the Raccoon

This guy (Procyon lotor) has been visiting lately and climbing our stinky female gingko tree. Daru is distressed by this.

The Buck I Shot

With the camera after it wandered into the backyard. I heard that hunting is illegal in Irondequoit....

Baby Elliana

Elliana Grace, our new niece, was born on August 20th.

Grace

Last September, the Houghton gang gathered for a baby shower for Grace who was not yet born. This year many of us met her for the first time. Contrary to the majority of our pictures, Grace was clothed for the majority of the weekend. It is easier to clean the baby than the baby's clothes (when she won't wear a bib at least), so she eats in only a diaper.

The Iron Chef

As part of our weekend adventures, we went to a local arts festival in some suburb that I won't even attempt to spell. We heard the pork people mention free t-shirts and all of a sudden we were sitting in the blistering sun watching this chef who is a contestant on the Iron Chef make pork tenderloin with almond-plantain BBQ sauce or something to that effect. I did a lot of smiling and nodding since I am not convinced that it would take me only 8 minutes to make the marinade and I don't own half of the equipment he mentioned. He seemed to appreciate our group, perhaps because we actually sat through the whole thing and even asked a question on mike. (I am sure you will see some better shots of this experience from Andrew) He was our "local professional photographer." Allen, Danielle and Grace had parked themselves in the shade so they didn't get a stunning t-shirt which says "Bring it Tong!" =(

We got to sample the pork and I must admit it was pretty good even if Heather looks a little apprehensive here. He served it with mint and a chili pepper thread which he of course claimed that normal people could make in their own home. Again, I was not convinced, but maybe more skilled cooks could. Andrew got a group shot of all of us with the chef.

Aunt Mindy in Action

On our way home from our Philly Houghton reunion, we stopped to see one of my high school friends and her family who happen to be one of my college roommate's in-laws since she married my high school friend's brother (who was also a high school friend). Got that all? Here Mindy reads to her niece and nephew about the wheels on the bus (which go round and round).