Sarah with her most recent painting inspired by her research with fruitflies. For once, someone else is behind the camera!

Here's the latest from the fly chicks at the Hirsch lab. These are the people I work with at SUNY Albany studying the effects of heavy metals on the brain and complex behavior of fruitflies. Who knew that they had any?

The long-awaited wheelbarrow rides. Last weekend the kids got two wheelbarrow rides, one during the day and one snuggled up in sleeping bags for late-night stargazing. Oops, Calvin bumped his head.

Isabel is now officially six years old. We continue to be amazed by her sense of humor and developing self-assurance. Here she is in all her glory, birthday dress, birthday cake and party hat.

Adirondacks:

Frolicking in the Bracken Ferns. These bracken have taken over the garden spot in front of the cabin at Putnam Farm. Where once we tried to grow lettuce and tomatoes in the deep shade of these hemlocks, the more rightful inhabitants have once again taken over.

Albany:


The Pirate Fortress fits well in the garden. We are now eating vegetables out of the garden every day and enjoying the flowers. This week, I made the first jar of pickles using cucumbers and dill that keeps self-seeding from year to year.
-- Sarah

Adirondacks:

Red Efts by the Dozen

Calvin and Isabel liked these red efts, found near a rotting log on the old lumber road near the end of the northwest peninsula of (soon-to-be) Slingerland's parcel. We had decided to walk the horse-trail loop that was cleared for skiing last fall, instead of attempting the climb up Crane.

We didn't trust Calvin to hold one of the newts (and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to, anyway) -- but he did carefully touch the one Isabel was holding.

Cherry Pie! --our favorite. After moving to Albany we noticed our neighbors had a beautiful sour cherry tree. They thought it was a "bad" tree, not knowing what to do with sour cherries. We tried to teach them the first year, by sharing one of our pies with them. They have let us have them every year.
Isabel helped me pick the cherries. Calvin wasn't much of a help, although he enjoyed climbing on the ladder, while Dave picked.

We hope to stay on our neighbor's good side because my, oh my... They are good. Here are Isabel and Monica putting together the second pie from this year's crop in the kitchen at the "castle" in Keene, NY. I made the crust and took the pictures.

Here's me and my brother Patrick. Everyone still says we look just alike. Calvin was fascinated with his big dog Harley.


Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to Philadelphia. We visited the Please Touch museum which we visited with my old highschool classmate Frances Poodry.

Sphagnum moss, what keeps us in water and in soft seats.

Here's Isabel and Calvin testing it out on Pine Ridge on July 3rd 2005. Calvin is an amazing walker, saying "walk, walk" everytime you try to carry him. Isabel, of course, is an old hand at walking and moss testing.