Another Episode of "Our Life in Brooklyn"

Life has been good lately though we're all succumbing to the season's cold. Matthew is over his, I'm starting mine and the others are at different stages of the "runny nose" infection. We all seem to get along well even when we're sick so that's good. I just realized that we've been in NY for over a month already! We arrived on Sunday February the 8th. Crazy. Here's a few things that have kept us busy.

On Saturday Fr. Andrew asked me if I would walk. I was sure what he meant (some things get lost in translations) but I agreed I could walk thinking maybe he needed me to go pick something up for him. It turned out he wanted to take the girls and I to Jamaica Bay preservation which is, according to the Brooklyn Bird Club, "one of the most important urban wildlife refuges in the United States. Encompassing 9,155 acres, it is comprised of diverse habitats, including salt marsh, upland field and woods, several fresh and brackish water ponds and an open expanse of bay and islands- all located within the limits of New York City. The Wildlife refuge is nationally and internationally renowned as a prime birding spot where thousands of water, land and shorebirds stop during migration. More than 325 species have been recorded here during the last 25 years. "

It was great! We got to see lots of these -

I could have sworn we were in Nova Scotia, until I would spot city buildings across the water.



Unfortunately we were on a time limit, I could have spent a full day there walking the trails and listening to the birds. There were creatures I had never seen before like the Horseshoe Crab. One of the girls told me it was a crab and I replied "no, that's just a car part that washed up", I have to admit I was quite far from it and the shell was in two pieces :)

There is even a trail that leads to this type of creatures -

But we didn't have time to follow it so I took a picture of a replica especially for my friend Sherrie who loves turtles. When I go back I'll try to spot real ones!

In other news Matthew and I have kept up our scavenging habit since we moved. A couple of weeks ago he surprised me with a nice wicker side table that he found on the side of the road (it sounds so much better than saying "in the garbage") and this is our newest find before cleaning it up (it was covered in plaster)



and after.

I would not advise anyone to put a plyboard/metal shelf unit in a shower to wash but this one needed it and we knew in advance that it was chosen solely for pratical reasons. It actually survived the soaking quite well and sits happily in a once-bare corner of the room. That's where my knitting stuff will be.

Talking about knitting I finaly broke down and went to see the local yarn store today. If your favorite yarn is Patons or Lion Brand you would totally love this place. The walls were covered with all the variations of. As for other more "exotic" yarns (which is what I was really hoping to see) there was some mohair on the back wall but you couldn't really see it. Two things should have warned me that this was going to be a bit disapointing 1) the smell of weed as I walk in (???) 2) the fact that the two staff people were men. Now if one of them had been Jared I would have entered the shop with full confidence but he wasn't one of them... They did prove to be very welcoming however, and they sell bamboo needles, but it was a bit disapointing. I did buy a skein of black Classic Wool by Patons to make Matthew his favorite hat as he lost his on one of the subway rides. I just felt so bad they didn't have any better stuff that I wanted to buy something (ridiculous, I know). It's 100% wool and it's processed in Canada, and it has cute sheep on the label.

I'd be really disapointed if that's all there was but there are so many yarn shops in the city that I know I'll find what I'm looking for!

Oh yah, we tried to move the car today and it won't start. Thankfully we can leave it where it is until next Tuesday (that's when they do street cleanup which equals prime ticket time) so we can try to figure something out before then.