Winter to summer and back again

Not too much going on up here right now. I'm struggling to get/stay healthy as the weather fluctuates back and forth between winter and spring.  Emmett's had the sniffles to so Sarah has been keeping the ship steady.  I don't know how she stays so healthy with us boys blowing our noses on everything.  All in all, though, I'll remember this as a great winter, full of laughs and little moments of surprise and joy.

Not to be dramatic or melancholy, but I've really felt grateful to have so much time with Jonas.  When we took him into the vet over a year ago, I thought it was the end.  To have him still holding on and helping to get Emmett off to a good start has been such a joy.  I have lots of bad dreams... I guess I'm pretty stressed over it on a subconscious level, but day to day, things are going ok.  He and Emmett and I have gotten quite a few hikes and skis in together.  And because of the unnaturally balmy weather, Jonas was able to accompany me on the canoe's maiden voyage.  I know that the canoe (and canoeing) is going to be a major part of our next adventure and to have Jonas's paw on it is really important to me.

 Emmett and Jonas and I took a hike last week in big heavy snowflakes.  As we passed some trees, we saw one that still had leaves and it popped out beautifully.  I took a picture (above) but it just didn't stand out the way it did in real life or in my minds eye.  So I doctored it a little to look like it felt like it looked (below).

The usual route.  Love how the bright fresh snow makes the evergreens look almost black.

The contrast between the snow and the trunks of the staghorn sumac.  Soon these shrub-trees will be filled with grateful robins, gorging themselves on red juicy fruit after their long flight back from their winter in the South.  Their bellies will be a pale orange-yellow when they return, but will soon darken to the illustrious orange we know and love.  Here though, the sumac looked to me like black lightening.

The most beautiful transitional wetland I know.  I'm pretty proud of this shot as it actually looks like what I was seeing with the "ghost hill" hovering ephemerally in the background.

Still awake back there?  

This is from later that evening or the next day when I went out for a ski.  Coming back as the sun set behind the hills and reflected off the river.

Zhora's farm.  Another cold sunny day.  Can you see your breath and feel the nip at your nose and cheeks?

More planning for the summer.

I took this picture on a walk Thursday afternoon as Emmett and I headed up toward the spring to stretch our legs.

Baby's first campus board.

The maiden voyage of Merry-weather.  Can you spot the river running through the pond?  This is the most navigable course as most of the rest is less than a foot deep.  Still, to paddle from the shore to the farthest point, and up the creek as far as is navigable and come back takes about 45 minutes or so, includes sightings of several duck species, geese, turtles, frogs, often herons, and occasionally raptors.  That is to say, it ain't the wilderness, but it'll due for a place to sip coffee and contemplate the day.

This is my buddy Jevon's kid, Wes.  He's one and a good egg.  He has donated a lot of cool clothes to Emmett.  He loves my sunglasses.  I stopped over at Erik's on Friday for a hot minute to say hey and have a taste of the Sloop Sauer Peach that Jevon brought over.  Zach was there with his kids, and obviously Sebastian was there, too.  It was a wonderful day to sit on the back deck and wax poetic about mouth puckering yeast cultures (if you were a dad) or run around and save the yard from super villains (if you were a kid). 

Emily & Nakoa come for a visit

Our friends Emily and Nakoa came up for a visit the first weekend of February.  Emily's been up a few times, and this was Nakoa's first trip.  They rented a little cabin out in Treman Park, which was nice.  We could hang as long as we wanted, but then they could retire to a place that didn't sound like Bedlam all night.

One evening we went to Atlas for some food and to roll.  We all had a good time.  Emmett loved watching the bowling balls roll back up the line.

As you can see, we had chilly beautiful weather.  The sun was out and blinding off the snow.  It was perfect for bird watching, so we headed to the Ornithology Lab for a little bit.  These chairs always give me a hankering for mint juleps.

Brrrr.... "Maybe we should have headed south with the rest of the gang!"

This is the cabin that E and N rented.  I would totally live in it.  There were tracks from some kind of a wild cat in the side yard!  Probably a bobcat.  The inside is very cabiny with lots of knotty pine and a loft bed.  It's small, but totally functional for a couple or even a couple with a kid.

One really cool thing about the cabin is that you can walk right out the door and into Treman park!  Which we did.  The waterfalls were all icey and impressive.

We're getting more and more use out of the pack.  Despite the look on his face here, most of the time is spent babbling and cooing and oohing at the trees.  He has started to pat me on the back of the head, which may develop into an annoyance, but for now is pretty cute and lets me know that he is still breathing.

Spontaneous shot

Posed shot.

Family shot.

Lucifer Falls.

We worked up a hunger from all the hiking and retired to the cabin where Nakoa prepared a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon and roasted local Brussels sprouts and carrots.  We ate and had a little bourbon and chatted into the evening.  It was a very good time and we look forward to seeing them again soon.

Sarah and I both got some new kicks.  Sarah got some hiking shoes and I finally gave in and bought new hiking boots.  I like them alright for modern materials, but there is still something I love about the heavy, leaky, creaky, leather boots.  I appreciated the new ones, though, when my foot went through the ice and my foot stayed warm and dry.

Then, we said goodbye to our friends, the week got under way, and Emmett went back to school.  Dude did a little Yoga.... I guess.

Grammy and Pops come for a visit

I thought we took more pictures, but apparently we were just enjoying each other's company.  We had a lovely little weekend of visiting and relaxing.  Everyone got some time to read and relax and drink coffee and beer and wine and just enjoy the time.

One big event was that Grammy and Pops got to come to Emmett's swim lesson.  Dad came in and did a bang up job of getting another Harrington amphibious.

Zhora and Mom hung out a lot and did all kinds of crafts including knitting and/or crocheting, and even attempted felting in the face of great odds.

Of course there was plenty of cuddle time.

Getting out there

Alright.  Catching up now.  Our winter has been pretty weird; lots of ups and downs, some rain, some snow, some more rain.  We've had days in the 60s butted up to days with highs in the 20s.  Anyway, I guess that's the new normal.  We've been trying to get out a lot and enjoy whatever mother nature and post industrial society have to offer.  Emmett's growing like a weed.  He weighs close to 20 lbs now, which is super light if you're doing reps of bicep curls, but gets heavy fast on a hike.  We are determined to have camping be a part of our normal family routine, so we've been acclimating to the family hikes, planning, talking about it, and picking places to go, both near and far.

On New Years Day Sarah went into work for a spell, so Emmett and Jonas and I ran some errands and visited some parks together.  This is Buttermilk State Park at the South end of town.  Jonas was a little stiff that day, so we didn't do any big hikes, but we wandered around, looked at botanical and geological features of the park and discussed the benefits of public land. 

The Chopper and I have a few routines.  One of them is lighting the fire when it goes out.  He gets super excited about it.  So do I.  I had to stop waving my arms and jumping up and down to take this picture.

Another of the Earth's elements that The Dude likes is water.  We're all but done with our first round of swim lessons.  He can fall of the wall, hang onto the wall, dunk under water, almost float on his back by himself, and generally get along in a contented fashion in the pool.  Hoping to have him doing the front crawl by canoe season.

Swimming makes us nappy.

This amazing piece of artwork was done by Zhora... all on her own.  The kid has good taste.  Also, note that she ALWAYS puts the colours of the rainbow in the correct order.

This is from a walk at Taughannock a couple weeks ago.  We were on our way out to Pat's.  It was a bit overcast and not great for pictures, but the river and the falls never disappoint.  

Little man in the back saver.  We don't use it often as we both enjoy carrying him, but on longer walks where the path will permit, Bugger gets a buggie.

My beautiful wife contemplating the tangled bank.

Not even the majesty of nature competes with the Mama

Sarah took some shots of the ice encrusted branches.

Sarah swears that the drooling means he's thinking.

We took a trip Long Pond State Forest to scope out the camping.  We plan for this to be our first canoe trip.  The water is too hard to canoe on right now, but Jonas enjoyed making doggie snow angels.

We walked out about 50 yards before a loud cracking sound sent us scurrying back to terra ferma.  There were a bunch of people out in the middle of the lake ice fishing, so I'm sure it was safe.  Still, the idea of us all crashing through the ice together seemed an unreasonable event for the day.

Sarah has some great pictures of Emmett's first swing experience from Stewart Park.  I think she posted them on Viber.  This is from the merry go round.

I've wanted to do this (above) ever since seeing this (below).

The kid finally learned to hold his head up and grew big enough to keep his face above the pack.  Took him long enough.  Good thing I'm patient.

Holy cow!  This is from four days ago!  I'm caught up.  Of course, I had to leave our about 36,000 pictures of EmC Harrington, but hopefully there's enough here to give you the idea.  Some day, I'll put all the photos together like a flip book and we'll watch an animation of his life.

On Sunday, last, I texted all four of the people I know, excluding Vinnie because he lives in Boston, and Nathan because he lives in Ohio, and invited them to bring their clones to the local cemetery for some sweet sledding action.  It was a pretty good plan.  Above, Zhora, Nora, and Charlotte share a ride.

The big race.  Zach cheated, as usual.  Jevon appears to be putting on the brakes here.  It was Mag's first time sledding, so maybe they were taking it easy.  More likely, Jevon didn't want to appear to care as much as Zach obviously did about the win.

Trudging back up the hill to the full gang.  Note that Zach has taken up the ubiquitous standing sledding posture.

Jevon went for a more informal approach.

A second trip out with The Barnacle Baby.  This time Arlo came along with us.  I always knew where he was because The Dude's head and body would swivel around to watch him.

That is, until Big Baby fell asleep.

Next up: Grammy and Pop come to visit.