Monthly Archives: February 2014

The Children of Men Effect

The WWOOFers are here

We pulled up at New Vrindaban, the 1,000 acre Hari Krishna community nestled in the pretty West Virginia hills, with a mixture of excitement, intrigue and nerves. Our nerves mainly were regarding the behaviour of our children when placed within a strict culture of peace, quiet and respect… The boys current repertoire of jokes relate entirely to poo and wee, they are trained to wee outside in bushes and have the feet of baby elephants, which has lead to us aiming exclusively for ground floor accommodation. Patrick doesn’t walk at the moment, he bounces and hops (he’s a frog you see). Orla doesn’t walk anywhere either, she runs, well sort of, in her bum wiggling, feet stomping, clumsy sort of way.

The fellow who arranged our placement here is away for a few days and our nerves where therefore not quelled on arrival when we were met with blank faces. “Hold on” she said and dashed out the door to inform a colleague that “the wwoofers are here”, and it felt strange being on the other side of the fence, having let Rob know the same thing many times over the last few years on our own farm! (WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) Her colleague was none the wiser but, luckily, the lady found a slip of paper on the desk which suddenly made sense to her when we elaborated that there were five of us. Alas, we were given a key and directed to an upstairs apartment, in a block with poor sound insulation and with a lovely gentleman below us who is somewhat sensitive to noise. The kids are learning to tiptoe and whisper… Orla’s not a very quick learner though. On the plus, the kids are sleeping from 7pm to 7am which I think is pretty reasonable. On top of that, their behaviour really is improving now they are getting into the swing of things and there is lots for them to do here with a play room and outside play area, lots of local walks and masses of birds and mammals to spot and track. They have the deer track sussed!

The apartment is basic, to say the least, but as wwoofers, we expected that. And it’s free. Rob is getting involved on the farm, milking the cows and there is some tree pruning and care he can get involved in. We share meals with the community for breakfast and lunch and so far have sampled delicious Indian delights.

The wildlife is far more abundant here than further north at the moment. Presumably due to the much milder temperature – it’s positively balmy compared to where we have come from! And the lack of hunting combined with the organic management of this 1,000 acre setting means that the deer are so tame you can get right up close. We saw a massive turkey vulture fly right over and an owl fly past with a tiny shrew in it’s talons last night. Today we spotted the impressive, and slightly bizarre looking wild turkey. Much sought after in hunting areas they flourish here unharmed. I took the picture at the top of the deer and am obviously thrilled with it… feel free to compliment me on it… go on, it’s blinking great right?

So we are here for a little while, to explore the area, meet new people with interesting stories and cultures, to feel settled and rest our tight budget. We can also start planning the next section, which currently is as free as the wind.

The Allegheny National Forest – a cabin in the woods.

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Wow, time for an update! We moved on from Buffalo on Thursday morning and managed to obtain a cabin at Deep Wood on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest.

It was right up our street… rustic and basic. Think wood walls, a slightly musty smell (okay that’s a lie… it was a strong musty smell), mouse droppings in the draws and a general air of nothing having been altered since 1965. We LOVED it! The beds were comfy and we were separate from the kids, it was warm and cosy and absolutely silent at night. We drank tea and did jigsaws with the kids. Honestly, I could live in a cabin in the woods quite happily for years… maybe one day I will…

*Facebook followers can see photos of us at the cabin on my Adventures of Muma Dean page

Sadly it rained rather a lot and the snow had turned to ice on the paths so walking out was tricky. It just so happens that much like the drive through pharmacies and drive through ATM’s in America you can also do some great drive through wildlife and bird watching! Obviously you’ll see more off the beaten track in the back country. But to get things going and for the boys to start using their binoculars and identifying birds and animals we headed off in the car and found numerous pull over areas designated for wildlife observation throughout the main road through the forest.

The Allegheny Reservoir, with snowy banks and slushy, icy water.

We saw Black headed Chickadees, Woodpeckers (not sure which type unfortunately), American Robin and the lovely Blue Jay. We also saw impressive Black Vultures, plenty of white tailed deer, red squirrels and spotted a raccoon crossing the road. To locals round here this probably doesn’t sound like an impressive haul but when you come from a country which has none of the above and you have three very small children in tow… believe me… it’s a good haul for now!

While we were settled in our cabin we took the opportunity to rearrange our luggage into an efficient system. We now have two tubs, one with kitchen/cooking kit in and one with food staples such as oil, seasoning, flour, stock cubes and so on. A third small tub has our bushcraft kit and our clothes system continues with each of our stuff sacks within one main bag and a laundry bag for dirty clothes. That’s now in a soft bag easy for taking in and out of our accommodation as we move, and also has our wash bag, Orla’s nappies, night-lights and chargers in. Another small bag in easy reach in the car has our binoculars and laptops. The suitcases are now largely unpacked but just have lots of the kids workbooks and spare stuff in that we use less frequently and are tucked away in the roof box we acquired at a far cheaper price than upgrading the car size! Maybe one day I’ll organise myself to make a video blog of our efficient system – once I know for sure it’s actually an efficient system!

We also invested in a cool box which fits behind the driver seat and plugs into the car and a camping stove. This means that A) we are (hopefully) not going to become morbidly obese within 5 weeks from living on gigantic pizzas and sauce swamped McDonalds and B) we (hopefully) won’t be coming home broke within 5 weeks from eating at places that actually serve real food. Since moving on to Buffalo we have basically reclaimed our normal, balanced diet from home and are enjoying cooking on the road. Our system allows for cereal and fruit for breakfast, sandwiches or salads for lunch and a normal meal for tea. There will still be times we’ll eat out and no doubt sample some more of the fast food establishments when needs must, but for now it’s nice to be sticking to budget and not feeling like our arses are growing an inch a day!

Niagara Falls

Dancing Cats and Bald Eagles

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The Deans have landed… On their feet! A great nights sleep (albeit with a shockingly early start at 05.30am again) followed by a true American breakfast, cooked up expertly by our host at Lazy Pond B&B, Matt. Pancakes, bacon, maple syrup, sausages, French toast, potato hash, coffee… You name it, we had it!

Breakfast was followed swiftly by playtime in the snow…

Alfie and Patrick in the snow at Lazy Pond B&B

She looks so sweet here but was literally SCREAMING “Cheese” at me whenever I pointed the camera away from her!

The snow is deep!!!

Snow play was followed by a trip to The Dancing Cat Saloon for yet more food, some jazz and some whiskey. If you visit Sullivan County in the Catskills you absolutely must visit this saloon. The mouthwatering menu lived up to its description and more… Fresh home made raspberry jam like I’ve never known and zabaglione, which is like a sort of cross between clotted cream and custard, amazing! They also have a distillery on site and we got a personal tour by the distiller himself, Monte. The kit looks like something out of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and is used to make a host of interesting whiskeys, vodkas and gins of all sort of amazing ingredients from local farms.

Catskill Distilling Company

Obviously we couldn’t leave without a bottle for the road.

Most Righteous Bourbon by the Catskill Distilling Company

It just so happened that the co-owner of the saloon, Stacey, happens to be an avid eagle watcher and pointed us in the direction of the best eagle viewing area in the county… Which I’m sorry but I’m not posting publicly online… You’ll have to visit Dancing Cats and ask Stacey for yourself. If you’re not into Eagles then visit them for the music, food and the mermaid on the piano.

The mermaid on the piano at the Dancing Cat Saloon

So it turns out our experiences of less friendly people in the city were very much limited to there. People out here in the Catskills could not be more friendly, more welcoming or helpful. We mentioned our slight nervousness at the snowy roads that we are not use to and were instantly provided with Monte’s mobile phone number in case we should run into trouble.

On leaving the Saloon we headed off to spot us some eagles. But not before stopping to check out the monument making the regions most famous event… Woodstock. It was kind of snowy so we couldn’t really see much but, dear readers, if you could have seen me wading through the snow that came right up to my bum just so I could get this picture to share with you… Well you would have been proud of me!

Monument at Woodstock site… somewhat buried in snow!

And so to the eagles. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that, despite my navigating prowess, we have taken quite a number of wrong turns between New York City and here and we have turned around more times then I care to remember (or confess). We keep reassuring ourselves that we’ll get used to the signs and junctions but honestly, they come out of nowhere and every road has about 4 different numbers and names! Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but I’ve successfully navigated in many a European country without issue or error and yet am utterly flummoxed right now. However, I have absolutely no intention of getting a Sat Nav so I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon (or end up in Peru?).

Eventually we found the place and Orla woke up right on que. The snow was starting again and we really don’t want to get stuck so we didn’t spend long… but… We saw a Bald Eagle. And it was magnificent. It was also brief so I don’t have a photo to share with you. But I will, I am sure, over the next few weeks and months.

Eagles weren’t the only wildlife we saw. I spotted a couple of deer and we saw a Blue Jay and a Common Merganser (google it if you’re interested).

To be fair to kids (and Rob and I need reminding “to be fair” as we moan between ourselves quite a lot about them) we were pretty impressed by how long they were in the car and the boys really got into the bird watching. They are getting pretty good with the binoculars now too.

Back to beautiful cosy and warm Lazy Pond we headed. Warm was what was needed, boy is it cold out. We have spent the evening watching Home Alone with the kids, snuggled up on the sofa.

I’m a little worried that we have been so spoiled at Lazy Pond that no where else will live up to it. But more about that tomorrow and until then, stay warm.

Getting to the Catskills

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This morning was kind of mental. I haven’t exactly been overwhelmed by friendliness so far, although I think partly that’s due to central Manhattan not really being the place for kids. Unfortunately the epitome of unfriendliness presented this morning in the form of the man at the Avis car rental desk at JFK Airport. There appeared to be a problem with our booking via an agent and the way it had been set up for the 6 months. The man wanted us to return every month to JFK Airport to sign a piece of paper in person. Clearly that’s not really an option and apparently there is no way round it and nothing would break his stony, almost cruel, attitude towards us. The agent in the UK on the other hand was very helpful and although the problem isn’t exactly sorted, it will be and in the meantime we’ve hired a car from New York to Buffalo where we’ll pick up the long term one (hopefully!)

So we headed on out in the temporary car and took a number of wrong turns as we navigated the crazy road networks around the city and finally got on route 17 out to the mountains, sighing a big breath of relief… When child #2 had a major diarrhoea incident in his pants and it got everywhere, hands and all. So we pulled over in the snow, cleared it all up and set off again wondering at the incredible ability for our children’s toileting requirements to control our entire lives.

The snow was falling faster and heavier now and the roads were increasingly treacherous. As we passed more and more accidents Rob’s nerves started increasing as the driving got more challenging. So
our relief when we finally pulled up at our first stop in the beautiful little town of Livingston Manor was great. Although literally covered in snow, quite a few feet deep, you can still see what a charming small American town it is. We were there to visit Morgan Outdoors to buy kit for our onward journey. You’ll be relieved to know I now have suitable waterproof footwear! We also have kit for cooking our own food to keep our cost down, a snow shovel and gloves for Alf and Orla who have lost their original pairs already. Our welcome to Sullivan County, by the shop proprietor Lisa, couldn’t have been nicer and better timed so our morning stress seemed to melt away and the fresh mountain air was exactly what we needed.

By the time we headed out of town towards Lazy Pond B&B in the next town along called Liberty our moods had lifted and we were feeling positive and excited. And boy, was that quadrupled as we pulled up at Lazy Pond… Now this place is what we are about! The kids have never seen proper icicles or snow as deep and pristine and they finally got to start a snowman (to be finished tomorrow). Matt, the owner’s son, who welcomed us, had baked cookies for the kids and told us how they have been shovelling snow all day and night for days now.

We’re off to hopefully see some bald eagles tomorrow and find some slopes for the kids to sled down, we’ve got a snowman to finish and hot chocolate to drink. I’m super sleepy now and looking forward to a decent nights sleep now the kids have adjusted to the time zone and there’s no street traffic noise out here in the open country. To top it off the pillows here are perfect which my stiff shoulder and I are excessively excited about. Lots more pictures to follow tomorrow. Good night!

New York in Pictures

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Rob and the kids on snowy streets

We met with a true New Yorker today who I know through my work with the condition hyperemesis gravidarum. You can read about our day out in Downtown Manhattan with our wonderful personal guide who treated us to a meal in China Town and a tour of the Court Rooms in my other blog www.spewingmummy.co.uk.

We’re packing up now for an early start back to JFK Airport where we pick up the hire car and head out for the hills. Tomorrow night we’ll be at Lazy Pond Bed and Breakfast in the Catskill Mountains. We’ve enjoyed New York but it’s a very grown up city, far more suited to romantic couple breaks rather than dragging three small children around. We are hoping to find more budget friendly meals and activities outside of the City and are seriously craving some wildlife and open space. Our city days are behind us now, so while it’s been fun we’re looking forward to moving on.

Here are my photo’s from our time in this beautiful, crazy city…

Shiny building reflecting the clouds!

The tallest building around (if you include the spike)

Beautiful shiny buildings. Except I can only photograph them from this position due to the lack of Twin Towers which used to stand in front of them.

The ceiling inside the court house… I got told off for having my camera shortly after, whoops!

The statue of liberty, photo-bombed by a gull!

The stock exchange

Skyscrapers and blue skies

Madison Avenue

The city looks so different with blue sky… the whole place changes colour!

George Washington on Wall Street

New York, New York

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Tentatively we boarded the plane. So far the morning had gone well. The timings with the trains and checking in had worked out. The luggage situation worked perfectly so we were free from our coats and travelling light with our hand luggage. We had a nice birthday breakfast for Rob. This was the bit we were dreading… 7.5 hours in a confined space with three bored children. It wasn’t the boys we were worried about, they would happily watch films and do their activity books for hours on end… it was Orla that filled us with dread! Nicknamed “the dragon” a couple of days before by friends watching her being confined whilst tired, we knew it was a nickname that suited her. She recently learned to run… and now she runs, a lot, and fast. She is also a bit “hitty” these days and incredibility LOUD!

Set your expectations low and hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised… and we were… she fell asleep as we took off… heaven! The next two hours where blissful. I even got a chance to read my book, a pleasure I haven’t experienced in months.

I reckon we would have got another hour or even two out of her except that Alfie kicked a whole glass of water over her and it all went downhill from there really. But we survived to tell the tale and on the whole it was alright. She spend a large proportion of the remaining flight stood at the window shouting “Airplane”.

And so we arrived in New York. Immigration was fine and we got the full six months stamped in our passports. Our bags went through customs without issue despite our extensive bushcraft kit which could be tricky to explain to city folk. The drive into the city met with all my expectations and more. I’ve seen so many pictures and film footage of the New York skyline yet I was utterly unprepared for how impressive it is in real life. The way the skyscrapers, compacted onto a small peninsula seem to pop up out of nowhere, demonstrating some of the most impressive feats of human architecture and engineering with their spiky wonderfulness. The whole city looks as though it’s been designed by a great artist to be viewed from the outside rather than having evolved building by building. And yet when you get into the centre of it all you realise it is just as beautiful viewed from inside, on the ground.

But we were tired… boy were we tired! I haven’t felt that tired since my kids were new born babies! With a few hours to kill we walked up to Central Park in the hope of finding suitable snowball making snow and to gauge the distances on the map. It was further than we thought and it was cold! We found a corner of Central Park with a café and bought hot chocolates then wrapped back up and headed home. We managed to defer passing out for the night until 6pm (11pm UK time) before collapsing into deep sleeps, which considering we’d been up since 4.40am UK time I thought was impressive.

The time difference meant that the kids (and therefore we) were wide awake at 3.30 am. Although that sounds quite hideous, and in many ways was, it also led to quite possibly what will be one of the most special memories of my life… At 4.30 am my 6 year old son, Alfie, and I headed out into the cold and snowy New York morning to find tea, cookies and, more bizzarely, Chicken McNuggets… The snow was getting heavier as we slipped and slid our way back with our bags of junk seeing the night shift workers clearing the snow off the sidewalks, mini John Deeres with snow ploughs and hand held gritters being pushed behind. It was a truly magical experience made special mainly by Alfie’s pure joy and excitement about the snow and Macdonalds, as well as a sort of weird surrealness that comes from being an adult wide awake in a city at 4.30 am, yet neither exhausted with a newborn nor drunk.

We got back to the hungry pack and had a floor picnic with our funny supplies and by 7 am we were all ready for a nap.

Rising again at 8 am the day seemed somewhat more civilized and on opening the curtains to a full blown snow storm the delight from the children set us off in a happy snowy mood. We had planned to do a bus tour of the city but they were unlikely to be running in the heavy snow and are really expensive so we opted for playing in the snow and a couple of chores.

We bought American SIM cards so we’re back online and we bought an Orla sized car seat for when we pick up the hire car on Saturday. The boys loved the snow and strangers happily engaged in snow ball fights as they struggled down the Avenues burdened with the biggest snowballs they could manage.

By lunch time the snow had turned to rain and at every road crossing there were ankle deep puddles to jump through at each side of the road… sounds horrendous, stepping into pools of ice water in completely non-waterproof boots every 100 or so yards. But to be honest, once your feet are soaked through then it’s much like wearing wetsuit booties – the water warms up around your feet and although they are pretty squelchy with every step, they’re not too cold… as long as you keep walking anyway.

The ironic thing is that wellies have been my predominant footwear, year round, for the last seven or so years. I’ve been mocked for wearing them to cities, in supermarkets and on hot summer days. Now for the first time I’m without my trusty wellies, thinking they’d be utterly ridiculous in New York City I’ve come in pretty leather knee high boots, yet I need them more than ever! I don’t think I’ve ever stepped in such deep puddles or had such wet feet. So here is a little word of wisdom to pass on to any readers out there considering visiting New York in February… bring welly boots… they’re all the rage here and super practical… everyone bar the Deans are wearing them!

Once we pick up the hire car on Saturday we’ll be buying ourselves some wellies for sure but until then we are drying our boots out best we can on the room heater in the hotel and will dine in our socks in the hotel restaurant. Hopefully they’ll be dry by tomorrow when we go to explore Down Town New York and see the Statue of Liberty. To be honest we are grateful for the excuse to hole up in the hotel as the wind has picked up to the point of painful and I wanted time to write this post and take stock of the journey so far. Sorry for the lack of pictures… we’ve been concentrating on keeping the kids safe in the City and it’s been kind of tricky to get the camera out but hopefully once we have the hire car it will be more accessible.

Ready, Steady, Go…

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We are packed and ready for our super early start tomorrow morning. I’m a little apprehensive about New York City if I’m honest… London isn’t really my bag and I’m yearning already for some open space and less people. Our kids are shockingly un-streetwise coming from rural Cornwall so the traffic and crowds stress me out.

We’ve enjoyed London though. The London Transport Museum today was really good too with interactive displays and old trains, tubes and horse drawn carriages to climb aboard. It was good for Alfie to grasp the history and time scales. We learned all about the International Space Station at the Science Museum’s IMAX cinema yesterday and will be able to imagine the people up there when we see it next when we get out to the Catskill Mountains.

There have been times over the last week that I’ve started to wonder if we are a little bit mad attempting this trip with three such small children… And the truth is we are a little mad… But we are also quite sensible and if our plans need to change to respond to the children’s needs and abilities then that’s what we will do… If things aren’t going quite to plan then we will change our plans.

If the travelling and moving around is too much for the little ones then we might find somewhere we like and just stay put for a few weeks or even months. We just don’t know yet. We could be back in three months if we don’t enjoy it. Or we could keep on going for a couple of years if we love it. If we aren’t enjoying the states then we might head to Canada sooner, or back over to Europe, or over to Australia or New Zealand. Or we might hear of opportunities we don’t want to miss somewhere else.

Learning to keep our plans flexible and not worrying too much about where we will lay our heads next week is all part of our journey and fun. If we make firm plans now we would be setting our selves up not just for failure when the plans need altering, but worse we would potentially be missing out on adventures that we can’t discover online in advance. Once we are there we will meet people who will share their gems and wisdom of places and people, we will find places we want to stay to explore and other places we can’t wait to leave behind… Planning too much would prevent us being able to respond to the changes in the wind.

So I guess we are as ready as we will ever be, we’ve got our two suitcases and our plane tickets. We’ve got each other so we’re pretty stead… What else to we need?… Nothing… LETS GO!

Windsor Castle

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My 94 year old great aunt Lorna resides in Windsor so we took a trip there to see her before we head off. While in Windsor we decided to visited the Castle, which despite having grown up just a few miles away I only have vague memories of and only visited once or twice before. So we headed to the Queens house for a nosey about…

Well we were impressed, what a fantastic day out and an amazing history lesson for the kids! The bad first… It’s expensive (unless you live local, then it’s free). It cost us £48 pounds as a family ticket, at that price Rob was hoping for roller coasters. You have to go through security like at the airport so don’t accidentally leave your pen knife in your pocket or nail scissors in your purse.

Once you are through the payment and security barriers though it’s pretty much all good. The weather was great but if it wasn’t then you would need waterproofs as there is a lot of outdoors before the indoors. We whizzed around the dolls house as that wasn’t so up our street but the State Apartments are “Epic” as Alf said repeatedly.

Mega swords, daggers, guns, cannons, bayonets, suits of amour and every sort of historic war weapons adorn the rooms. Huge banquet tables and the queens throne impress the children and in every room you really must look up… Kids love cool ceilings! The history of the 1,000 year old castle is just wonderful, images of knights and dragons abound and capture your imagination. Wars fought, lives lost, dramas and mysteries involving kings, conquerors, princesses, politicians, peasants and all the other people who have lived and died within these impenetrable walls. In some places they are 4 metres thick and there is a secret passage too.

The staff around the Castle were really nice and helpful and there is a free cloak room for your pushchair and coats. You have to check in your pushchair but they lend you a sling or hip seat for free… A much appreciated service.

Warning: the banisters are very polished so if sliding down them you can really pick up some speed… Fun as that may be watch for metal poles at the bottom which can result in tears, bruising and a cool story.

We headed out into the sunshine to nurse the banister sliding injuries and watched the guards changing posts (not the full changing of the guards sadly as that’s alternate days in winter). They are a little scary, the guards, with their clicky shoes and guns with daggers on. But they are appealing to watch marching around and surprisingly young (or perhaps I’m getting kind of old?).

St George’s Chapel is a beautiful church within the grounds which houses the various remains of historical figures. One in particular captures my imagination – King Henry VIII. The whole Tudor period really does it for me and I love learning about it to enrich my imagination of the time and lives of the medieval people. So when the chap there offers to show us the seat the Queen sits in and let’s us have a sit on it… Then announces that they all sat there, even Henry VIII, well oh my giddy aunt (not aunty Lorna, she’s not very giddy)… I was pretty chuffed to be sitting on a seat which had been sat on by Henry VIII with my very own rump – I’d say that was worth the £48 alone!

A visit in the winter months is well worth the effort as it was relatively quiet. I should imagine in Summer and school holidays it must be heaving. We bought the children’s book which is well written and interesting and I’m feeling like I can put a nice big tick next to history for Alfie’s homeschooling this week.

I’m sorry to say that after my fantastic photography lesson yesterday I actually forgot to take my camera out today so the pictures are all from my phone. It is very photogenic though and I’d be keen to return just to photograph it more, the angles and shapes are just fantastic. I also can’t seem to disperse pictures throughout the post from my iPad so they are all below.

Tomorrow we lose the hire care and head to London. On Monday we will visit the science museum to learn about the moon.