Nature in the Country, Nature in the City

Real quick update:

Holden is starting to wind down on his regularly scheduled classes.  Above is his latest zoo school where they learned about prey and predators.

He had his last Lower East Side Ecology class on Friday where they studied Urban Biodiversity.  They caught insects in a nearby park and then brought them back to the classroom to inspect them under a microscope.

And of course we had to stop by our favorite donut shop for National Donut Day.

On the weekend we had a great barbecue on Saturday with some new friends.  A girl from Ella's school also has a weekend house in Woodstock so we had her family over for dinner.  It was so fun to entertain friends for dinner again, something we rarely get to do in the city.  And they turned out to be super nice people.  It's fun to start to make friends up north now, too.

On the first Saturday of each month the Woodstock Land Conservancy leads a walk with different themes.  You may remember that we went on the tracking walk in the snow a few months ago.  This Saturday the walk was called "Eat Your Invasives" where we were led by an herbalist who taught us about the local invasive plants and what they can be used for in cooking and medicine.  This ties in nicely to a class Holden and I are taking this Friday in Central Park on foraging.

At the end of the class we got to taste some pesto and tea the teacher had made out of local invasive plants (weeds!).  They were delicious!  We'll be trying them at home.

The weather is still spotty here.  Not too cold, but a lot of rain lately.  Yesterday was beautiful, so Holden and I decided to take the long way home from swim class walking through Central Park.  We discovered a new area that has been under renovation for a long time but is now back open to the public.  It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the park is and how far from the city you feel when you're in it, even though traffic is just a few yards away from you.