Four years

Mīļais Robert,

 

Novēlu tev laimīgu ceturto kāzu jubileju. Es tevi mīlu kā ceptu pīli!

 

x

 

tava sieviņa



Red Hook streetcars

A few weeks ago Mikus and I flew to New York City to visit my sister and her husband. It was a packed couple of days, complete with a visit to Central Park and Chelsea. We spent the morning of our last day exploring the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, after which we found ourselves famished and ready for another culinary adventure. On our way in we had noticed a food truck rodeo at the intersection of Flatbush and Eastern Parkway across from the Central Public Library, and so we strolled over to fill up before heading home to pack. The food truck scene in Greenville is just getting started with a couple of food trucks and rumors of more to come, but NYC is teeming with the brightly colored vehicles. After trying out a gyro, empanadas and a variety of other treats we called it, and headed out to Red Hook.

Grand Army Plaza Memorial visible behind two of the food trucks

 

Named for the red clay soil and geographic location, the point was first settled by Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam in 1636, and named Roode Hoek (in Dutch hoek means point or corner). Fort Defiance was built there during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, but otherwise the area was rather low-lying, and full of tidal mill ponds. The 1800s brought construction of several ports and by the 1920 Red Hook was the busiest freight port in the world, but as shipping was modernized the area sunk into poverty, and in 1990 Life Magazine named it one of the worst neighborhoods in the US and a crack capital of America. The largest public housing development in Brooklyn (NYCHA Red Hook Houses) is still in Red Hook and houses about 5,000 people, however the area has grown in trendiness in recent years, and now is home to businesses such as IKEA and Fairway Market.

Red Hook is the only spot in NYC facing the Statue of Liberty, as she is looking out to sea

 

After a stroll in the Pier 44 Waterfront Garden to take in the views of Lady Liberty we crossed over to the Fairway Market, a 52,000 sq. ft. waterfront grocery store. Out in front between the café and the water are old Boston and Norwegian streetcars, which at one point in time were the beginning of someone’s plans to bring streetcar service to the area. After Hurricane Sandy they’ve truly reached the end of their line, and now add yet more character to the Red Hook district.

 

We were pressed for time and I was flying home, and so I had to pass by the mile-long refrigerated case that contained most of my favorite cheeses from when we lived in the Auvergne region of France (known for their cheese) without purchasing even a tomme. The fresh seafood and exotic fruit also called my name, but I had to be content with only snapping a few pictures. As we exited I promised myself I would return for some serious shopping, as well as dig further into the history of the area. Fairway Market's is quite an amazing story; the building (and surrounding area) was heavily damaged by the 2012 hurricane and the store has only recently reopened, but it is obviously a cornerstone of the Red Hook community and has incredible variety and a dedicated customer base.

 

One last detour. Some of you might recognize the television show the following scene is from…

Source here

 

It’s the popular drama “Blue Bloods,” featuring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg among others. An American police/procedural series on CBS, it is filmed on location in NYC. Fans might recognize this house as Police Commissioner Reagan’s home where the family dinners are held – it is in the Bay Ridge neighborhood, and as we cruised past I wondered if the inhabitants tire of the traffic.

 

The day was over far too quickly and so we packed up and headed to the airport. Luckily our flight home departed as scheduled with no hiccups, and one sleeping toddler later I was emerging in the Greenville humidity to a big hug from Roberts and a sleeping Lauris in the backseat, looking a year older than when I left two days ago.

A barn cake

You know that feeling of “how am I going to beat this next year?” when it comes to kids birthdays?

 

Last year Lauris was in love with cranes and trains, and for his birthday I made him a train cake (because I couldn’t quite figure out how to put together a construction crane cake). This year we were discussing cake, and when he drew a blank I threw out a few examples, just to get him thinking. The first thing that came to mind was a farmyard, and he grabbed that and ran with it, describing a barn cake with some animals, trees and a fence. I thought to myself “how hard can it be?” and started planning (i.e. logged into pinterest). Note to self – the barn cake was significantly harder than the train cake, but just as fun to design and make. The red frosting was the trickiest part; I started with a pink strawberry frosting, added quite a bit of red gel food coloring and the final product was difficult to work with and stained badly. For animals I luckily had some cute little barnyard animal and tree candles that had been presents at some point, and for the fence we used pretzels with melted white chocolate “glue,” which I had made to pipe the doors and windows on the barn as normal white frosting would have disappeared into the red mess. My parents are visiting so I had quite a bit of help, especially with child-care while I made my fourth trip to the store after running out of cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar for the second batch of chocolate frosting. My mother gets credit for the beautiful weather vane. (For the strawberries and cream cake recipe click here, chocolate frosting here)

 

But enough about the cake (even though I’m very proud of the end result), back to why it will be tough to beat this birthday. As I mentioned, my parents are visiting, and this alone boosts the fun-level for this celebration. They know how to spoil their grandchildren; endless reading, pushing of swings, art activities and of course presents! Lauris unwrapped two giant presents this year, the first from mom & dad (a train set to go with the train table he got for Christmas), and a kitchen from the grandparents!  As he loves to help me in the kitchen, this is a perfect gift as it gives him and little brother something to do while I’m preparing food. We’ve gotten over the unfairness of not being able to use real water in the sink, and moved on to “boiling” goldfish crackers, washing dishes (with pretend water) and hanging the utensils neatly on the hooks every evening before going to bed.

Boiling macaroni, photo credit: vectētiņš

 

We celebrated for three days straight, mostly because the grandparents are visiting, but also because I wanted to have a small party for him with a few of his friends. Going by the years=guests rule we had a nice lunch yesterday, and the kids ate up the pigs-in-a-blanket, the animal crackers, the hot dogs and farmyard mac and cheese. The weather was perfect for some time in the sandbox and backyard, and everyone enjoyed the uninhibited happiness of the birthday boy who just couldn’t believe it was all for him, and that almost everything he asked for was granted.

 

I really couldn’t have pulled it together without the help of my parents, but it hasn’t been all work either. We discovered Falls Park and attended the local art fair “Artisphere” on Friday, the boys saw the sights up in the mountains on Saturday and we still have downtown to explore today; I can’t wait to share some more pictures. It’s nice to have an extra couple pairs of hands helping around the house, and although I feel pangs of sadness now and again that our time in France ended so quickly, it is nice to have a reminder that being back in the US has its benefits – mainly proximity to family.

 

And so the birthday boy got his cake. Do I need to start planning for next year’s 2 and 4 année birthdays?

Bonne anniversaire Lauri!

The Reedy River is swollen after 4 inches of rain last weekend and intermittent thunderstorms this week. We drove through a long line of storms Sunday, on our way home from Ohio from little Annalija’s christening, and my mother got more of the same on her drive down from Chicago yesterday. Luckily my dad’s flight today only saw sunshine, although according to him the mud in the rivers from all the recent rain was clearly visible from above. After a downpour ended on Tuesday we drove downtown to Falls Park to have a look, and found the waterfall looking something like this... (as opposed to this a few months ago)

 

The christening in Ohio was beautiful, we love how our family gatherings pull together relations from all over the US. The boys were spoiled silly, I was able to spend some time cooking and decorating (instead of the usual cooking and cleaning) and it was a great opportunity to dress the guys up a little.

 

And today Lauris turns three years old. I’m having some very mommy-moments thinking of the full circle we have come since then (to France and back), as well as how quickly the time has run by. He’s got some celebrating to do today, and as vecmamma and vectētiņš are here to help I’m sure it will be tremendous.

 

So stay tuned for a little kliņģeris and cake, a few pictures of the birthday boy with the Chicago grandparents and a note or two about the fun things we’ve planned!

 

--------------------------

 

PS

 

Dear Tante Zinta,

 

So I’ve heard there have been a few questions on how I choose my blog material… as in, how your 6 day visit to Greenville resulted in four posts (well, five if you count TOW we picked you up at the airport), yet our two day trip to NYC has already resulted in four posts (and I think there is one more, because we saw a few more things after our visit to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden). I see how this can result in a few questions, mostly why Tante Zinta equates to 1 blog/36 hours and Krustmāte Anna to 1 blog/9.6 hours.

 

The answer is, that the math is really far more complicated than blogs/hour, instead the formula includes also T, time spent babysitting while I was at the dentist and D, diapers changed. Let’s not forget E, errands run which is directly inverse to %T, touristy stuff done. If I need to write another few posts on the value of having Tante Z around for a week while organizing a garage sale I can do that :) And if I have to consider calling you Tante Zee in order to avoid confusion between aunts and jams, I can do that too…

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in bloom

One would think our previous day in New York City would be hard to beat, but somehow we managed! Mikus and I were in Brooklyn visiting my sister (his godmother) and her husband, fully immersed in NYC sightseeing and dining experiences. Did I put enough emphasis on the dining aspect? Our first order of business Sunday morning was breakfast, and so we headed to Bagel Schmagel for some authentic NY bagels. My cream cheese/lox/onion everything bagel put The Park’s lunch from the previous day to shame, and since Mikus wasn’t a fan of the plain bagel we got for him (I think he wanted an everything bagel too!) I snacked on that throughout the day – now that is how bagels are supposed to taste.

Then it was off to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, along with the rest of Brooklyn. There was the same sense of “first nice day in NYC” urgency that we had felt the previous day in Central Park and on the High Line, but luckily the Gardens provided some additional acreage to spread the crowds out.

 

 

An ash dump in the late 1800s, the NY State Legislation reserved close to 40 acres for a botanic garden in 1897. It was 1910 when the garden was founded, and one hundred years later the gardens are 52 acres and receive 900,000 visitors annually.

 

The cherries were not in full bloom just yet, although there was plenty of color to satisfy us. There are over 200 species and varieties of cherry in the Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk, the first of which were a gift from the Japanese government after WWI. The different varieties bloom at different times, and visitors can track the viewing at Cherry Watch on the Gardens website.

 

We drifted through Bluebell Wood, marveling at the soft green hues of the budding trees and the lush carpet of not-yet blooming bluebells. It was somewhere on that side of the Gardens that we found the newly opened work of art resembling a giant bird’s nest. The textures of all the wooden materials and final product were remarkable, and the sensation of being in the nest was not just “for the birds.”

 

A stop in the Fragrance Garden revealed special activities for children taking place. Mikus planted several paper white bulbs (and by planted I mean he dug in the dirt long enough to get himself and mom dirty, after which mom planted the bulb), and we admired the plants which visitors are encouraged to touch and smell.

 

Magnolia Plaza was also in bloom, the beaux arts Administration Building rising behind the colorful trees. The Annual Border, Perennial Border and Lily Pool Terrace are just adjacent to the magnolias, and the sights and smells brought me back to the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands that we were lucky enough to visit last year during the peak of tulip season.

 

After we finally caught up to Andrejs’ sister and her two fantastic girls we ventured into the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the first of its kind in an American public garden. Constructed in 1914-15, it is considered the greatest work of landscape architect Takeo Shiota, who had emigrated to the US from Japan only 7 years previous from a small fishing village 40 miles from Tokyo. The gardens were overly crowded, and after completing a circuit with the strollers we escaped out to the Cherry Esplanade.

 

The rose garden and the lilacs had not yet started to bloom, so bypassing those we opted to enter the Native Flora Garden. With many micro-ecosystems including meadow, kettle pond, bog, pine barrens, deciduous woodland and stream, the Native Flora Garden has a good overview of the plants native to the region, which is known for its natural diversity.

 

We ended our tour back in the Osborne Garden, a semi-formal garden with wisteria-draped pergolas, walkways along green grass and planted beds with a beautiful fountain at the end. The semicircle of “whispering benches” surrounding the fountain supposedly have remarkable acoustic properties; if you sit at one end you can allegedly clearly hear the whispers of someone sitting on the opposite side. As far as I know it works great, only we tested it out with mildly louder voices than intended…

 

I was sad to leave the gardens, but my stomach was growling and this meant another fun dining experience!