Cranes

The city of Albuquerque has a number of areas in and around the city called "Open Spaces". These are public lands which, according to the city's website, are "managed to conserve natural and archaeological resources, provide opportunities for outdoor education, provide a place for high and low impact recreation, and define the edges of the urban environment." Basically, they are what they sound like: open spaces -- vast expanses of undeveloped land that are deliberately maintained as such, and open for recreation to such members of the public as enjoy the great outdoors.

Los Poblanos Fields is one such Open Space about ten miles from our home. Once a 138-acre farm, this is now winter home to Sandhill cranes. It is still farmed as a "community farm" and a quarter of the crops grown there are specifically geared towards attracting and feeding these cranes.


Last week, Shreya and I went with Archer and Sarah to explore Los Poblanos and see if we could spot some cranes. It was a gorgeous afternoon, warm and sunny, perfect for wildlife viewing and lazy walks through rows of cottonwood trees and desolate wild grassy fields. (Although how can a place be desolate when it is in the middle of the city?!) The trees were resplendent in their fall colors. We wandered around, chatting and enjoying the sunshine, and greeting the occasional other person who was there to see the birds. And yes, we saw birds -- hundreds of grey cranes just hanging out on the farm.

Did I say this farm was their winter home? To be more accurate it is their winter daytime hangout. We were told that every evening they fly further south to spend the night at a place on the river called the Bosque del Apache, returning to Los Poblanos in the morning. Upon mapping it later at home, I found that the Bosque del Apache is about a hundred miles away. Do these cranes really commute two hundred miles each day? Seems a bit incredible to me! At any rate though, they do fly somewhere for the night, for even as we watched, as the sun got lower in the west, suddenly flocks of them took flight and headed south, filling the air with their cries. It was an amazing sight!

We survived!

This past weekend has been an interesting one. For the first time since Shreya's birth, it has been just the two of us, for three days. Tom left for Atlanta on Friday afternoon, and returned Monday night, just a few hours ago. And, As I said in the title of the post, we survived!

(Update, 11/13: Forgot to post this... )

Halloween

After Thursday's snow, we were a little worried about the weather, but Saturday dawned bright and clear and warm and sunny. Not that snow isn't beautiful, but we are a little prejudiced against it when hosting an outdoor party.

Yes, that is what happened on Saturday. Shreya and her friends Megan and Emmalene (who are both exactly a week younger) had a Halloween party to celebrate their first birthdays. It was held at Hoffman Park (which Aai ,Tom, and I had previously spent several hours scouting out) about a 15 minute drive from our home.

Since it was a Halloween party, costumes were encouraged. Shreya went dressed as a white mouse, a costume which her mother and two grandmothers made on Saturday morning, in the midst of all the other preparations for the party. She was as cute as a button!



Other costumes in attendance included two pumpkins (twins), two butterflies (unrelated), a turkey, a black-eyed pea, a panda, a dog, a dinosaur, a fish (Nemo), a ladybug, a cat, and my personal favorite, a kangaroo, complete with baby kangaroo in pouch. (Click to enlarge the images.)









Most of the grown-ups did not wear costumes, or if they did, they were minimal ones like Varsha's cat ears and tail. Notable exceptions were Shreya's grandparents who brought their costumes all the way from Ann Arbor!


The "boo"thday cake made for the girls by Megan's mom probably deserves to be mentioned earlier, as it was very yummy (and spooky!)


The birthday girls were largely unaware of it being their big day, even when we sang to them!


It was a fun party and everyone had a great time, even though they hardly made a dent in all the food we had provided.

Our scary friend Jack was there too. (He looks less scary in daylight.) Jack came home with us and patrolled our porch to greet the trick-or-treaters.