Some of my favorite kids, who just happen to be relatives

A section of our NY family was here for the past three days, getting their rubber boots on and running free at the farm. I love these guys. I'll just mention a few of the things I so like about each one.

Above is Christine, the momma, who has always gifted me with fashionable clothing and accessories that make me feel that I still have a foot in the door of my city life. She is generous and creative. While living in Tokyo for five years, she learned the Japanese art of flower arranging - Ikebana. Yesterday, at the farm, these skills helped to inspire her to create Indian head bands out of vines and turkey feathers. Here she is loving my shaggy boy.
Clementine, the only girl cousin on Nicolas' side of the family. She is gentle, kind and beautiful.
Julien, the youngest of Christine's three, a unique expression of mystery and innocence. He is infinitely huggable.
Remi, the middle child. He has his father's musical talent and I believe that this picture could be a future CD cover (thanks in part to the back up singers'attitude). He rocks!


And then there are the boys that I am lucky enough to know as a mother. They had quite a week while I was gone. Gillen shot a quail with his BB gun and then cooked it for dinner. Jesse, after two years of avoidance (due to a bad crash) tried again to ride a bike without training wheels and immediately succeeded.

No, that is not the quail; it's"Zack", the last of the original fifteen turkeys that Gillen bought in August.

One more cool attribute of this NY contingent - they speak to one another in French, all the time. It comes from having a Belgian mother and a French father and going to a French school. Even whining and accusations sound OK when in French (not that there were many of these).