An Autumnal Halloween

October 29, 2007

Butterfly Genus Theodorableus Butterfly Genus Francis Captured butterflies


The Bat­sto Vil­lage Hal­loween par­ty was­n’t quite so much fun this year: their web­site did­n’t men­tion that most activ­i­ties end­ed part-way through the after­noon so that the orga­niz­ers could sit in front of the old hous­es giv­ing out can­dy. We arrived on the late side so no face paint­ing or pony rides for the boys but­ter­flies. We still had fun in the first real­ly autumn day of the sea­son and Bat­sto was look­ing more bucol­ic than ever. More pic­tures (includ­ing some of the cool gear­ing in the old Bat­sto grist­mill) over on yes­ter­day’s Flickr page.

Right: rare video footage of a Genus Fran­cis­cus But­ter­fly in migration.

Butterfly Love

October 26, 2007

Butterfly Love
The town parade was post­poned by rain again last night but as the but­ter­fly boys were all dressed up we ducked into our favorite piz­za shop for some moz­zarel­la sticks and a slice of bruchetta-topped toma­to pie. We got out with­out inflict­ing any major struc­tur­al dam­age or phys­i­cal injury, though Theo was only a twist or two away from destroy­ing one of their neon signs. Rumor has it that the parade will hap­pen next Tues­day though if the weath­er coop­er­ates we should have pic­tures of the Bat­sto Vil­lage hal­loween before that (last year’s pics).

(Still work­ing on get­ting com­ments and Twit­ter to show up properly.)

Site update

October 25, 2007

Warn­ing: Geek to fol­low: Thanks to read­ers for their patience these past few days as I’ve trans­ferred Quak­er­Ran­ter to a new web host. My old account had mul­ti­ple sites on the same serv­er, includ­ing Quak​erQuak​er​.org and Mar​tinKel​ley​.com and every time there was a prob­lem on QR it would take every­thing down. After prob­a­bly a year of trou­bleshoot­ing and nev­er quite fix­ing the prob­lem QR is off on its own (on Blue​host​.com, I want­ed to see what CPan­el was like).

I’m also rebuild­ing the site to be more com­pli­ant with the new Mov­able Type tem­plate struc­ture, which moti­vates this new look. I still like the old min­i­mal­ist design ripped off of Kot­tke and might bring it back or might exper­i­ment with some­thing else that fits the new stream-of-life direc­tion the blog has been tak­en with its Twit­ter integration. 

I can’t real­ly blog about the most inter­est­ing finan­cial devel­op­ment of the day, which has to do with the end of a cer­tain wit­ness of fif­teen years but if any F/friends want to know feel free to drop me an email.

Off now to see if the town Hal­loween parade has been washed out by rain again (today is the rain date and it’s pret­ty sog­gy if not active­ly rain­ing). Expect pic­tures of cute boys in match­ing but­ter­fly outfits…

Railroad & farm weekend in Lancaster

October 17, 2007

Our only full-group shot, outside Strasburg RR
This week­end we took off for a fam­i­ly trip to Lan­cast­er Coun­ty, Penn­syl­va­nia – Julie and me, the kids and my moth­er Liz. I won’t have time to do a long blog post, but high­lights were the Ver­dant View farm B&B (link) where we stayed; the Stras­burg Rail­road (link) whose line runs through the far­m’s back­yard, the Choo Barn mod­el rail­way (link); and the amaz­ing Cher­ry Crest Farm (link) with its corn maze and its sim­ple games for kids of all ages (who knew you could have so much fun with a hill and a piece of burlap?!).

See the See the pho­to set on Flickr for more pic­tures and sto­ries. Every shot is mapped, with links.

Large pho­to: Fam­i­ly at Stras­burg RR: Mar­tin, Liz, Theo, Julie, Fran­cis. Below: Julie and the kids walk­ing through fields at farm, Fran­cis play­ing kung-fu with the farm dog, Theo run­ning in ter­ror from said dog, Engine 90 ready to pull out.
Verdant View's verdant views
Verdant View Farm dogs
Verdant View Farm dogs
Locomotion