Urban Pastoral

Yesterday the mamas and I headed out for our first real outdoor excursion of the year; it was a beautiful spring day and very warm, which was fortunate because I somehow managed to lose Istra's sweater on the way to Riverdale Farm.

Riverdale Farm is pretty unique; it is also very bizaare. First of all, it is a farm right in the middle of the city. It's not really isolated from the city at all; you can plainly see the rows of tall Victorian houses in the background. Secondly, it's a "real farm" and not a real farm, it seems to me. There's almost no animal feces, the smell is not overpowering and the animals are not biting off each other's tails or pecking out each other's eyes for want of space. In fact, the only sign of distress we saw was from the brown and white cow who was calling out the entire time for her calves, which were in the barn while she was at pasture.

It's a nice farm though, all in all. It's just an anomaly that might trick you into thinking that farms these days are generally okay.

Oh, and here's my new Babyhawk carrier, which came in handy when I had to drag my SUV-stroller down the stairs at wheelchair-inaccessible Castle Frank station. Istra slept through it all, of course.