Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Hanover Square

This year is the 700th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam. There are buildings on Hanover Square in Syracuse, which is really nearly a triangle because of the diagonal Genesee St., which remind me of Amsterdam. This little corner of Syracuse hums along in quiet architectural beauty. 

Monday, August 30, 2010

Adirondacks: Stairs

Work of the ADK trail crew: hardening and stabilizing the trail and easing the way out of a stream crossing.


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Adirondacks: Corderoy

Corderoy is an excellent method of raising the trail above seasonal mud.
For the agile, rock hopping using rocks carefully placed by an ADK trail crew also makes it possible to avoid mud and water. 
Intense use makes many trails ever wider.
This corderoy is on the trail to Johns Brook Lodge.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Adirondacks: View South from Gothics

Marcy is the farther cone partly hidden just right of center.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Glenn Curtiss Elementary School in Hammondsport


The Glenn Curtiss Elementary School, in Hammondsport at the south end of Keuka Lake, closed in June 2010 after 75 years of use. It is a classic Depression-era building, forward looking with hope, and with art-deco features.
The text on the frieze:

Seek ye diligently life's virtues: 
reverence, honor, 
industry, frugality, 
faithfulness, patriotism.

The students are serious. Enlarge the picture to see the tree details, bird, squirrel and acorns above them. 
The newer school will now house all grades. School enrollment has dropped and technology has changed in this small district, enough to render the Elementary building redundant and obselete. The building is for sale.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Friday, August 20, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Osprey Nest

On the causeway to Ram's Head on Shelter Island

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Glossy Ibises, Great Egret, White Ibises and a Deer

At the pond at Hay Beach on Shelter Island. 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Green Heron

We found a small pond, at the point of Hay Beach off Menhaden Lane on Shelter Island, loaded with wading birds. If you go to Shelter Island, be sure to pick up a beach permit at the Town Hall so you can park near the public beaches.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Privet on Shelter Island

People on Shelter Island have made use of privet hedges into an art. Privet grows extremely well here in the ocean-moderated climate. It can be tall and thick for privacy without a fence. It can be shaped, as this entrance from the street is, to reveal a sweet view.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Osprey

This large primarily wire sculpture of an osprey is over the water in Greenport, Long Island, NY. Enlarge it to good effect.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Daddy Long Legs in the Doorway

We grew up knowing and loving them as daddy longlegs. My mother taught me to be unafraid of them, and of moss. I remember her on that morning, by a path at our little camp on Oneida Lake, so clearly. It is one of my first memories.
They are not technically spiders though they share the same Class, Arachnida, along with true spiders, scorpions, and tics and mites. 
They have their own Order, Opiliones, 
They are mistaken in appearance for cellar spiders, Pholcidae, which are also harmless. These others are called Daddy-longlegs Spiders, are true spiders, and have two main body parts, a cephelothorax and an abdomen, while Opiliones have a pill-shaped body. Pholcidae can make going into the cellar during the summer somewhat unpleasant. 
Arachnologists are using the common name harvestmen for daddy longlegs. Not me.
They are most definitely not poisonous and any view to the contrary is myth. 

Friday, August 13, 2010

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Route 20 Cabins

Before the NYS Thruway, there were routes 5 and 20. Vacationing motorists stayed in cabins that adults above a certain age remember with fondness.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Camillus Area Unique Area

The DEC regards this 40 acre forest one of the finest mature hardwood forests in Central New York. At the top of open fields traversed by good hiking trails, there is a fine trail through the forest. I look forward to skiing on those fields next winter.
Nearby at the base of the hill is a canoe launch onto Nine Mile Creek as well as a section of the old Erie Canal and an aqueduct over the creek.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Merlins at Stillwater

Two of the four Merlins living on Williams Island this summer. We think a pair have successfully fledged two youngsters. The young birds are honing their skills at finding food, much as the Peregrines are in Syracuse, soaring and swooping, playing talon tag, chasing. 

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Witchopple Lake

Three and a half hiking miles from Stillwater on the historic and interesting Red Horse trail, this remote lake is historically significant to Rap-Shaw as one of the original sites of the camp. People arrived by train at Beaver River, crossed the river ( the impoundment was smaller) and hiked in for fishing and hunting. 

Friday, August 6, 2010

Joli's Excellent Crossing

We spent a glorious day walking from Trout pond on Stillwater past Salmon to Witchopple on the Red Horse trail, seven miles round trip. 
Both spans of this bridge are broken; one set is now resting on a rock underwater. Crossing requires stepping across the break in the water. Joli, never the best at proprioception, accepted the task and ever-so-carefully walked across, without urging and with no missteps. Such a game puppy!  

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Architectural Beauty of Ward Wellington Ward

Second floor balcony detail of the Dunfee House, 1914, by Ward Wellington Ward. 

Monday, August 2, 2010

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Theme Day: Bright Colours

City Daily Photo hosts Theme Day on the first of every month. Click on the link: scroll down and to the right or click the one below to see other entries.
click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants