Corning: Shop Local

Blooming Today: Forsythia

Saint Lucy's Church on Gifford Street

St. Lucy's is the parish church in a old, diverse and poor neighborhood and home to peace makers, community workers and a devoted league of volunteers.

When the steeple came tumbling down in a storm the congregation decided rather than replacing it they would use the money in the community.

When the Community Choir sang here several years ago they temporarily changed the sign to read "Singers Welcome". 

    

Piliated Woodpecker at Green Lakes

Green Lakes State Park is rich ground for piliateds. Their usual habitat is the old-growth forest to the south of Round Lake, where the trees are so tall that it is hard to see much of them, much less get a picture, though they can be easily heard.

Clinton Square and Christmas Tree

Clinton Square becomes a focal point, especially during school breaks and weekends. On the day before Thanksgiving, with cooler weather coming on more strongly, workers turned on the cooling plant and began laying down the ice. So thin was the cover, I could still see leaves along the bottom layers.

A city crew is putting final touches on installation of the Christmas tree. 

Syracuse Post-Standard: The Package

Putting Up the Christmas Tree at Clinton Square

The city crew straightening and shimming the tree.

Good colors, nice font...sprucing up Canastota!

Niagara Mohawk Building

If you live in Syracuse, then you already know that the lighting of the tower on the Niagara Mohawk building is fabulous. 

The current combination of pale purple and vivid neon blue is strikingly beautiful. At times the lighting is programmed to cycle periodically through several combinations of colors. It also presents Valentine Day,St. Patrick's Day and other seasonal themes. 

The eye naturally seeks the building at night, ready to be surprised and thrilled.

Northern NY Sky

House With Mansard Roof and Heifer in St. Lawrence County

Beneath the Fountain at the National Gallery of Canada

Parker House B&B in Ottawa

Louise Bourgeois' Maman

This photo also shows the atrium of Moshe Safdie's National Gallery of Canada, a massive architectural reflection of the Library on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (See my November 16 post.)

Canada's Parliament Buildings in Ottawa

The newly restored Library is in the foreground. The Tower of Victory and Peace holds the Books of Remembrance in a room high up near the clocks, honoring the many thousands of Canadians who lost their lives to war.

One Hundred Foot Line by Roxy Paine

People familiar with Saint Louis Art Museum will recognize this sculptor immediately for his shiny full-sized tree Placebo. One Hundred Foot Line is beside the National Gallery of Canada on Nepean Point in Ottawa.

Mink in a Backwater of the Ottawa River

The second mink of my life spotted within a week of the first.  

Big shake every time it came to the surface after a fishing dive.

Soft Explosion

Rainbow Falls off Tooley Pond Road

Tooley Pond Road south of Canton and north of Cranberry Lake is a wilderness paradise. There are several falls, this being the biggest, paths for skiing and hiking, canoe-able water in several parts of the Grass, and practically deserted throughout. Choice! 

Dog and Steel Grate Bridge Don't Mix

Forlorn Joli waits for me to take a picture and come beck to her, asked not to try the hazardous bridge surface. This bridge crosses the Grass River.

Wintergreen by Grass RIver

Wintergreen plants are green throughout the year. The berries are edible; oil of wintergreen has a refreshing smell and taste. It is a heath, Ericaceae [Eri.case.a.e], a large botanical family, along with other tough species such as blueberries, rosemary. mountain laurel, leather-leaf.

This specimin was by the Grass River along the Tooley Pond Road in St. Lawrence County.

Ice on Tooley Pond Road

Imagine the tinkling of broken glass but look, it is suspended ice occasionally defeated by gravity in a small pond in an otherwise quiet forest. Isolated and  unpredictable sounds, clear as bells, hard to see exactly where each collapse just happened. 

Mink by Grass River in Degrasse

This was an extremely lucky catch for me. The mink was crossing a wide expanse of riverside rock when I happened along. It ran back out of sight. I backed up, sat down and waited. In two minutes the mink reappeared, and hurriedly continued across the rock and into a lair.
It was dark brown and shiny, and still wet, the small fish just caught.
I have never seen a mink in the wild before.
I'm going with Paul Jamieson's spelling of the river's name.

Progress on Onondaga Creekwalk

Florence Shelly Preserve

A large Nature Conservancy site with several distinct habitats from bogs and a pond to hillside soft and hard woods in northeastern PA. For more information and directions, go to:

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/pennsylvania/preserves/art827.html

Joli and I spent the day here recently and saw many wonderful things, cleared a culvert (me), went swimming (Joli), and slept on the way home (Joli).

Autumn

View From Bald Mt. Toward Fourth Lake

On an overcast and rainy day.

Joli and Fire Tower on Bald Mt. near Eagle Bay

Gas Station: Modern Design

At the intersection of Rts. 12 and 28 in Alder Creek.

Theme Day: Public Transportation

This thundering herd was in Bath NY in August at the oldest county fair in the  Universe. Brilliant morning, lots of energy to burn, just waiting to take little riders on great adventures.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in City Daily Photo's November First Theme Day: Public transportation