Winter's Last Hurrah

It snowed again overnight. It really is spring here, technically anyways. I have noticed certain kinds of birds are around again. I saw a few robins and a red-winged blackbird. The birds all know it is Spring and they fly back to upstate NY even though it still can get cold and snow. I noticed this morning that this snowfall didn't stop the birds from singing at dawn. I was up early and stepped outside to see the winter wonderland around 6:30 AM and it sounded like spring outside. All the trees looked amazing. I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures after it got a little lighter.

The kids did not have school today because of a superintendent's conference. The girls didn't waste much time going outside with the neighbors to play. Here are Alicia and Caeden in our backyard. They planned on making a snowman..but didn't actually succeed in doing that. Alicia says she gave up because Caeden was too destructive. He couldn't resist demolishing it before it was done. I was watching them through the window gathering snow in the wagon. I think a sled would have been easier. They had fun anyway.

The Locals

Every town has a few locals to add to the flavor of the town. I don't really know who this man is, but I see him everywhere. I have lived in this town for about 15 years and I have seen him off and on for the duration of those years. He is quite elderly and he rides this 3-wheeled bike all the time, in all sorts of weather. I don't know much about him except that he "never drinks alcohol". LOL! I overheard him talking to someone in the Byrn Dairy last summer and I remember him saying that. I didn't know how he would feel about me taking his picture. I took it from a distance and zoomed in and cropped it. When he peddled close by, he looked right into my face and smiled and greeted me. I think he must be in wonderful physical shape for his age.

A Long Shot

There are Amish communities that are near me and also some Mennonite. I've thought about driving out by their homes and taking some pictures...but I really respect their desire for privacy. They don't really like to be oggled at. Who can blame them? That is what is nice about this area. We don't have tourist attractions that call for people to gape at the Amish the way they do in places like Lancaster, PA. Generally they are left alone and once in a while we see them in town. A few weeks ago I saw a horse and buggy tied to a lamp post in the Wal-mart parking lot. I took a great picture with my cell-phone....but I don't have the chord to download it to my computer. Another time I was at the Salvation Army thrift shop and there were two Amish women chatting away in their Pennsylvania Dutch (a form of German). At that point I really wished I knew German. Not because I wanted to be nosy and eavesdrop, but I thought it would be fun to hold up a pair of trousers and say, "How about these? Will these fit Eli?" LOL!

There is an Amish dairy farm down the road from my inlaw's place. I quite often will see a horse and buggy go by the house when I visit. I never happen to have the camera at the right time. Last weekend on the way home from their house we were about to pass a horse and buggy on the road. I just happened to have my camera. It was a long shot (no pun intended) to get the picture. I just pointed my camera towards my window as we were about to pass and pressed the button. Then I checked the results, fully expecting to see blur or just the road or a portion of a horse. To my surprise the picture above was what I found! I was quite pleased.

Houses

I don't really know a lot about the history of many houses here in town. Some of them, I just simply like the looks of. This little house is such a pretty little house. If you click on it to enlarge it, you can see the details of the trim. There are many beautiful houses here in our town. I especially like the victorian houses with the gingerbread trim. Sometimes I walk around and think I'd like to live in a certain house. Then I realise that my house isn't a bad looking little house...it just needs to be fixed up.

I feel very impatient about that because the way my house looks is important to me. Unfortunately, it has peeling asbestos shingles on it right now...in not too attractive of a color. I keep waiting for the day when we can change it and make it look like the cute house that I know it can be. A brick house might be nice because then I wouldn't have to worry about the shingles. Here is a brick house that is only about a block from mine.

Circa 1826

I love houses with history. This one has it. Unfortunately, I can't remember the specific names of the people who used to reside here. Several years ago, I was reading an article about some local history...and it included excerps from a diary kept by a young teenage girl who lived here. There was nothing really remarkable about her life. Her days were rather ordinary, but I was interested just the same. The article was really about quilts in local history. In the diary, the girl (whom I want to call Emily, but I can't remember) was working on a square for a friendship quilt with her school friends. She would talk about walking to a friend's house to work on it. LOL! Can you imagine what a stark contast that makes with today's young teenage girls. (Come to think of it though, we do have a group of young girls who knit together at our church)

Anyway, Emily's father was the pastor of the church pictured at the top of this post. If I ever run across that article again, I will come back and correct or add the names here.

Happy Birthday?

This is just a quick post to explain that I won't be on for a while. My internet is busted. Actually, we still have it on an old lap top....but that keyboard doesn't work very well. I refuse to spend much time on it. I am at my sister-in-law's home right now. Went to a funeral here in town this morning. It is also Allen's 13th birthday. A funeral is not a fun way for anyone to spend their birthday. We are trying to figure out how to salvage the rest of the day and make it somewhat fun for him.

These things happen in life.

A Beautiful Day!!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in upstate NY. It was in the mid 60's which is highly unusual for this time of year. I took Sherman for a walk and took my camera along. I took a lot of pictures. Mostly of houses that I thought were pretty. I will show a few to you in the next few days. It was just so wonderful to feel the warmth . I wore a spring jacket and actually felt too warm wearing it. Just two days ago I took a walk and needed to cut my walk short because the wind was just miserable and I was freezing....and now this! And guess what. It is supposed to get all cold and miserable again tomorrow.

I admit that I don't have the same artistic eye as my sister when it comes to using the camera, but I thought these pictures were nice. I've always admired this old wrought iron fence. There is english ivy growing all along it. This of course is a winter picture, so it has all the dried up leaves too. I like it though. The tree in the first picture looks so sunny...giving you an overall feel for the day. You can still see the snow....which was melting quickly. On some parts of my walk, you could hear water running into the streets and in the sewer systems because it was melting so fast.