Stewart Park Circle of Drums

I didn't go to Auburn this past weekend. It was nice I didn't have to make the hour's drive. John came to my house instead for the weekend.

Gimme some food!
I SAID gimme some food!
Mama stood by keeping other adults away so her babies got fed

Here is an interesting link on confusing domestic geese (and hybrids): confusing domestic geese...

So anyway, on Saturday afternoon we went to Stewart Park (Cayuga Lake) and walked around a bit and enjoyed the scenery and all the Canada geese and seagulls begging for food. A fellow John had corresponded with online had said he and a group of others would be at the park around 5:00ish for a drum circle. We didn't know exactly where they would be, but didn't actually hear any drumming until around 5:30. So we wandered over where they were and actually joined right in and beat some time. It may seem weird to some people, but it was kind of fun, social, family-friendly and FREE (and free of alcohol).







We are both planning to head to Woodstock on Thursday to spend a couple of days there relaxing at a summer party/BBQ with old friends of John's. John will be taking his PA and guitar with him because his friends from that area that are coming to the party are all musicians. (John used to live and work in that area for about 20 years.)

93rd Birthday Celebration Weekend

This past weekend was a terrific weekend! We started out with a nice evening picnic at the sailboat launch in Emerson Park on Owasco Lake. John picked up take-out from Connie's (a Mexican restaurant in Auburn) for the two of us. I took some photos while we were there.

Owasco Lake - Auburn, NY

John's dad turned 93 on Wednesday, July 4th. On Saturday, we had a wonderful picnic celebration at John's sister's home (which is the home John and his brothers and sisters grew up in).

John's dad cutting birthday cake


John's dad and oldest son, Christopher


John played and sang


"Now I've got a few words to say."

On Sunday, we took a drive out route 318 and dug up some "butterfly weed" that we had seen growing there on our way out to Rochester the weekend before. We also dug up a "black-eyed Susan-looking plant". (I transplanted them all to my house yesterday.) When we got back from rt. 318 we stopped in briefly at Emerson Park again and I got some pics of young ducks. Then we went to Niles, heading toward our friends' Jack and Heather's house. We stopped and visited an old silo down a seasonal road on the way there. John would like to play his sax and guitar in the silo because of the fantastic sound qualities. He is going to try to get permission from the owner.


We call these young ducks "teens"



Old barn and silo in Niles


I thought the different shading of the bark on this tree looked interesting.


This was a storm coming in.

While we were at Jack and Heather's, we noticed all the moths "parked" on a shed door. They were quite interesting and didn't seem to care that we were observing them. I am finding that if I take time to observe them closely, they turn into "cute little critters" that Pixar could use as a base for movie characters.

My Latest Accomplishment

I took a video with my SONY DSC-H5 camera at one of John's gigs (John Reilly Band from Auburn, NY) on June 22, 2007. I created an edited down-sized movie from it. Check it out:

More of Recent Photos

This is a picture of the sky from the back corner of my deck as a rain/hail storm was coming in on June 22, 2007. As my usual, I see a face in the cloud formation. I edited a copy of this picture to help point out the face I see.



Most of the rest of the sky was solid dark clouds, but I found this image in the sky with the sun casting light and shadow very intriguing.


This is another cloud formation from about the same time as the others. I think the white clouds are so pretty against the blue background.


Here is a photo from the week before that I think I forgot to post. This is the flower garden that my grandson, Matthew, became my personal gardener for. He says it's his garden now!

Not Impressed with WYSIWYG Writer and Blogspot

So much for WYSIWYG Writer!! Can't publish my photos after I get them placed within the text where I want them. So here I am back to my regular form of publishing, checking the page and moving things and re-publishing, and re-publishing.



I had another weekend of great photo ops in Auburn and surrounding areas. This must have been the weekend for painted turtles to mate or something. I saw one in Cascade park area and another on Townline Road in Sennett, NY. They were both in their respective roadways. After checking them out and taking pics, they were moved out of the road.



Isn't this a great little dragonfly?! Actually, there are two different ones.





This couple oared by us while we were walking the trail by the inlet/outlet (can't remember which it is) on Sunday afternoon. We took John's dad along with us on this trip. He seemed to enjoy getting out for a little while to someplace different.



We stopped for ice cream just outside Moravia. The ice cream was great and I enjoyed some sights while there, but the pesky flies I could have done without quite nicely!









This started out as a shot of the sunset when I came over the hill from Moravia toward Niles. I did a little photo manipulation and turned it into a fake lake with the sunset in the background.



See you in a few days. Gotta go get some stuff ready for a yard sale this weekend.

Wow, Video Upload!

It has been a few weeks since I last posted. I decided I would make a quick post before heading to see my boyfriend for the weekend. What a nice surprise to find that we can now upload video! Thanks, Blogspot; I'll give it a try. (I couldn't find where that capability is accessed and don't have time now to research it. Maybe next time.)
Here are some of my recent photos. I just loved the columbine. It came from my sister's garden. I visited her the other evening and she sent me home with a bouquet of cut flowers (irises, peonies--pink, white, & red, and the columbine).






I managed to capture pics of two different dragonflies last weekend:









And here is what I am told is a "Viceroy butterfly":








This is a Canada goose I captured on my camera card recently. Wouldn't this make a great painting?








Meet Savannah! She is the latest addition to my "Chihuahua grandchildren" (my son and daughter-in-law have four of them!).







I'm sure I have others I could share with you, but I need to get "on the road again". 'Til next time, enjoy.

P.S., Lest you think my cats do nothing while I am gone away, look what I found when I returned home last Sunday night. It is a real bunny head--minus one ear.

Weekend With WOWSkunk

Where do I start?! What a great weekend. I arrived at my friend, Cindi's, around 4:30 P.M. Friday. We enjoyed dinner at Kodiak Jack's. The following night was party night. The first guests arrived on their motorcycle with pop-up camper attached. It was a friend of Cindi's, Mike, and his daughter, Megan. Other guests arrived periodically after that. Cindi's other friends (by that I mean other than me) at the party were a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs--and a lot of warmth, wink, wink! Oops, lest you misunderstand--there was a GIGANTIC bonfire during the party. This first picture shows you the size of the pile (notice Cindi's grandson in the front).

The size of the actual burning pile gets lost in the dark background.

I always manage to see different images in a lot of pictures. This next photo looks to me like there are demons in the flames. (Besides Cindi's demons, ha ha. Oh, maybe these are Cindi's demons!)

This pictures looks like a (ever so appropriate) fire-breathing dragon:

This truck belongs to a friend of Cindi's son, Cory. Notice the car and motorcycle between the wheels, to give you some perspective on the size of the truck!

All in all, it was a fun weekend and I now feel I have a lot of new friends that I hope to see again and become better acquainted with. Here they are, bringing up the rear.
Thanks so much Cindi!