Category Archives: Uncategorized

Back to the Herrring Run

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WARNING THE CONTENT OF THIS POST MAY BE UNCOMFORATBLE FOR THE SQUEEMISH OR REPTILE CHALLENGED.

If any of you have been following my flickr photostream you know there have been a bunch of pictures of a great blue heron recently. That heron or its twin, has been hanging around the Herring Run off Rt 44 for almost 3 weeks now. In rain and sun, morning and dusk that bird is in the same place each day.

I’ve been trying different approaches to see if I can get a really good picture. You know the kind. Not just a good snapshot but the kind of picture where anyone who looks at it sits up and takes notice, the kind that has a “WOW” factor. I can’t understand what I’m missing because this silly bird has been patient and cooperative. It even lets me walk right up to the river edge and all it does is turn it’s head to look at me!

Well I thought it would be a good day today to go back and try again. I had some ideas that I wanted to try. We’d had rain in the morning and most of the day had been gray but now, around 4:30 the sun was breaking out. The light was soft. I thought it might be just the trick I needed.

When I pulled in to the parking lot I looked where the bird usually stands and it was…EMPTY! Oh no! There were a lot of red wing blackbirds dive bombing the picnickers for bread crumbs from their sandwiches but no Heron.

 I decided I’d take a walk around. Maybe it was around the bend in the river. So camera in hand I started along the river bank and sure enough. There was a Heron, this time on the big rock in the middle of the river. 

 That put him a bit farther away than normal but I figured I give it a try anyway.

As I was setting up the shot I happened to look down, to be sure I wasn’t about to step off the rocks into the river, and realized I was straddling a big snake. Now unlike Indiana Jones I don’t mind snakes but I don’t go out of my way to have a “close encounter” either. Especially when I don’t know what kind it is. This one’s eyes looked opaque so I wondered if it was blind or vision impaired. I’ve never seen a “blue -eyed” snake before either.

 I carefully stepped back away from the snake and looked around at the rocks I was standing on. There was another smaller snake maybe 6 inches away to my left.

Hmmmm I’ve never seen snakes here before but it does make sense. The reeds and grasses in the river are really tall and thick right now. And lots of rocks and old stone foundations give them plenty of hidey holes. Both of these snakes seemed to be sluggish. Since the sun had just come out a little while ago I surmised they were on the rocks to warm up in the sun. Comfortable that I wasn’t going to accidentally hurt them or they me, I turned back to my Heron but in my moment of inattention he’d taken off.

I wandered around a bit more now interested in the snakes. I crossed the little bridge over the fish ladder and gazed over the sea of reeds and tall grass. A line of rock foundation jutted into the center of the river  dividing the foliage and those rocks were loaded with snakes too. I found myself wondering if this is what it’s like to explore in the jungle.

I went back to my original location and both snakes were still there.

I hung around a bit more hoping the heron would return but after about an hour I was still just staring at the snakes so I packed it in for the day. I don’t know what kind of snakes they are but I suspect something like a black racer? Or maybe some kind of water snake? With the small heads I am pretty sure they weren’t venomous. Even so next time I think I’ll wear boots.

A Little bit of Trivia

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A friend of mine is a college professor who works with foreign students in an ESL program. ( English as a second language). I happened to run across a quiz on Travel in the USA that is geared to the ESL student. I figured as I travel around the USA and was born here that  I’d Ace the test. Ha! I won’t tell you my score but I will say it wasn’t 100.

Let me know how you do on it.:)

1) At this tourist attraction in Washington D. C. you can find Lincoln’s Bedroom, the Green room and the Red Room.

  • A) The White House
  • B) The Smithsonian Institute
  • c) The Museum of US History

2) Which of the following is NOT a borough of New York City?

  • a) Manhatten
  • B) Queens
  • C) Long Island

3) Which state legalized gambling in 1931

  • a) California
  • b) New Jersey
  • c) Nevada

4) What is the smallest US state?

  • a) Hawaii
  • b) Rhode Island
  • C) Washington D.C.

5) At this famous monument located in South Dakota, you can see the faces of four US presidents.

  • a) Mount Rushmore
  • b) Yellowstone
  • c) Mount McKinley

6) Carmel is a romantic, beach resort in __________?

  • a) Florida
  • b) Hawaii
  • c) California

7) What is the capital of California?

  • a) Los Angeles
  • b) Sacramento
  • c) San Francisco

8) Jazz Music comes from this city.

  • a) New Orleans
  • b) Atlanta
  • C) New York City

9) This is the longest river in the US.

  • a) The Colorado
  • b) The Missouri
  • c) The Mississippi

10) What State is the Grand Canyon in?

  • a) Colorado
  • b) Arizona
  • c) Nevada

Ok now. Have you got your answers?

The correct answers are:

1=a

2=c

3=c

4=b

5=a

6=c

7=b

8=a

9=b

10=b

How’d you do?

Award Winner

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WOW I am speechless! I mean it. I don’t know what to say! Blog awards…who knew!

I want to thank Patti from http://learnmoreeveryday.wordpress.com for even thinking of me. I’m so new to this blogging business that I’m still green or wet behind the  ears or a tenderfoot or any other of many names used to describe someone who is just learning the ropes.

I love http://learnmoreeveryday.wordpress.com blog. I look forward to getting my email saying there is a new post from her. Her posts have such beautiful photos and her descriptions and stories always touch me. Her Father’s Day post was especially beautiful since I lost my father many years ago. I hope her father has a speedy recovery and they have the chance for many more photo walks! I hesitate to add comments a lot of the time because they seem trivial after such heartfelt accounts. Way to go, Patti!

Now onto this award thing.:) I don’t have 15 blogs to follow. I work full-time and my blog keeps me running the rest of the time. I follow 2 blogs besides Leanmoreeveryday.wordpress.com. I wish I had time to follow more but  I will gladly tell you about these 2 and I certainly think they deserve the Versatility Award!

The first blog I found was Homestead Rambling’s. The first post was about the Civil War. About that time I was doing a blog on Lexington and Concord and the role of that area in the Revolutionary War. It seemed to just fit with the type of posts I was doing and it was so  nicely written. I subscribed immediately. Since then I see she is a very versatile writer covering many areas of interest and philosophy. She is a strong Christian writer but also makes it clear that she is down to earth as well. Love her cell phone challenges. I can so see myself in them. Her blog is http://homesteadramblings.wordpress.com/ I would award this blog the Versatile Blogger Award because of the many subjects she covers in her posts.

The other blog I really like is http://toddpack.com Now this blog can be sweet when he talks about his children, Thing 1  and Thing 2 or he may talk about bugs like fireflies/lightning bugs or more recently pay tribute to the passing of a great musician. This is an awesome blog! Again, so much versatility! That’s the award here.

There only seems to be 3 categories, The versatile Blogger, the Stylish Blogger and the irresistible Sweet Blog and it seems that the blogs I subscribe to all fall in the Versatile Blogger Category. So my congrats to them. I hope you try out their blogs!

Now the last part of the award is that the recipient has to tell 7 things not readily known about themselves. That’s a hard one to because I’m pretty much an open book and if I haven’t shared then I really didn’t want to, but let me think….

  1. I turned 60 this year and finally gave in and let AARP convince me to join.
  2. I hate talking politics. I have my views and consider them personal and private so you probably won’t get too many controversial posts in that regard.
  3. Most people think of me as a cat person but I really love all animals. I chose to share my home with cats because they fit my lifestyle. In a different world I might surround myself with dogs, cats, horses, hamsters, ferrets, sheep, goats etc. (even goldfish) Maybe I should have been a zoo keeper! I admire Jungle Jack Hanna!
  4. In my younger days I loved to scuba dive and still adore the snorkeling and swimming.
  5. When I retire I want to travel the USA in an RV and see all the places I’ve missed.
  6. I like being single.
  7. I am considering getting my motorcycle license.

Well, I think that sums it up. I am honored to even be considered in the same breath with the other recipients of the award and hope you’ll check out my suggestions. Thanks again to http://learnmoreeveryday.wordpress.com!

Chihuly Exhibit…Worth the walk

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Chihuly: Through the the Looking Glass

( Excerpted from the official biography) Dale Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma Washington, USA. He first became interested in glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. He followed up by enrolling in the first Glass program in the country at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the University of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), eventually he established the glass program there, teaching it for a decade.

In 1968 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Venini Glass factory in Venice. There he observed the team approach to blowing glass which is critical to the way he works today.

http://www.chihuly.com/biography.aspx

One of the things that stands out for me is Chihuly suffered an eye injury in a car accident and now blind in that eye. I have heard , although it was not in the official biography, that this was instrumental in his adoption of the team approach that he had been exposed to in Venice.

I don’t have all of the names for his pieces but their beauty in my mind, speaks for itself.

Thanks for the Delays, Walmart.

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Well, as you may recall my vacation got off to a rough start with all kinds of confusion around tours and the rental car. Well that little dark cloud was just waiting for me to get back from vacation  to start in again.

I stayed over at my sister’s because the plane came in so late so Sunday morning we backed my car out of her garage to let her park her car and oops! My car had a flat tire. Yup, flat as a pancake!

My nephew is very handy. It was so nice to have someone around that is calm and controlled and knew what he was doing. He came over with his patch kit but wasn’t able to rescue the tire. We tossed the deceased in the back of their mini van and George’s wife Kelly drove me up to Walmart. That was the only place in the vicinity that was open on Sunday for tires.

Judging by their attitude they knew they were the only game in town. They weren’t rude exactly but they certainly didn’t give you the feeling that they wanted to help. We even explained that I was from out-of-town and looking at a 3 hour plus drive to get home. They didn’t care. They said it would be at least an hour maybe longer before they would get to my tire.  All I wanted was the old tire off and the new one on the rim …a 10 minute job at most.

They were not to be swayed so we asked them if they could call us when it was done. They took down Kelly’s cell phone and back to my sister’s we went. And there we sat. Granted it was a nice time to catch up with everyone. My other nephew, John, George’s brother was there so it was like a “mini” family reunion. The time went pretty quickly with all the visiting and catching up but I suddenly realized that it had been over 2 hours and we still hadn’t gotten a call so we called them.

Walmart :”Oh yeah ( Very nonchalant). You tire’s right here.”

Us: “Is it ready?”

Walmart: “Sure”

Us: ” We’ll be right down”

 We got there and the tire was “right there”. It was leaning next to the desk. I paid the bill and the employee said “Thanks” and turned away. I said “You mean you aren’t going to put it in the car for me?”

He gave me a look and a heavy sigh ands said he “supposed he could”.

I asked him why they didn’t call as agreed. His answer was that they paged us in the store. I responded that we weren’t in the store and that they were made aware of that when we dropped the tire off. He just shrugged and said there was a shift change so how would they know?

OMG!? Is this customer service? I fumed all the way back to my sister’s. There George put the new tire on the car and I was finally on my way. Any thoughts I had of making stops on my way home like the Saratoga Battlefield had to be canceled. Thanks Walmart.

 First thing Monday, I called the manager of that store and let him have it. His response? “Oh I haven’t had any complaints recently.” Oh Boy..no complaints recently. Does that mean you had complaints before?

Good luck Walmart customers in the Queensbury Store! They are not customer friendly there! My sister said she won’t set foot in that store and I can see why!

But at least I am finally back in Massachusetts and home. I’m ready to start some local exploring until my “next great adventure.”