Westward Ho!

Wow! Is that the Grand Canyon? Sure is, the Grand Canyon of the East that is - located in Letchworth State Park in the western part of NYS. Also in the park is this falls, beautiful but slightly smaller than Niagara Falls a few miles to its north.
While we did enjoy an afternoon in the park, our real goal was to visit our friend Pat and her family in Buffalo. Other than "just passing through" on the highway, we had never been to Buffalo. Buffalo has GREAT food including Buffalo chicken wings (have they made it to your area yet?). The other local food is "beef on weck" which is thin slices of roast beef served on a kummelweck roll with pan drippings and LOTS of horseradish. Schwabl's has been serving them since time began or almost anyway. Schwabl's also has great German food so it's a really good thing for John's waistband that we live so far away. If it hadn't been for Pat's daughter Fai cooking us a fantastic dinner for later in the day, I'm sure John would have ordered one of everything for take-out.
But there are other things to do in the Buffalo area besides eat... If you saw the blog this spring, we visited Millard Fillmore's birthplace. (Our 13th President & the only one born in NYS.) In East Aurora is the house he & his wife lived in when he first became a lawyer (a starter home). At the end of his life (let's hope anyway) he was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. The cemetery also has other notables including Carrier who invented air conditioning and Southwick the dentist who is given credit for the electric chair (yuk!). On the subject of dying... if you're in Buffalo and feel you've expired but aren't sure, perhaps they'll take you to the Amigone Funeral Home or if you're sure you've expired you can be taken to the Bury Funeral Home.
Back with the living, the Basilica in Lackawanna (a suburb) is incredibly beautiful and well worth a visit. According to the brochure there are between 1500 and 2500 angels in the cathedral (can't believe someone hasn't come up with a closer number). Father Baker, whose idea it was to build it in the 20's, wanted you to be able to see an angel no matter where you were in the building.
In downtown Buffalo there are lots of interesting buildings (unfortunately the driving tour given on the city web site sounds good but is absolutely impossible to follow). However, we did manage to find the old post office (the eagle was both quarried & carved on Vinalhaven Island, ME). The last photo is the 1906 Calumet Building. Those smudges on the photo are hail stones (Buffalo is never far from winter!).
So the next time you're in western NY, take time to visit Buffalo. While it's lost half its population with the closing of industry, things now appear to be on the upswing and there are lots of interesting things to see and do plus the food is terrific!

It's apple pickin' time in NYS

Rather than going anywhere this past week (the weather here was just too beautiful to leave!!!), friends came to us. An apple fairy must have visited our trees this spring because, even though the trees had very few blossoms, they are loaded with apples.
Sydney (the first gal on the ladder) and Bailey (the second gal on the ladder) had never made apple cider before. So, just in case you never have either, they're going to show you how it's done.
First you pick the apples (dah!), then put them in a garbage can filled with water to wash them (did dunking for apples get started this way?). Throw the apples in the hopper while John (his arm was about ready to fall off when we finished) turns the wheel to chop them into little pieces. Smooth the apples pieces out (almost as good as making mud pies), put the top over the apple mush, and turn the crank to squeeze out the juice. Then, of course, you have to taste it to make sure it's just right. And, if you're really lucky, your grandma (Melody) takes you for a ride in the little red apple wagon.
Later in the day when the grownups come to make cider, a wee bit of wine somehow makes the cranking a whole lot easier (that's Pamme hiding behind the crank). Beware though, this close to Halloween, it just might turn you into a very scary beast! (Actually, that's ugly dog Ed who doesn't like either cider or wine - go figure!)

Earlville State Forest

See the sign but where's the forest? It's actually behind the camera but this view is not to be missed either.
So why a trip to a forest? Well, it's been a bit rainy and a bit chilly which are actually pretty good conditions for collecting edible fall mushrooms. So I called Sally, my friend who's an expert (although she would deny it) on the subject, and we went on a foray to the state forest. Actually the forest is just one hill over from where I live but there's this little problem of some VERY curious beef cows who live in the pasture in between so, rather than walking, we drove.
The road through the forest is beautiful anytime of year but it's particularly beautiful in the winter with snow and makes a great cross country ski trail. The cows have gone to the barn by then (or perhaps to the market or your dinner plate) so if you are game for a fairly exciting downhill run (and a fairly strenuous uphill climb on the way back), you can ski from our house over there.
But... back to mushrooming. We found LOTS and LOTS of different kinds. It is amazing how one can walk along and not see any. But if you stop and really take the time to look hard you can usually spot some.
By now you're probably imagining all the wonderful mushrooms we're having for supper. Well, the sad news was that none of those we found in the forest were edible. However, all was not not lost as we stopped by Craine Lake where we knew there should be shaggy manes growing. The picture is our total harvest which Sally was generous enough to let me have. The little white thing next to my reading glasses is the mushroom in case you didn't spot it. Now to figure out how to share with John....

St. Lawrence Seaway...

In case you've not been following the weather in the North American mid-west, rainfall is way below normal affecting the water levels in the Great Lakes and, thus, the St. Lawrence. This past weekend was the traditional "end of the season" closeup for the camps in the Thousand Islands, not to mention it was Canadian Thanksgiving - always a reason to get together with friends for good food and conversation! And it was WARM!!! (as opposed to the times we've helped close up camp when snow was in the air). John & Terry hoped to get in one last (also the second but last sounds better) sail of the season. The photo is of their dock (the original point of this paragraph). The water level is so low there you can walk across to the other side. Need I say more about sailing?
Warm weather, however, still encouraged porch sitting with the neighbors. Other contributing factors may have been WAYYYYYYYY too fun at Canadian T-Day the day before, Connie & John on the swing already had coffee made, and there was a LOT of stuff to store and clean out in preparation for closing up camp. Staying at camp any longer is NOT advised as everyone who's leaving feels free to bring you everything that's left in their refrigerators.
Luckily the camps are small and there were six of us so battening down the hatches for winter didn't take long. In fact, our friend Terry, his aunt Doris (can you believe she's 93?!!) and his cousins Carol and Susan were still smiling when we were finished.
And the last photo? If my mushroom identifier is right, it's called Witches Butter and was growing in Terry's yard. It was probably about 8 inches in diameter and got oranger (and bigger!) every day we were there.

Excuses & Sackets Harbor...

Fall, beautiful weather, too many days away from home, too many fall chores to get done, laziness... never enough time to do everything so this blog ended up at the bottom of the heap. My apologies for not posting an "out of time, be back later" notice.

Frost has not yet come to this part of NY so this flower bed is happily awaiting "leveling" to later in the month although I did "reposition" those rocks on the left in preparation for downsizing next spring. Too much travel + too many flower beds + too little time = chaos!

Down at Craine Lake in Earlville our friends, Judi & Scott, are wondering where their summer cottage went. Gone forever... but soon to be replaced by a new (except for the part wall on the right that allows them to build again on the site - don't you love code regulations?!) year-round home. Geese are flying everywhere right now, especially at the lake, so it's amazing there aren't any in this photo.

But enough local stuff and on to... Italy? Nope! If you can believe it, it's an outdoor restaurant in Sackets Harbor, a beautiful little village on the east coast of Lake Ontario.

It has a wonderful protected harbor that the US Navy used as a major shipyard and its headquarters for the Great Lakes in the War of 1812. Today the barracks have been "redone" into very nice private housing. And of course the harbor is filled with sailboats instead of military vessels. As the courtyard and harbor suggest this area is definitely "protected". For some reason the winds from the lake sweep up over the village carrying the "snow that's measured in feet" to the Tug Hill area to the east and Oswego to the south. Locals told us that in the winter they always call ahead to Watertown for weather conditions, only 8 miles to the east, before venturing out.

Continuing north and east along the Seaway Trail you can find the Chaumont Barrens Preserve (if you're REALLY dedicated). And even then, you definitely need to read up on what exactly alvar is (we didn't have a clue and the sign was NO help). The internet tells all though, so if you're interested... http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newyork/preserves/art11823.html