Welcome! Join me daily as I blog about flowers, gardening, my photography adventures, life in upstate New York, the importance of chocolate in a well lived life, or anything else on my mind.
This is the bittersweet season, as the first frost beckons. We've already dodged a freeze warning and a frost advisory. In mere days, these will be a memroy. Farewell, dear outdoor flowers.
Japanese anemone
Heuchera flowers among coleus.
Winter pansies - newly planted and hopeful they will survive and come up again in spring.
And these, also winter pansies.
Impatiens.
Nasturtium
Dahlias.
Marigolds.
A couple of herbs....
Pineapple sage, the best we've ever grown.
African basil, a plant we picked up at a plant show in Leesburg, Virginia back in April.
Yellow Pansy, one we planted in the spring. We have never had pansies survive all summer ever before.
And finally, mums.
Now, the long slog towards winter begins.
In past years, I've taken flowers in but I don't think I am going to do that this year. It will be interesting to see if I will have flowers for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for the entire winter season; I have not missed a GBBD in over eight years. We'll see.
Thanking Carol at May Dreams Gardens for the chance to link up each 15th of the month for another Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Please go to her site and see what is blooming today all over the world.
Welcome, Monday. Monday means it's time for music! Who are the #MusicMovesMe bloggers? We are bloggers who blog about music
each Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most
welcome to join! (Music Posts Only, please! They must contain at least music video from You Tube or Vimeo, not just be words about music. Non-music posts are subject to removal or labeling as "No Music".) First,
there isXmasDolly. Her chief co-conductor is Cathy of Curious as a Cathy. Her other co-conductors are Stacy of Stacy Uncorked, and me.
This month our guest conductor will be Songbird from Songbird's Crazy World. This week her theme for us is: "In
honor of Columbus Day, songs about taking a journey. It can be an
actual trip, or a trip into the imagination, or even an emotional
journey"
Yes, there are all kinds of journeys.
With the Amboy Duke, featuring Ted Nugent on lead guitar, you can take a 1968 Journey to the Center of the Mind. Come along if you dare!
How about Deep Purple's Space Truckin'?
If you get an overwhelming urge to jump in your car and drive when you hear this song, could you at least finish reading this blog post first? Golden Earring's 1973 hit (full version) Radar Love.
Humankind has been traveling on the water for thousands of years, and sometimes things don't go well. Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", sadly, documents a real disaster.
Steve Earle tells quite a musical story in "Copperhead Road". Maybe not a "journey" song but it sure is emotional, it has vehicles and the word "road". I'm going with it.
Last but not least, I am taking you on an actual journey, to hear a group from Mongolia called The HU ("Hu" is their root word for human, translated by some as "Hun") and a song called Yuve Yuve Yu, which has gone viral since its September release. Their music is a blend of rock (all the musicians hold degrees in music, incidentally) and traditional throat singing and Mongolian instruments. This is one journey you don't want to miss.
This piano is a long ago memory for me, of a place I visited overnight when I was 17 years old and living in New York City.
I never dreamed I would run into it again in October of 2019. Nor did I know that I would eventually move to the area where I saw this piano and live there for over 30 years. But life is like that.
My spouse and I took a tour yesterday of a historic mansion on the edge of downtown Binghamton, New York. It's a teaching museum now, with the mansion part normally closed to the public. These tours aren't given that often, but New York State held a Pathways of History event yesterday and today and tours of normally closed parts was offered.
After the tour, I saw this piano on display. The maker was "Link" and there is an interesting history surrounding Link player pianos that I should blog more about one of these days. There was a sign (you can see it on the right side of the piano) asking that people not touch it. It's a part of history, now, possibly too fragile to be played. I wonder.
A woman and a child were examining it. The woman was explaining that when she was growing up, you could put a quarter in the machine and the piano would play. She then turned to me, and said "do you remember doing that?"
I started to tell her "no, I didn't grow up here" but suddenly the memory came back, of a day I was with my childhood best friend, and her mother had driven us both up to Binghamton to pick up some artwork her uncle had on display in a Binghamton gallery. We stayed overnight, and we visited a museum. We were both fascinated by the automatic piano. We fed it quarters and it played.
It took me years after I moved here to realize where I had been. I've seen the piano since (it is sometimes on display) but never remembered about being able to play it.
So, I quickly added, "but when I was 17, I visited Binghamton, and was able to play it, too."
I hope this woman's daughter gets the chance to play it one day.
I love player pianos, and I love Billy Joel, the Piano Man.
Linking with Mary of Jingle Jangle Jungle and her Rocktober Music Fest.
In upstate New York, fall and winter is a game of waiting for the sun.
In the past few days, fall has kicked in, as sun has (mostly) disappeared. The days are mainly dreary (with some exceptions) and the trees are finally getting the message that the sun isn't coming back strong anytime soon. They'd better start preparing for winter.
Everywhere you go, you are reminded of fall. Cauliflower abounds.
Broome County Farmers Market, Binghamton, New York
Decorations are everywhere.
Right now, our kitchen is scented with fennel we bought today. On the right is local celery.
Grapes. I love eating concord grapes, but not that crazy about the seeds. The small grapes on the right are so delicious - they have real flavor. I wish I knew what variety they were.
Frog Pond Market, late September, 2019
It's so wonderful living near grape country.
But soon the outdoor markets will all close for the year. The foliage will have turned color and dropped, and the first snows will have arrived. And still it will be dreary.
We'll be Waiting For the Sun.
I was reading the blog of Mary at Jingle Jangle Jungle today. She is featuring rock music every day in October, which she calls the Rocktober Music Fest, and her post today was on a group called the Doors. She asked what our favorite Doors song was and I was immediately reminded of our signature dreary days and Waiting for the Sun. This song is about spring, but it's now an earworm, and I am going to end with that song. If you only know the Door's greatest hits, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Waiting for the sun....and participating today in the Rocktober Music Fest.
Enjoy some reflections of the sky taken last Saturday in the Ithaca, New York area. After a period of depressing, cloudy and rainy weather, the sun came out and we got back up into temperatures where you didn't need a jacket.
Some trees are starting to turn color.
A bridge looks like a work of art, and water that is so blue.
Such a deep, clear sky.
What a lucky person who owns this land. These pictures were taken during an open studio weekend, where we were invited to visit this artist's back yard.
Today (it started yesterday several minutes before sundown yesterday, and will conclude tonight at nightfall) is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the holiest day in Judaism.
Observant Jews do not eat or drink or work, and spend their day in prayer, looking within themselves and praying for forgiveness. I am not that observant, but I do observe certain aspects of the holiday.
This year, I am inspired by the example of an ex-President, Jimmy Carter. At age 95, he still volunteers with an organization, Habitat for Humanity, which works to provide housing for those who can not afford it.
Even after he battles cancer. Even after a fall.
And now I, on the cusp of retirement, plan what I will do in the next stage of my life. How can I best use my talents to help repair the world?
I'm still a bit stuck on that question, to be truthful. And I don't want to retire without a plan. That's a sure path to failure, as I've learned by observing others who have gone without me.
Any suggestions?
In the meantime, I'll be back after nightfall tonight.
