Garden Bloggers Bloom Day September 2011-Flood Edition

The 15th of the month has arrived again and what a month it has been for those in the Northeast.  My heart goes out to all those affected in upstate NY, Vermont, and other areas.  And, for those affected by the Texas (and other) wild fires.

If anyone is wondering where your rain has gone, I can tell you where it is.

Last week, devastating floods hit my area of upstate New York in the United States.  We had already received a lot of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Irene, and that was followed by over 10 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Lee.  It was more rain than our area could cope with. Flash flooding started last Wednesday, followed by river flooding.  Thousands of people were evacuated and some still have not been able to return to their homes.

My house was in one of the evacuated areas.  Thankfully, our damage is a lot less than many of our neighbors.  And, we were out of town at the time so we watched in horror from somewhere an eight hour drive away. 


We returned to our house on September 11.  The flood waters did not enter our yard (although our basement took on two feet of water)- we were on a small island of an otherwise flooded neighborhoood.  Some of our flowers did not survive.  I took pictures that day of what was blooming when we arrived  They are all still in bloom today.  (What is it doing today?  Raining.)

This is the post I made of my pictures.    So this may not be completely within the rules, but these are not good times for the Binghamton/Johnson City/Vestal/Owego, NY area.  So...presenting the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for September.

Dahlias....and a pot of mounding basil.  The second picture also shows some sedum starting to "pink up".

 Next, garlic chives.

The tag has gone missing and I honestly don't remember what these are!  But I will definitely buy them again next year.

One thing we did discover is that our petunias do not like water.  RIP.

But poinsettias (a plant kept from last Christmas) and avocado (we have an avocado mini-tree in a pot, started years ago from a pit) love tropical storms.  I've never seen them happier. (neither of these can be overwintered outdoors in our zone 5 climate.)  And in our back yard, yellow flowering bleeding hearts are still going strong, but the main plant that gave us September flowers is also RIP.  (this yellow bleeding heart photo is also an earlier photo.)

Rain, rain, go away.  Please come back eventually, but not right now.  So many people need it more than we do.

Wildflower Wednesday-Mid Coast Flowers

Last week we spent a few days in what is called "mid-coast" Maine - a city called Brunswick, about 35 miles north of Portland. It is a college town, and I hope to have time to blog about it some more in the coming weeks.

I live in the Southern Tier of New York, and I was curious to see the differences in early September wildflowers between my home area and that part of Maine.  Actually, a lot of the flowers seemed similar.  But while goldenrod was still going strong in southern New York last week, it seemed to be a little past peak in Maine.  But we did find a nice specimen.

There was one wildflower we do not have here in non-coastal upstate NY which is the Beach Rose (purple flower below). They were very common on the several walks we took. (the red "berries" surrounding the beach rose in bloom are hips-very large hips.)

Here is another view of the rose hips.

Finally, I must always have my mystery plant.  This is a mystery berry, showing both the green and the ripening fruit. plus the leaves.  Any guesses?

Next week:  it will be interesting because my wildflower walk places have been impacted by our flood. So it may be just as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.

Flood Flowers of 9/11/11

When we arrived home on 9/11/11 to see our flooded neighborhood for the first time (we were out of town when the floods hit) I was thrilled to see our front yard had been spared. 

Here are our flowers, still in bloom.  I am going to feature these on the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on 9/15 even though the pictures were not taken on that day.

These red dahlias were given to us by a friend in 1989, a year before she passed away from cancer. These are very precious to me.

I already forgot what these are.  I've never grown them before and they have bloomed all summer for me.  The torrential rains did not phase them at all.  Wish I could say the same about my "sky blue" lilac petunias, which apparently are now history.

Our garlic chives are also thriving.

And one last surprise, our mounding basil in full bloom in a pot (a couple of sedum flowers pinking up are also in the picture.)

Our yellow flowered bleeding heart is still in bloom too. 

Our avocado "tree" (started from a pit several years ago and not always happily residing in a pot) was very happy, as was our poinsettia plant from last Christmas.

It's going to be a hard haul for a lot of people in our community - but we still have flowers.

One More Time

Please excuse this one last flood post but this blog has become a way of communicating with a couple of people I know who are not on Facebook or Twitter.

(and speaking of Facebook and Twitter, I should do a blog post on how they helped with us being so far away and trying to keep in touch with the latest in our area.)

So...Taking a break from cleanup.  My son (who has to go to work at 10pm) is here, with a friend who just got back from his evacuation, and they are cleaning the basement walls.

The neighborhood diesel smell is improved.

It now appears, besides the water in the basement (now drained) that we got water in one of our interior 1st floor walls.  We will need to tear out and see how extensive, but the basement damage first.  Thank heavens we are on vacation from work this week.  Flood cleanup is not my #1 way of spending a vacation but it beats trying to work and clean up at the same time.  And I suspect it still would have been a not-fun commute to work today.

Life will go on.  My boss called me this morning to make sure I was OK. We rescheduled dental appointments we were supposed to have today.  A co worker offered me fans and even invited us to come to her house (and considering that she had flood damage too, that is quite an offer) after work if I needed a break.

At some point spouse and I are going to drive around just to change the scenery and go to the supermarket (after we feed these very hungry young adults helping us out), as we start to return to a more normal life.

When I get my laptop going (for some reason it isn't connecting to my home network) I will post some photos - of something else.  I promise.  Like maybe the flowers in my front yard.  And how some plants survived (or didn't survive) the deluge.

Thank you for sticking with me during this interesting period of my blogging career.

September 11, 2011 - I Am So Grateful

I am so grateful today.

If you came to my blog today for my Sunday Civil War post, I apologize.  Some of you may be getting tired of my recent posts about a storm called Lee and the over 10 inches of rain dumped on the Binghamton, NY area a few days ago (on top of what we had received from Tropical Storm Irene), causing flash floods and then record river flooding.  But it is very real to me and to over 20,000 people evacuated from this area.  If I had been home and not on vacation, I would have been one of those evacuees.  So the Civil War will wait and hopefully will resume next Sunday.

My son was one of the evacuees, told to leave his trailer park after a mudslide hit the area. Turns out about half the park was lost, trailers tossed everywhere.  His was not one of them.  The water stopped just short of his floor, so his contents remained dry.

He had a lot of problems fleeing on the damaged roads, but made it to our house in time for the river flooding to begin.  We have flood walls in our neighborhood, but they were fully breached for the first time since they were built in the 1930's (5 years ago there was some spillage but the rains stopped just in time).  Areas in easy walking distance of my house were totally under water, including a Home Depot and a major area employer.  Our house remained an island along with part of our neighborhood.  Other parts of the neighborhood, on the other side of Main Street, are still under water,I understand.

The evacuees returned between yesterday and today at least on this side of Main St.  Our local supermarket reopened yesterday.  Many, many basements were flooded.  No houses were swept away in our immediate neighborhood but there is a lot of damage.  There was a breach of diesel tanks several doors down from us at a municipal water pumping station so diesel also spilled into the water.  Frankly, it stinks of diesel everywhere. 

Ironically we are no longer under a boil water order but it remains several blocks from us.

So why am I grateful?
1.  The obvious - our house is here, and is livable.  Our immediate neighbors are here and their houses are livable.
2.  No lives were lost that I am aware of, although one neighbor had to be rescued from deep water because he tried to evacuate using a street that turned out to be the wrong street to use.  Ironically his house was probably the least damaged of those on our block.  His car is still under water on the infamous "other side of Main Street".  He got his share of ribbing today.
3.  Neighbors have pulled together, not that this is ever an unfriendly community.  We got offers of help from children of one next door neighbor (the one I wrote about in July when his wife died).  One neighbor cooked breakfast for my son while he was here.  I am told there were impromptu block parties last night along with a mystery fireworks show.  And gosh, we missed it!
4.  The firemen.  Yes.  Firemen from Throop, PA were here earlier yesterday helping to pump out basements.  (I don't know the exact distance from here but they are close to Scranton, which is an hour away.  And PA has its own problems right now!)  Also in our neighborhood were firemen from Moravia, NY, which is in Cayuga County, to the south and west of Syracuse.  One of their trucks was decorated with a 9/11/01 commemoration.
5.  My T-Shirt.  As soon as I got home I knew I would be getting dirty so I dug for an old T-Shirt.  And what leaped into my hands but a NYFD T-Shirt I purchased at Macy's right after 9/11, when I was visiting my downstate mother in law.  Proceeds from the T-Shirt benefited the first responders of that day.  And now they are up here, 10 years later, helping us.  For what it is worth, all or almost all of the 9/11 commemoration ceremonies in this area were canceled due to the flood.

I hope soon I can return to the "regularly scheduled blog programming" but for now, what is happening in my neighborhood deserves my time and blogging attention.  What you will not get is pictures of houses, as I will not document that kind of misery. But businesses are fair game and - well, I have to be able to get close enough first.

Tomorrow is another day....

September 11, 2011 - Almost in the Flood Zone

We did not make it back to our neighborhood.  Midway through our drive from Maine to the Binghamton area yesterday, our son called and told us about an 8pm curfew.  So time suddenly became of the essence.

According to 511NY, I-88 was open all the way.  It wasn't.  The detour cost us time.  We got to our neighborhood at 7:40 pm, Main Street was closed and blocked, the emergency worker told us they had closed at 7:30.  He would have "turned his back" if we parked in a certain place and walked in "just to take a look" but it was dark and it would have been too dangerous. 

We quickly found all the area motels were full.  We ended up in Cortland, NY, about 35 miles from where we live, totally exhausted. We will be leaving later this morning to go back to the Triple Cities.

I am watching the 9/11 ceremonies live as I blog this.  I just finished chatting with the one neighbor who didn't evacuate and he advised there is traffic in the neighborhood once again.  What a juxposition.  9/11 ceremonies and wondering what we will find in our devastated neighborhood.  I saw a picture on the TV as I ate breakfast.

I want to note there are a lot of people in our area worse off than we are.  Please do not feel sorry for us.  Our house is still there.

During our brief visit to near our neighbhorhood there was an indescribable haze, a haze of dust being raised by people plowing the road (yes, they were plowing Main Street) The flood smell I can't even describe was there.

Remember the Michael Jackson song describing the "funk of 40 thousand years"?

 It would not have been a pleasant night. 

My heart goes out to all the emergency workers and rescuers on this special 9/11.  You are at work once again. You are keeping my home and neighborhood safe.   And my son's.  I haven't even talked about my son's situation yet.  Stay tuned.

Wish us luck as we try to go back today.

Hopefully either today or Sunday we will be back home.  But in the meantime, I was sent this link and wanted to share it with you.  My home area is beautiful and the flood doesn't change that - ignore the flood, watch the scenery.  I think this video is very well done.

And please consider donating to the Red Cross, which has expended a lot of money to help the 20,000 plus evacuees in our area.

Thank you!

Floodwaters Receding and Leaving to - Where?

Our son is still trapped in our evacuated neighborhood (he refused to leave) in the Binghamton area but the flood waters are receding and the water in our basement has mostly drained, leaving a slight diesel smell. Our neighborhood suffered a diesel breech and all the streets are coated in diesel.  Yuck. 

Our entire town in upstate NY is still under a boil water advisory. We will bring some bottled water and cleaning supplies home.  Tomorrow our son will let us know if he can get out.  If he can, we will be coming home from the state of Maine, about 7 1/2 hours away.  If he can't we will be heading to the relative who evacuated to our area two weeks ago.  How ironic.

We, of course, have no idea what to expect.  And our area still doesn't know the full extent of damage either.  What a terrible next few days it will be.

I will hopefully be able to post an update tomorrow.  If not...well my string of daily posts since late in April will end.  So be it.

More tomorrow-hopefully from the Binghamton area.

Upstate NY Flood Update

Our house (occupied by my son) and one neighbors are the only houses not under water in our entire neighborhood. The other neighbor is still at home. Everyone else has evacuated.  All the local roads are flooded.  Just spoke to my son. Amazingly our house still has power.  He tried to pump the basement but has given up.  It is eerily quiet. I told him to be safe.  Says he can't sleep because people keep calling him....earlier, he had ridden a bicycle around and took some video which he posted on Facebook.

To my readers wishing for the safety of our house and my son- thank you so very much for your prayers and good wishes.  We don't know what to do at this point - because even if we could get home to our area (which would be very difficult right now) we wouldn't be able to enter our neighborhood without a boat.

And the sun is finally coming out here in Brunswick, ME.  So we will try to make lemonaide, not knowing what the next few days will bring.

The Flood Waters Arrive

We spoke to our son a few minutes ago.  The water behind our house is up to our fence meaning any more rain and our back yard is going to flood.  (we are in a 500 year flood zone).  The 500 years may have arrived as our son is fighting what I fear is a losing battle to keep water out of the basement. We have a basement drain and water is coming up it-if he tries to dump down the sink he hears water gurgling - a sump pump would be of no use.

We couldn't get to our home if we wanted to (if we weren't 7 hours away on a good day, anyway) as the flood walls are up.  The town erects portable flood walls in several locations and they are up, so our neighborhood is cut off.  My job is closed because downtown Binghamton is in major danger of flooding. They have turned the event center at BU into a shelter and there are other Red Cross shelters set up.

The Weather Channel is broadcasting at the corner of Main and Front St. in Binghamton as I type.  The river is right up to the flood wall.  Downtown itself has never ever flooded.  We will hit record stage this people. People are coming out to gawk. Well I might have been one of them.

All the schools are closed.  Thre is a long list of closing on a TV channel website - as bad as a major blizzard.  The only good news is - I can now stop talking about Irene.







Wish my son luck.

Disasters - It's Our Turn

I am 7 plus hours away from home, on vacation.

This afternoon my son called.  We were in Freeport, ME enjoying the outlet mall shopping on a rainy day here in the State of Maine.  We knew our home area was having very heavy rains and were worried.  But we tried to put it out of our mind and have a good time.

I had to evacuate my mobile home, my son said.  He (he's a night worker) was sleeping and a policeman pounded on his door. There was a mudslide and he had to leave his mobile home park immediately.

He had problems getting out but he was able to, in his pickup truck, and made it to our home (he has a key).

Despite a state of emergency, his employer wanted him to come in, so he's left for work now.

Before he left, he sent me a message on Facebook that he has heard that people had to enter his mobile home park in hovercrafts.  Right now we (and he) don't know what is happening with his trailer.

I told him to call his insurance agent.  I know that regular homeowners insurance doesn't cover flood but the little I know about mobile home insurance (my knowledge is about 30 years old!) he might have some coverage.  I don't know if he had a chance to.  He also told me that he is having issues with cell phone service.

We wouldn't even try to go home now, at least until the rain stops. We know the interstate we would normally use is closed now (about 20 miles from where we live). So we have to wait.  We know at least two major roads in our immediate home area are closed due to flooding.   We had major flood in 2006 and know what that was like.  Part of our neighborhood was evacuated.  We were lucky-that time.

And meanwhile, the woman who took the wildflower pictures I posted earlier today - well, I had an email from her when I got back to our motel room.  Her sister, who lives next door, is flooding. She left work early to help.  So here we go again.

No matter how old your children are, you worry.   I'm sure he isn't worried but I am worried for him!

So I will tell myself:  We are safe, and our son is safe, and right now that is all that matters.   I pray my friend and her sister are safe, too.   And all I can do is wait and see.

Wildflower Wednesday - Rural Flowers

Today, in honor of my vacaton, I am going to let someone else do the work.

These photos are by my friend whose photos I used in my recent Joe Pye Weed post.  She lives out in rural Broome County, NY near the Pennsylvania border.  With her permission, I will be sharing (at a later time) her experience with Hurricane Irene.  But for now, I feature a couple of her photos of late summer fading into fall in Upstate NY.  These photos were taken in 2009, but would still be valid today.  Unfortunately, it has been raining since Sunday evening where I live, so any pictures there would be of very soggy wildflowers.

Fear not, I have some Maine wildflower pictures, and will be featuring them later this week.  But now, back to my friend.

It is true rural, where she lives.  So her photos are a good contrast to the ones I take, which are in county parks or rail trails.

This first photo features daisies, Queen Anne's Lace and an old trailer.

 This is one other view of her rural world.

Tomorrow, back to Maine.

Brunswick, ME Farmers Market - Still Life in Vegetable

Although I don't have an official/scheduled "blog about Farmers Markets and Local Food" day, I usually end up making those posts on Saturday.  That's because of my normal living schedule.  But I am on vacation this week, and took in a Tuesday morning Farmers Market in the midcoast college town of Brunswick, ME.

It rained all night, and was still dripping when we got there early in the morning. This park is called "The Mall" and is a very pretty location in the center of town.

(the soil was sandy, fortunately, because there was a lot of bare ground down the middle.)

Some of the produce was similar to what the upstate NY farmers markets of the Binghamton, NY area are offering:  cukes, summer squash, onions, kale, lettuce, green and red cabbage, tomatoes, apples, flowers.  But unlike upstate, the root crops here are stunning.

And the farmers take advantage of the beauty, making displays that were photo-worthy.

No one seemed to mind as I went from booth to booth with my camera.  This farmer had a display of golden and red beets.  They looked so good.  I don't know if these farmers went to art school or not, but an art class could have used these booths for still life inspiration.

This farmer featured celeriac and turnips (see the brown and white bulbs to the right of the green and purple cabbage spilling out of the wood basket), two crops you don't see much of in our area.  We are seeing what happens due to increased sunlight.  Not quite midnight sun, but more daylight than we enjoy in Binghamton, New York.

This farmer displays huge red radishes with kale in the background.

This same farmer's display of chard.

There wasn't that much corn.  But corn is a staple of where I live, so I wasn't too concerned. 

Potatoes?  Of course!  We bought several varieties, including Satina (yellow skin and flesh), Peter Wilcox (purple skin and yellow flesh), Red Gold (red skin, yellow flesh) Purple Viking (purple skin, white flesh - and an heirloom!).  One vendor had a unnamed russett baking potato and Superior (white flesh).  Another farmer was selling Yellow Finn fingerling and a rose fingerling.

Not everyone was selling produce.  This farmer was selling plants of stevia, ginger, strawberries, and (pictured) red peppers.

There was a booth, Big Barn Coffee, selling freshly roasted coffee (roasted in their barn).

The King and I Angus sold homemade whoopie pies, which is a specialty of both New England and the Pennsylvania Dutch.

I still hope to be here Friday. There are supposed to be a couple of cheese vendors and a lobster booth.  I can't wait!

A "Down" Labor Day

It's Labor Day.  In Johnson City, NY we celebrate it big, with Johnson City Field Days.  This is a very nice carnival at Northside Park - rides, games (run by local non profits), and live music.

It ends tonight with fireworks.  But this Labor Day - to be honest, it stinks.

Labor Day has always been very meaningful to Johnson City.  Johnson City was known at one time as the Home of the Square Deal thanks to George F. Johnson and the Johnson family of Endicott-Johnson shoes.  But that was then and this is now.  Many of those shoe factories have been torn down.  The ones left are ruins, inhabited by derilicts.  Downtown Johnson City, to be blunt, is depressed.  It may be slowly making its way back from ruin but it is not a place I would recommend to any out of town visitors.  I hope one day that will be different.

George F. Johnson would not have been happy.

Ironic that in 2009 I blogged about the possible dissolution of Johnson City.  The voters voted that November, and Johnson City remained in existence. But now, there is talk of dissolution again.

And, speaking of loss....

I have met so many people who have lost jobs in the last year, or are in danger of losing jobs.  Just one example:  I know the mother of someone whose husband is currently looking for work.  Her daughter is a housewife with three children, the fourth one on the way.  It's not a good situation, to put it mildly.

Others try to cobble together part time jobs while going back to school.  

They aren't the only ones.  There is a fear in the Village, as there is all over the country. What happens when you lose your job?  For so many of us it isn't only the loss of money, but the loss of health insurance. (COBRA?  How many people can afford that?)  That can so easily lead to the loss of health, and worse.

These are not happy times for many.

Enjoy those fireworks, Johnson City.  Once again, the future is uncertain.

Civil War Sunday - As An Eagle Towards the Sky

Brunswick, Maine may be the last place you would think to visit in order to learn about the Civil War.  You would be wrong.  And that is why I hope to head there in the near future.

Bowdoin College is a small liberal arts college located in Brunswick.  It was founded in 1794.  Its motto is "As An Eagle Towards the Sky". For a small college, it has a good number of  alumni and professors who achieved fame.  Henry Longfellow.  Nathanial Hawthorne.  Alfred Kinsey. William Hodding Carter II.

And a man who may have, by his actions, saved the Union in the battle of Gettysburg.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  First there was a book, written by the wife of a Bowdoin College theology facilty member, in a house on the college campus.

Any writer could wish to write a masterpiece, the kind of book that is written only a few times in each century.  For the 20th century, one of those books was "To Kill a Mockingbird".  In the 19th century, that book was "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  Published in book form in 1852, this antislavery book  became the best selling novel of the 19th century.  I read the book as a teenager, over 100 years later.

Meanwhile, teaching at Bowdoin was a graduate of the school, Joshua Chamberlain.  When the Civil War broke out, he felt it was his duty to serve the North.  He enlisted, and fought in 20 battles.  At one, the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863, Chamberlain may have literally saved the Union on the second day of the three day battle, at Little Round Top. (I note here that there is some question of exactly what happened at Little Round Top - and part of the controversy involves the 137th NY, Binghamton's own regiment.).  What isn't questioned is that Chamberlain later won the Medal of Honor, and went on to serve as Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College. (Chamberlain, incidentally, was not the only Civil War general to end up as a college president.  At least one other famous general did, a Confederate who was also instrumental in saving the Union, and yes, I plan to write about him one day.)

When we decided to vacation in Maine, we were not planning to learn more about the Civil War.  But I look forward to visiting Brunswick, Bowdoin College and the Chamberlain House.

In a way, the Civil War is everywhere.

Farmers Markets and a Peaceful Labor Day Weekend in Binghamton, NY

Today we visited the Vestal, NY farmers market and were treated to a surprise:  ice cream!  It was the market's 30th birthday and they celebrated with bathroom size cups of vanilla ice cream (local dairy) with your choice of local honey, local maple syrup or local granola.  Yum!  Thank you!

Yesterday, in downtown Binghamton at the Farmers Market, it was the last Brown Bag Friday concert of the season.  I leaned against a wall and listened to the Energee Jazz Trio.  There was a very strong smell of onions in the air, while shoppers browsed the booths selling sweet corn, onions, garlic, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplants (I don't think I've ever seen such big eggplants in our markets before), tomatoes, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, grapes, blueberries, potatoes, cabbage, Gala and Ginger Gold apples, Pennsylvania peaches/cantaloupes, watermelons, baked goods and local honey.  A breeze blew.  It was only in the 60's.  The coolness of the breeze whispered that fall would soon be here.  Next week, the crowds of noontime shoppers at the market won't be as big without the music, and the market will begin its slow slide into the fall season.  The summer crops will disappear soon and winter squash, honey, onions, garlic, apples, pears and grapes will rule.

Friday night was First Friday in downtown Binghamton.  On the Peacemaker's Stage by our downtown River Trail, the Binghamton Philharmonic Brass played.  One thing you will not readily note from this picture is that the entire building to the right is vacant.  I hate to sound that sour note, but Binghamton still has a long way to go to be truly vibrant once again.  The River Trail, and these concerts, though, are a good start.

This is the first concert of a series.  First Friday has already been successful in drawing people to downtown on Friday night and I hope the other concerts (without First Friday) will be a draw, too.

Why the "Peacemaker's Stage"? To the side is a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A few blocks away an old van was parked, decorated in what one could call neo-hippie.

Nearby, an a capella group from Binghamton University sang.  I am sorry that I did not catch the name.  They started out with an energetic "Fat Bottomed Girls" made famous by Queen.

Today, it turned hot and sticky, and we are running our air conditioners. (Rare for September here!) But for now, I will sleep dreaming of the sweet corn I ate tonight (from the Vestal market) and the bounty of the summer, and how lucky we are here in Binghamton to have escaped the worst of Irene.

No Comment

Yesterday I blogged about storm chasing contractors who arrived in my neighborhood in the Binghamton, NY area, with a brightly decorated mobile home and pickup truck, all ready to give the homeowners free estimates - and claiming that "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Today, I came home from work and signed onto Facebook (the Ultimate Blog Challenge page) and found that several people had tried to comment - and were unable to.  I want to thank them for their time, and for taking more time to post on the Ultimate Blogger page.

One person said in part " However, what those people don't say is that if you use the services, even if the deductible is waived, your insurance costs can go up phenomenally. That's the real cost."  I think that, and a comment that did get onto my blog, cut to the heart of the matter.

What I now want to report is what I learned when I spoke to my insurance agent today.  My homeowners insurance is with a major national company.  My agent said my company does not have any such arrangement with anybody to have deductibles waived if I have such company do storm repair work on my house.  She said the firm I wrote about yesterday might be legit, but she suggested I might want to call the police.


Today, when I came home from work, the mobile home and the pickup truck I saw yesterday were not there.


So now I know I did not overreact.  I'm glad I had good instincts in this matter - and that many people out there experienced what I experienced yesterday.  Irene has been a good teacher.


And, for a minute, I want to address the commenting issue with Blogger.

 I could write an entire series on my trials and tribulations with Blogger.  Let's see, there was the couple of days no one could post, right in the middle of a blogging Blogathon requiring you to post each day.  There was the upgrade to Firefox where I had to switch to a different browser to post. There was the couple of days I couldn't upload photos.  Those - they only inconvenienced me.   But this time I am very embarrassed.  My readers were inconvenienced.  I had people who wanted to communicate with me, and they couldn't.

Commenting is the lifeblood of a blog.  It's the possibility of two-way communication with readers that makes blogging special. (and yes, it does make you feel good - well, usually.)  I'm not sure I solved the commenting problem but it seems a couple of comments have been able to get through.  And I was able to post on my blog after signing out.  If you tried to post yesterday, please see the apology I put in yesterday's commenting section.

The Storm Damage Contractors Arrive

When we got home tonight there was a mobile home parked in front of a neighbor's house, and a pickup truck parked across the street.  Both vehicles were very brightly painted announcing that they belonged to something called (without the asterisks or the double quotes) ""THI*Storm*Damage*Repair"".

On our doorknob was a brochure.  It said, in part "Over the next day and weeks you will notice [our trucks] working in your neighborhood.  Our company uses highly sophisticated storm tracking software which determined your neighborhood was among the hardest hit by the storms."

Oh really?  I hate to minimize what any of my neighbors may have suffered but I know areas way more heavily hit.  For example, eastern Broome County.  Villages in the Catskills.  And, oh yes, Vermont.  And Westchester County in NY (more on that below).  But I digress.

The brochure went on to offer a free no obligation inspection of our home since "...[their] employees performed a free no obligation inspection of your neighbors homes and found many had sustained damage from the storm.  The damage ranged from roof and shingle damage to window and siding damage."  And even further "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Well, I would be very tempted to call my insurance agent and ask them if they have ever dealt with these people and if it was true that they would waive a deductible if these people performed the repairs.  The reason why I am really concerned about this is that I have an elderly relative (in her 90's) downstate, in Westchester County, who suffered a partial roof collapse.   If these people arrive in her neighborhood, will she or her son be tempted to use their services?

I did an Internet search and couldn't find anything much, which could be good. They have a A+ BBB rating but I have recently read that that isn't automatically an endorsement of a business.  On the other hand they are not local but rather from Pennsylvania. This area is hard hit economically.  In my humble opinion it is best, if you need repairs, to use local businesses using local employees. You can check them out by asking your neighbors.

So many things people in storm hit areas have to worry about.  Now, maybe, comes one more.  It's interesting that I did not see these people in my neighborhood after the Binghamton flood of 2006.  Portions of my neighborhood were flooded and evacuated.  Hmmmm...could it be because regular homeowners insurance doesn't normally cover flood damage?

If I am wrongfully suspicious - well, it is better to be suspicious, isn't it?   Due diligence.
 

Wildflower Wednesday - The Season Starts to Wind Down

Late summer, and we are almost out of new wildflowers.  It is the last day of August - how time flies!  The goldenrod will probably be in bloom another week.  Purple loosestrife, as pretty as it is, haunts our wetlands.  Japanese knotweed continues its bloom.  I've featured these in previous posts.

Binghamton's Otsiningo Park, which I have featured in other posts, may have flooded thanks to Irene.  It usually floods after very heavy rains. I've been too busy, in all honesty, to check that out.  So I am, instead, featuring some photos taken a week ago, before Irene.  At this time of year there should be no change.

Milkweed pods abound.

My mystery grape leaf-like plant growing in a very shady area is putting on new growth.  I still don't know what this plant is, but it has already dropped its seeds, and they were definitely not grapes.

And now, for my mystery plant of the week.  Actually I have two of them.  This first one reminds me of purple loosestrife, but it is not growing in a wet area.  It isn't ironweed.  So what is it?

And finally, there is this mystery yellow flower.

Next week, I hope to check out Otsiningo Park (if I have time).

The Hollow Gold of Aging

Aging isn't easy and I'm only starting to enter the really bad part of the journey.

Earlier this summer, I was treated to a very honest post by a Cape Cod innkeeping couple.  Kudos to them.  It seems to be politically incorrect to admit that aging is not something to look forward to.  Baby boomers are supposed to be vital, "aging well".  We will be dancing when we are 90, when we aren't training for a marathon.

B.S.

Aging isn't fun as anyone of a "certain age" knows.  For every tale I hear of an 85 year old woman walking, swimming and enjoying her great grandkids, there is one of an eighty-something year old crippled with arthritis, or drifting into the final stages of dementia.

With my mother in law up here due to the storm, I see this close up.  I am treated to her sharp memory and stories, but then I see her in pain, of her wanting so much to be up and about. Where she is staying there are too many stairs to climb to get to her bedroom. She needs a special toilet seat.  She misses her recliner - the motorized type that helps her up and down.

She values her independence but that independence comes at a higher and higher price each day.  The grab bars she depends on.  The "I've fallen" wristlet she wears.  The next fall she must dread, because she's fallen several times and each fall is harder to recover from.  Inside her head, I know she is 25 again.  But her body does not respond to her 25 year old thoughts. 

Sorry, but you aren't going to tell me there is anything golden about that.

Hurricane Irene and People with Autism - The Saga Continues

Last Friday I had blogged about the coming of Irene, and the fact that I have a brother in law with a developmental disability called autism.  I wondered how he would cope.  Like many people with autism, he finds it hard to communicate.  And, like most people with autism, he does not like disruptions in his routine.  None of us would want to evacuate, but for him, I thought it would be very difficult.

The reality is:  "it's complicated."

Saturday, my sister in law brought my mother in law and my brother in law up here to Binghamton (about 150 miles from the NYC area).  My MIL and BIL stayed with one family member and my SIL with us.  The couple of times our brother in law was over here, he did seem anxious but it was under control.  I don't know how long it will stay that way.

This was in his favor:
1.  He was with family, people he knew, at all times.
2.  He knew Irene was coming - so it wasn't unexpected.

3.  He's been up here before, and he has stayed in the house where is he sleeping before. 
4.  This may be speculation, but his previous visits were on weekends.  And this trip to safety was on a Saturday.  So in a way it was part of a routine - a routine that only occurs once or twice a year, but a routine nevertheless.
5.  (this one is important, I think.)  He was able to have privacy. And quiet. He is more or less left alone to watch TV. Again, that is part of a routine from when he visits up here.

Of course none of that would have happened in a shelter-especially the quiet, and the privacy. And, indeed, anybody with autism who has to end up in a shelter has a nightmare ahead of them.  My brother in law, frankly, lucked out.

But the routine of his normal visits up here won't last past today, because he normally leaves on Monday afternoon.  And here we are at Monday evening.

He won't be going to work at the sheltered workshop (the last I knew, he worked Tuesday and Thursday) tomorrow.   What happens when the week drags on?  Because the reality is, MIL's house downstate is still without power.   We got hold of a neighbor, who says conditions are pretty bad down there.  Trees down, roads out, things you would expect.  It would seem that at one point the center of Irene passed right over the village where she lives.  And, we can't take her back (the family member who brought them up had to leave) until the weekend.  We better hope she has power by then.

On top of everything, my brother in law has a cold and so he can't be feeling his best.

Over the weekend, many of us in the family were showing anxiety.  But now the storm is over, the sun is out, (in fact it is quite gorgeous) and we hope to get brother in law out tomorrow.

And, by the way, we all are safe.  No flooding. We never lost power.
We were lucky.

Civil War Sunday - Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and the Civil War

I was going to write about something totally different - but I am putting this up yesterday (Saturday) as by tomorrow we will be in the "fringe" areas of Irene and perhaps without power.  And my sister in law (and faithful reader of my blog) who evacuated from the NYC suburbs will be visiting our house in the Binghamton, NY area shortly.  So, this will have to be short in between getting ready for her visit.

I got to wondering, did any hurricanes affect military activities during the Civil War?  And the answer, of course, is "yes".

This National Geographic article talks about the "hurricanes of history" including a hurricane that disrupted Civil War naval operations in November of 1861.  As all those who follow the weather know, November is pretty late for a hurricane.

And, back to the present, a 150th anniversary Civil War event on Hatteras Island in North Carolina has been postponed to October - when a hurricane will be unlikely.

Unless the same thing happens that happened in 1861.....just showing how we are still just as much at the mercy of the weather as we were during the Civil War.

And not only that, what about earthquakes?  We had one earlier this week, with an epicenter in Virginia. Were there any during the Civil War?  Yes, and apparently it was centered in Virginia, too.  (this same site gives more information regarding hurricanes during the Civil War.)

What a difference (or not) 150 years makes.

Hurricane Irene Insomnia

The heavy rain woke me up this morning so a short post.  I am near Binghamton, NY (upstate NY) away from the shore, but we are receiving rain from Hurricane Irene now.  We will be getting heavy wind later this morning and that is the point where we would be in danger of losing our power.

My sister in law from downstate is here and I hope she is sleeping better than I am.  According to the Weather Channel, all the major highways in her area:  the Saw Mill, the Taconic-are closed.  I know that they had announced closings a couple of days ago of the Bronx River Parkway.  I feel for her, because she won't know what she is coming home to (home being a suburb of New York City) until she arrives home.  Same for my mother in law and brother in law, who are staying with another relative in this area.

When daylight comes (less than an hour) we will awaken to an interesting world.

We are under a wind advisory until 8pm and under a flood watch through "late tonight".  Our forecast:  tropical storm conditions possible.  Windy, etc.   Right now it is 66 degrees with gusts up to 31 miles per hour.

I am going to post this, and my Civil War post (already written) now.  If we still have power, I will try to post again sometime today.  If I can talk my sister in law into writing a guest blog for posting in early September (she is a blogger, too) I think that would be fun.  Otherwise, we have a lot of books in the house. 

Be well and safe, all my readers in the Irene zone!

Uncertainty in the Coming of Irene

Right now it sounds like the weather is going to be deteriorating faster for us than was first forecast. We are not in the hurricane zone itself but are under a flood watch, and the rain is going to be here tonight.  The good news is that my mother in law, and brother in law with autism who live in a suburb of NYC are being brought up here by my sister in law.  They will be staying with another relative locally. 

Now let's hope we don't lose power.

Ironically, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be beautiful.

And, I have a cousin in law driving on I-95 right now from Rhode Island to NJ, so I hope she stays safe.

To all my readers in the hurricane zone, be safe.

Hurricane Irene and People with Autism

As my regular readers know, I have a brother in law with autism.  He lives with my elderly mother in law in the NY Metropolitan area.  Although he is obsessed with the weather and watches the Weather Channel continuously, he is also terrified of heavy rain, thunderstorms, and other forms of extreme weather.

And Hurricane Irene is on the way.

People with autism suffer greatly from natural disasters for a number of reasons.  People with autism (and these are generalities - I don't like to stereotype but I feel I need to here) tend to be very anxious.  They do not adapt well to any change in their routine.  A hurricane-well that is a big change from routine.  Many (not all) find it very hard to communicate - some, in fact, are not verbal.  My brother in law is verbal, but many of his thoughts are locked up inside of him.  And people with autism can be very sensitive to sensory stimulation - hearing, smell, vision.  Combine this with a hurricane, which would provide almost anyone with sensory overload, and you have a recipe for autism disaster.

At this point in time we are hoping a family member who lives a lot closer than we do will be able to stay with my mother in law and brother in law.

Some people with autism can communicate in writing, and do via blogs.  I found this blog post by a person with autism on Hurricane Irene (and this week's earthquake.)  It's interesting.

I don't think my brother in law would say it any better, if only he could.

The Accessible Jose Reyes

Back in 2002, my son was young.  We would take him, a couple of times a year, to B-Met games.  The B-Mets or Binghamton Mets are the Double A farm team of the New York Mets.

As I've blogged before, minor league baseball is very different than major league baseball.  It is played in a family friendly small stadium atmosphere, with very few truly bad seats.  It is relatively inexpensive, and is a fun way to spend a summer day or night-especially when it is a fireworks game.  You are right up close to the action and even have a chance of catching a ball.

For a youngster, there was another fun part of the game.  Back in 2002, the ball players, after their warmups, would come to the fence separating the infield from the stands, and children would cluster, balls, programs, and pens in hand.   The ballplayers would autograph the balls!  For free!

If you were really lucky you ended up with autographs of players who later moved up to the major leagues.

One of those ball players in 2002 was a young B-Mets prospect by the name of Jose Reyes.  We were lucky enough to see him play and our son may have gotten his autograph-although those balls are mostly lost and the one we know about has very faded autographs. One thing for sure, he stood out from the other players back then, and shortly after we saw him, he was promoted to the major league Mets.   Jose Reyes, as anyone who follows baseball knows, is still with the NY Mets, and is a superstar.  An $11 million dollar superstar.



Tonight, Jose Reyes returns to NYSEG Stadium for a three game visit while he completes rehab for a hamstring injury.  Local Mets fans are going crazy.  He is, after all, returning to his original fans, the ones who came out to see him play before he was a household name.  And they will watch him from those close up seats and maybe even catch a ball he hits.

When he plays tonight, perhaps some of those children who stood by the fence waiting for him to sign autographs will return - as teens or as young adults - to cheer him on.

Wildflower Wednesday-On the Eve of the Hurricane

As earthquake chatter dies down, and we find ourselves in the possible path of Hurricane Irene (we wouldn't be struck by the hurricane but we might have wind gusts up to 70 mph), it is time for our thoughts to turn to....wildflowers.

Right now, although the sun still says "summer" our climate (zone 5, upstate NY on the edge of the Great Lakes snow belt) cries out "fall is almost here".  The wind has a little chill, the sun has to fight harder to warm us, the angle of the sun is a little more subdued.  And the wildflowers are transitioning into fall also.  So besides flowers, we have berries, such as these white berries on this mystery plant. (it isn't poison ivy.)

This is Japanese knotweed, a major source of pollen for bees this time of year.  It is almost impossible to get rid of once established but it sure is pretty.

A wild morningglory, light purple with stripes.

Purple loosestrife, the bane of wetlands.

Black walnuts (in their green husks), not quite ripe.  It looks like we are going to have a banner year for nut trees, judging from how loaded they look.

And finally - this may be Japanese knotweed growing at a different angle but I am not 100% sure.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Irene does not devastate the East Coast and that we have wildflowers to look at next Wednesday (and not massive floods).

The Great Reaction of 2011

Well, this was a change of plans.  I was going to blog about someone living in the midwest (outside the "crepe myrtle" zone).  Everyone told her no, crepe myrtles (a large shrub I've blogged about before) won't grow in your area.  But no, she tried it anyway.  And guess what.  Her crepe myrtle grew and she called it her "beautiful Says Who tree.

I was going to talk about how maybe I should go for it and try to grow a crepe myrtle, although I don't know what zone she lives in.  Microclimes can only help you out so much.

But today we had an earthquake, and it was a lot more exciting than the earthquake I blogged about last year.

No, wait,  it wasn't the earthquake that was so exciting.  It was everyone's reactions.

This isn't my first earthquake but it was the scariest by far.  I was at my desk at work when suddenly the building lurched and things on my desk started swaying back and forth.  Even after the pit in my stomach cleared up, a co-worker's bouquet kept vibrating.

I thought at first someone had rammed into the building (that actually happened once) but when the motion kept going, I realized it was an earthquake.

People evacuated at least one of the tall (if you can call a 10 or 11 story building "tall") buildings downtown.   I am, of course, writing of downtown Binghamton, NY.  And, thanks to the Internet, I soon knew that the earthquake was in - Virginia?  and only 5.9? I couldn't believe how we felt it here.  I still can't believe it.  I missed Twitter (the same Twitter I resisted joining for so long) because it is blocked at work.  Figured that would be the place to get my information.

When I got home, I found out just how much excitement I had missed, here in my little upstate NY enclave. Cell phone networks jammed.  The Capitol and Mall evacuated.  NYC buildings evacuated.  Commuter trains running slow.  The National Cathedral damaged.  A cousin in law in Texas posted on Facebook declaring he was praying for all of us.  (I did appreciate the prayers but, honest, we are OK.)  My friend in Tunisia posted on Facebook bragging about how nice the beaches were today there in earthquake-safe Tunisia.

My young adult son called.  Mom, did you feel it?  He (he works at night) was woken up.  Ever the scientist, he noticed how his TV was moving back and forth and then it suddenly changed motion and started to move side to side.  And then he left his mobile home just to be safe.  He's all prepared for natural disasters and childed me that I'm not.  He usually doesn't call just to chat, so it was nice to hear from him.

Well, it seems none of us in the Northeast are prepared for natural disasters. Earthquakes, anyway.

And now, for Hurricane Irene....

Technology or Magic?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke.
In the last 24 hours, two things have happened that show us just how much technology has changed us.  What was miraculous when I was born is commonplace now.  Or, thinking about it another way, it's - magic.

First, there is the revolution in Libya - live on Twitter, live online with streaming feed on Al Jazeera English and other sites - I watched, transfixed, last night, leaping from Twitter to the live feed, while CNN on TV blared in the background.  And why? Besides the obvious wanting to know what was happening, I have a Facebook friend who lives in Tunisia.  I messaged this friend in Tunisia and was reassured that things are peaceful in Tunis right now. 

(I also chatted with my friend last month, when I was visiting the Centreville/Chantilly, Virginia area (because he used to live in Vienna, VA) and asked him questions about traffic, and parking at the Vienna Metro station.  Just stop and think.  I'm asking someone in Tunis about the traffic on Rt. 23.  And complaining about the parking charge at the Dulles branch of the Air and Space Museum.)  Magic?

At one time the ability to do this kind of thing would have had you executed for witchcraft.  Now, we take it for granted.  Even when I was born, seeing live footage from across the ocean would have been totally impossible.  There were no satellites in orbit.  Transatlantic phone calls were difficult, had bad connections, and were tremendously expensive.

I could have called my friend (maybe) but I would have needed a bank loan to afford the phone charge.

The other "magic" moment of the last 24 hours is brought to us by Hurricane Irene.  We turn on the Weather Channel and everyone is talking about this killer storm heading for Florida.  On Facebook, my spouse's cousin posts about her preparations.

We so take for granted that we will be warned to get out of the way of a killer storm.  But if you could bring, say, Henry VIII into your living room - he would have thought it was satanic.

As an aside:  Do you wonder what hurricane forecasting was like before our modern technology?  You don't have to look too far.  History gives us one relatively recent example - the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.  Think here "between 8,000 and 12,000 dead." and that was before the major population growth of the last century in the Houston metropolitan area.  No Weather Channel, no storm-spotter planes, no enhanced satellite images, no ability to move large populations out of the way quickly.

Technology (or magic) can only do so much, of course.  Katrina took about 1800 lives for a variety of reasons and bad decisions.  And Irene, if it lives up to its billing, could do similar damage if people don't listen, or make the wrong decisions.

But still, we have the advantage of technology.  Or, if you look at it another way - magic.

Civil War Sunday-The Wedding of the Century

What was the most epic wedding you can think of?  Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries (just yesterday)?  William and Kate?  Charles and Diana?

Nah.  How about the wedding of Charles and Livinia?  After all, it was the wedding of the century.

The 19th century, that is.

Celebrity weddings of the century are nothing new.  We aren't the first generation to celebrate entertainers, to make them millionaires, to track every aspect of their lives.  And, back in 1863 two war weary countries (the United States and the Confederate States of America) were ready for a distraction.  Thanks to a showman by the name of P.T. Barnum, they got one.

On Tuesday, February 10, 1863 two dwarfs, Charles Stratton (better known to history as his stage name, General Tom Thumb) married Mercy Livinia Warren Bump (better known as Livinia Warren) at Grace Church in New York City. 

I found these Civil War facts and more in a fascinating novel, "The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb" by Melanie Benjamin.  This is not an autobiography but a novel.  Melanie Benjamin has done her homework well, and written an entertaining book in the style that a woman of the 19th century would have used.  The one thing I would have liked to have seen in the book was a centerfold of photos, like many modern autobiographies of celebrities contain.  But that is a small quibble.

Civil War photographer Matthew Brady photographed Warren for Harpers Weekly.
According to Benjamin, Lavinia Warren started her career on a riverboat going up and down the Mississippi.  At one point in her career, a man by the name of Grant purchased a private audience with Miss Warren for him and his family during a stop in Galena, Illinois.  When Lincoln was elected, the riverboat was stranded in
Vicksburg, Mississippi (later the site of a famous siege by the same Mr. Grant.)  Ms. Benjamin states that Livinia escaped the riverboat at Vicksburg, MS during a riot after Lincoln's election, with the help of another entertainer.

Later, Warren was hired by Barnum, and she was introduced to General Tom Thumb. The rest was history.

As for what happened after the wedding, you should read the book rather than have me tell you.  It is a fascinating story.  And as for Barnum, we may know him as a showman but he was a lot more.

P. T. Barnum is known by many today mainly for his name, which still exists in the "Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Circus".  But that was just one small portion of his career.  He was an abolitionist and his sympathies solidly lay with the North.  His  American Museum was one of the most visited attractions in the country during the Civil War.

It  burned due to arson in 1865.  As the war progressed it had featured exhibits supporting the Union cause.  The belief is that Confederate sympathizers started the fire, in revenge.

After the war, Barnum served two terms in the Connecticut legislature.

It's fascinating how the Civil War weaves through the lives of so many people, but that only makes sense.  How could it not have touched everyone in our country alive then?

To me, that is one of the continuing fascinations I have with this war.

Vestal Farmers Market and Garlic Ice Cream

Today, in between two exercise walks, my spouse and I visited the Vestal, NY farmers market and the garlic festival at the American Civic Association in Binghamton.

We weren't able to do our scheduled blueberry picking.  We wanted to make a second pick to enjoy fresh berries for another couple of weeks before we had to return to supermarket berries.  Normally, the season would still be going strong on August 20. But not this year.  Spouse called three places.  Two were closed down - the season ended yesterday with torrential rain and hail.  The third still had berries but warned they were sparse and small.

We decided the drive to the U-Pick place wasn't worth the gas we would expend.

The Vestal Farmers Market did have berries, but we passed, buying instead sweet corn, some garlic (Music) and a head of green cabbage.

The parking lot was jammed - the market sets up in the parking lot of the Vestal Public library, alongside one of the most heavily traveled roads in this area, the Vestal Parkway.

Here is a display of melons, potatoes, cucumbers, and more.  Besides what I reported in the post on Binghamton's market yesterday, were plumcots, cauliflower, hand spun wool products and a Binghamton coffee shop sampling its quiche and salsa. (the salsa was excellent.)

And here a bounty of corn, including the two ears we bought.

The tragic thing about the American Civic Association on the edge of downtown Binghamton is that if you do a Google search on it, what you will come up with is multiple accounts of the tragic shooting of April 3, 2009 which left 14 dead (including the gunman) and put Binghamton on the national map for a few days.  But you won't find very much about the organization and its works, at least in an initial search.  The ACA is a most worthwhile organization and should not be remembered just for that shooting.

One of the annual events the ACA puts on is its annual Multi-Ethnic Garlic Festival.  In 2009 it was cancelled as the ACA was still dealing with the aftermath of the shooting, including the need to (gross, but true) fix up the building.  Last year the festival was held again, and again this year the garlic vendors were out in force.

I loved this vendor's crafted wooden sign. We bought some German Red garlic from this vendor after a taste test.

Braided garlic on display.

The many varieties on sale included German Red and German White, Elephant, Music, Carpathian.  One vendor also had (small) shallots for sale.  There was a mustard vendor, a couple of flavored oil vendors (garlic, of course) and even a local winery had a booth set up.

There was a Kettle Corn vendor and people kept asking him if it was garlic flavored.  It wasn't.  I think that vendor lost an opportunity, but maybe he will come back tomorrow with garlic flavored kettle corn.

And last, but not least, was the food for sale inside, including kielbasa, German potato salad, and more.  The line was long, so we went outside where several other cooks from the ACA had set up. The lines were shorter and we enjoyed some - yes, enjoyed - garlic ice cream.  Theirs was vanilla ice cream with raw garlic combined into it.


Believe it or not, it was good.  But I tasted it for a good hour after.  Roasted garlic might work better.

Luckily, for once, there is no such thing as smell-o-blog.

A Farmers Market Friday

 (Curious about what downtown Binghamton's Farmers Market looks like?  Some views can be found on a blog with various videos taken at the Binghamton Farmers Market - check out the first few seconds of the Monkeys Typing video, for example.  And what is a Monkeys Typing?  Keep watching the video and enjoy.)

The small farmers market in downtown Binghamton (Tuesdays and Fridays 9-2pm) has reached summer peak.  On the small/narrow street by our Courthouse a two man group by the name of Acoustic Expressions performed today while shoppers browsed for blueberries, early apples, plums, Pennsylvania peaches, garlic (German White), onions, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, bagged spices, baked goods, artisan soap and more.  Nearby, a hot dog vendor's wares sold briskly.

On the nearby courthouse steps, downtown office workers ate lunch as storm clouds started to gather.  A woman showed off her tomato purchase to co-workers.  A man explained how he and his wife used to can tomatoes, using an old fashioned crank machine which took off the skins and separated out the seeds.  His co-workers listened attentively.

An hour or so later, the heavens opened, and rain poured down.  The streets temporarily flooded as thunder rumbled and, towards the end, small hail pattered.

So hard to believe that in a couple of short weeks, we will have our last Friday market concert.  And a month or so later, the market will end its 2011 season as cold winds start to blow, and snow flurries swirl.