Oh Commercial Christmas Trees #WordlessWednesday

Seen in a gift shop and the local mall.

Two Christmas trees.   Let's see how they are decorated.

Let's call this one The Fast Food Tree

Yummy food.

Santa's home in the Mall.

And the train that brought him.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Staying on Facebook

Right after October 7, I decided that I would quietly retreat from Facebook.  Until a week or so ago, I spent very little time on it, except for one private group related to blogging that I visited several times a week.

Why?  I was feeling Facebook was offering little of value to me, and I also did not want to be exposed to any of the hate that seems to be so prevalent on social media.

It was an interesting six weeks or so.  Slowly, I missed certain things and started to sneak back, although I spent little time on my personal news feed.

1.  Local news - what were businesses up to?  Were my favorite farm markets going to stay open past their traditional late October closing dates? (Global warming has made some of that possible).  What about the neighborhood Walgreens that had closed with no warning? 

2.  Were there any events - open houses for the holidays, for example, I was interested in?  I had actually missed a couple before I decided I needed to pay more attention.  Also, one business was getting ready to move. Our local newspaper seems to report local news days after it happened, which is too bad, because I try to support local journalism.

3.  Anyone getting married, having a baby, taking a trip?

4.  Anyone seriously ill or with a family member in that situation?

#4 is what did it for me, because it started out with two people I know in real life losing parents (one a mother, one a father) in the past 10 days or so, but then switched to good news, when I read yesterday that a real life friend's sister, who has been hospitalized for weeks, was released to start her long recovery.

So I'm back, officially - for now. 

I'm not sure when I'll start being active on my feed again (not that I was that active even before October 7) but I've made up my mind.

For now, I still need social media.

Songs for the Eight Days #MusicMovesMe

It's the first Monday of December and it's time for music.

Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.

For the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. For many (not all) of our Music Moves Me bloggers that means Christmas music, and I will have that starting next Monday.

As for today, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown this Thursday, December 7, and runs for eight days and nights.

I believe that it's more important than ever to feature music related to Hanukkah.  These aren't necessarily religious songs.  You'll even recognize some of the artists.  But before I dive into my post, I am going to play one Christmas song in honor of the late Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, who passed away November 30 of pneumonia, a week after he had been released from the hospital.  He was 65.

I can not listen to this song without crying.  Here is their classic Fairytale of New York.

Let's start the Hanukkah celebration with a Neil Diamond song, a cover of a song first performed by comedian Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live.  Here comes Neil (with a tiny change in lyrics) singing The Hanukkah Song .

The Muppets and Sesame Street characters sing the Hanukkah song Sevivon.

Did you know that Woody Guthrie wrote a Hanukkah song?  He did and here it is, covered by The Indigo Girls:  Happy Joyous Hanukkah.  The lyrics were co-written with his Jewish mother in law Aliza Greenblatt in the 1940's when Guthrie lived in Brooklyn (a borough of New York City) and was involved in the Jewish community in Coney Island.  After his death, the song was rediscovered in 1998 by Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie.

Then, there are the Jewish a capella groups who take songs we know and turn them into parody songs celebrating the holiday with a fun dose of education.  

Here is the Y-Studs, one of these groups, and their 2023 release:  You Can Light With Me (A Taylor Swift Hanukkah).

But here's my favorite of the Hanukkah parody genre.

Six13 and Bohemian Chanukah.  (The air guitar is absolutely amazing).

And that's a wrap.

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

North Pole #ShadowshotSunday

Here's a picture of the North Pole for your enjoyment.

I'm only kidding.  Yesterday there was an Ugly Sweater 5K run at one of our local parks.  Besides the North Pole, Santa was there to cheer on the runners.  This was also on the running path.

Runners had their choice of belonging to Team Santa or Team Grinch and ended the run with hot chocolate and cookies for all participants.

As for my spouse and I, we chose our normal walk through the park, as neither of us are runners.  Here's a shadow we encountered on the walk, as our cloudy skies broke for a while and we got some actual shadows.  

Joining Magical Mystical Teacher for #ShadowshotSunday.

My Current Booklist

I have an Echo Dot and it has the most annoying habit of trying to recommend books to me.  I can't figure out how to turn it off.

In all my life, I have rarely needed book recommendations, especially once the Internet came into existence.  When I was younger, I would read the New York Times Book Review back when I used to buy the Sunday New York Times.  In the past few years, there is a free publication called Book Page I can get at some local libraries.

In the old days, I would have to either use the library reserve list, or buy, books I wanted that the library did not have readily available but I could still find reading material by physical browsing of the shelves.  I've spent many happy work lunch break hours in libraries. 

Then, e books came along.  While many have embraced them, I never had.  I just don't get the same experience with an ebook.  True, you can change the font size and true, you (with many ebooks) can press on words you don't know the meanings of, and get a definition.

But I can't fall into an ebook the way I can a physical book.  It's just not the same experience.

For a while, the pandemic cured me (or so I thought) of needing a physical book.  In the couple of months libraries closed here in New York State in the early days of Covid, I found refuge in ebooks. 

It helped tremendously when the New York (City) Public Library opened its ebook collection to residents of New York State (I believe the Brookyn Public Library also did this) and my iPad became my library.  The beauty of this system was that when the book was due, it disappeared.  No fines.

But now, I've gone full circle.  I want physical books again.  I still use the New York (City) Public Library but if my local library gets a book in when I am reading the ebook, I return the ebook.

Right now, I have these titles out as ebooks:  I have anywhere from 16 to 19 days left before they vanish.

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.  This is a debut novel that takes place in a near future dystopia.  The author is from downstate New York and I'm OK with it as an ebook but I really wish I could have the physical book. I'm perhaps a quarter of the way through.

Prequel:  An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow.  This is non fiction I was looking foward to reading, but I'm already struggling with reading it as an ebook.

The Cost of Free Land:  Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance by Rebecca Clarren.  This is a stunning book by a Jewish woman who grew up in rural South Dakota and what happened when she started to dig into her family's history of having fled pogroms in Eastern Europe only to collide with the Indige­nous peoples who had once lived on that same land.   I have a long way to go but I think I can manage with this as an ebook.

And, on the reserve list of ebooks:

Julia: A retelling of 1984 by Sandra Newman.  This is a retelling of this classic story from the point of view of a character who was never fully developed in the original.  This was authorized by the estate of 1984's author George Orwell.  I have some trepidation because I tried reading another book by Sandra Newman, The Country of Ice Cream Star and it was a Did Not Finish for me.

So, what happened today?  I found a physical copy of Julia at my local library.

I took it out.  I have three weeks and I know it probably won't be able to be renewed.  So I might stay on the ebook reserve list.

I can't read four books like this in the next 20 or so days, though.  So some decisions need to be made.

But Alexa isn't going to help me with those decisions. I don't want her blurting out unsolicited book recommendations when I ask her to set a timer or ask her when a certain football game will be on.  I really wish I could shut her up sometimes.

What do you do when books suddenly pile up on you?

Last Sunset of November #SkywatchFriday

We were thinking of going out to look at last night's sunset but got a little distracted.  We were hoping we could see the aurora but, as usual, the clouds had other ideas.

Almost too late, we realized what was happening.

We got there towards the end.  

 

But maybe there was hope.

 As we started home, there was a late display of red.

And a reflection of sorts in the back of a stop sign.

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers for #SkywatchFriday.

I keep saying I'm going to post a great sunset from earlier in November, and I keep not doing it.  Maybe in December.  December!  Tomorrow begins the last month of 2023.

Where did the time go?

Late November Harvest

On the last day of November, we started the day at 26F (-3.33C), so why not blog about gardening?

My spouse has two community garden raised bed plots this year in our zone 5b area of New York State.  In the spring of 2023, my spouse planted onion plants in one of them.   He harvested them in August.

He decided to try to grow fall crops in there:  a Chinese green, carrots, broccoli, and a sunflower developed for container culture.

Successes:

The sunflowers in October.

This was taken October 13, right before harvest.  Sadly, around October 6, we had discovered some larvae got hold of many of the leaves and ate them.  One day I might blog about that because I would love to know what those larvae were.  But the flowers, already budding out, opened. It's hard to see the damage in this picture.

These are carrots, harvested November 27, along with what was left of the Asian greens, and the rest of our Swiss Chard (aka silverbeet in some parts of the world).

Failures:  the broccoli, which never flowered.  No sign of any bud activity.

We also have some kale plants at home in a large container, and have been eating off it (soup) now that we've had some freezes.  Before frost, it is too bitter for me.

Not bad, considering it's been as low as 21F (-6.1 C) where we live so far this fall.

Now that the seed catalogs are coming in, it's time for what I call the hot stove league of gardening, where hope springs eternal and all things are possible.

Views from O Tannenbaum 2023 #WordlessWednesday

From O Tannenbaum, the annual Christmas display and silent auction held at the Tioga County (New York) Historical Society.

It's a Bee-Butterfly?  I think it's Bee-Utiful.

A decorated carriage.  After all, it's a historical society.

Gift Shop one view.

Gift Shop another view.  There used to be a wonderful store in the town called The Hand of Man and I see their hand in the gift shop.

The exhibits range from trees (I'll show more in December) to exhibits on vintage toys.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.

A Barbie Christmas

The movie Barbie was a tremendous success here in the United States and worldwide, grossing over $1.38 million U.S. dollars.  I still haven't seen the movie, but I owned a Barbie in my youth, and I would love to see the movie one day. 

Earlier this month, I had the next best thing.

The annual O Tannenbaum Christmas display and auction at the Tioga County, New York Historical Society is up and running, and the entries will be on display until December 16.  Many of these trees (actually, just the ornaments) are auctioned off in a silent auction.  A clipboard with a sheet is next to each tree and people write their bids there.

This year there were at least three Barbie inspired trees.

This tree included a Barbie tree topper.  In case there was any doubt, even the tree skirt was Barbie inspired.  For me, though, the Barbie tree topper head was a bit - creepy?

I didn't have much room to maneuver for some of these and I was trying to get the entire tree.  The detail may be hard to see.

This tree was called "Vintage Barbie".

I did get a closeup of this tree, which included some Hallmark ornaments.

For those of my readers who celebrate Christmas, do you do themed trees in your house?

Thank You For the Music #MusicMovesMe

It's the last Monday of November and it's time for music.

Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers.

We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.

Our guest host for November is none other than Xmas Dolly, and she has asked us to post thankful songs. 

Let's start with a Disney song from the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  "Out There" teaches us to be grateful for the blessings in our life, whatever they may be.

From 1964, The Beatles "Thank You Girl", which I had totally forgotten about.

 

Now for something different from my usual offerings.  This is a cover of a song with a somewhat sad back story.  This song was written in 1966 by Chilean artist and composer Violeta Parra who, sadly, committed suicide in 1967.  It's been covered many times since its release on Parra's final album, and the song was inducted into the Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2013.  I've chosen a cover by Joan Baez and Mercedes Sosa. Joan Baez introduced this song to us here in the United States and Mercedes Sosa popularized the song throughout Latin America.  I bring you "Gracias a la Vida" which means "Thank you to life".

I can not write a song about thankfulness without including Andrew Gold's "Thank You for Being a Friend".  This song became famous as the theme song for the hit TV show Golden Girls.

Finally, I had recently taken Sly Stone's memoir "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" out of the library.  Here is the song by the same name, recorded in 1969 by Sly and the Family Stone and reaching #1 in February of 1970. In researching, I found there had been an unreleased long version, and here it is for your listening pleasure.

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week.  For December we will be blogging holiday music and I hope to continue a tradition I've followed the last few years.  See you then!

Park Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

 Shadows seen on a walk in the park yesterday on a rare clear sky November afternoon.

Taken around 3pm (the sun sets at 4:36 pm) the long shadows of trees.

Sapling planted last spring (2022) protected by tubes.  This baby tree still has its leaves, as you can see by their shadow inside the tube.

Bench and sign shadow.

Joining up with Magical Mystical Teacher's #ShadowshotSunday.

The Wreath We Made

What should I blog about today?  For a while, I was out of ideas.

These were my choices:

1.  The 45 minutes plus I spent on the phone with two reps (and the automatic system) at Medicare on a bill that has already taken more of my time than it's worth, and the time of a billing advocate? (Maybe I'll blog about that one day)?

2.  The finding out that Microsoft had somehow updated my Photos app so I could no longer save photos from my iPhone the way I always have but insists I use something called OneDrive, whatever that is? (Should I waste more of my life to find out what One Drive is and how to get rid of it?)?

3.  My reserve list for ebooks at the New York Public Library.

But then I thought of #4, which needs a shout out:

4. A wonderful veterans program we've taken some classes because of?

Let's go with #4, which leads us to this Christmas evergreen wreath. 

Cornell Cooperative has been holding one hour evening classes (free of charge!) for veterans and a guest (in our case, me).  They average one class a month.  They actually do a lot more for vets, but we don't want to take advantage and not have a truly deserving vet (for example, one that served in combat) not be able to attend or get some needed help.

So far we've taken three excellent classes:  Flower arranging (all supplies provided), herbal make-your-own salves and the like (ditto) and wreath making.

The wreath making class was somehow rushed, but this is what my spouse made. (This time all we got was the wreath ring and the evergreen boughs/wire to wire the boughs onto the ring. We bought the little bows and the big bow at what I call the $1.25 store.  It used to be the Dollar store at one time.

Yes, it is far from perfect but it is ours.  Thank you, Cornell!

And now, let the Holiday season begin.

Sunset on the River #SkywatchFriday

It's strange - for years I've woken up early on Black Friday and gone shopping.  For the first time in years, I'm not.

I'm taking it easy today.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving in my country (United States) when we gather with family and/or friends to eat together and give thanks.  It both brings back old memories and makes new ones for me.  Yesterday was also the fifth anniversary of the death of my mother in law and so was a little bittersweet.

I'm thankful for the Skywatch Friday family and would like to thank everyone who has read these posts over the past several years.  

Today, a combination post of two sunsets over a river. November 13 

The next two are from November 14.

It's hard to see, but in the red spot you can see distant trees.  There is just something about trees with bare limbs, and almost all our trees are bare now.
 

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers today at #SkywatchFriday.

Thankful Thursday Thanksgiving #ThursdayTreeLove

What am I thankful for today?  So much.  Being able to spend a small Thanksgiving (I like it that way) with some family.  Having food on the table. 

I am thankful for all the people in my life who have been friends, family, mentors, co workers, or those who were in and then out of my life during a time I needed them. Many of them have moved on to wherever we go after our time on Earth is done. Others are still here - I have never thanked them enough.

I am thankful for the people working today to safeguard me, and make my life comfortable.

I am thankful for living in a part of the world where I can enjoy fall color in its season.

Today I'll be busy so here is more of the bounty at our local farmers market, continued from yesterday. 

 Here in the United States, today is Thanksgiving, a day to spend with family or friends if at all possible.

First mushrooms of the season.  This is a winter crop for this particular farmer.

Parsley root.

Living herbs.

Cranberry sauce, made homemade by me, for today's dinner.  Here's the recipe.

And, before I go, a song for the season.

I hope you have a happy Thursday or Thanksgiving, free of drama and full of love.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

60 Years Later #WordlessWednesday

In the United States, it is the day before Thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for, and sometimes it is easy to forget how fortunate we are.

On Saturday, we visited our local farmers market and saw the bounty of the season.  

Carrots and parsnips.

Yellow and purple cauliflower.

Wild Twist apples, a cross between Honeycrisp and Pink Lady.  These are a late apple, unlike Honeycrisp.

But today is more than the day before Thanksgiving.  It is an anniversary of the event that marked my generation the way a great tragedy marks (it seems) each generation.  But let me start with the story of a pet bird, a repeat of part of a post from 2022.

I grew up in a New York City housing project which prohibited dogs or cats.  My Mom had brought home various goldfish, but eventually they all went to the large aquarium in the sky.

One of my aunts, who lived a couple of miles from me, had three pets:  two cats and a canary.

It was a male (only male canaries sing) and it sang so beautifully.  For me, watching it, it was instant love.  I've always been attracted to birds and started begging Mom for a canary of my own.
 

When I was about eight, Mom decided I was old enough to care for a pet, and  off to the pet shop we went.  Mom and I came home with a yellow canary.

"Singer" became a friend and companion for me, an only child.  He would sing for me, do little tricks with his seed bell and swing, and entertain me in general with his antics during his weekly bath.  In fact, I was able (with a lot of patience) to train him to sit on my finger, and even to sit on my shoulder.  I have a picture, somewhere of me (in a bathrobe, as I recall), with "Singer" perched on me. 

His songs and company were just what I needed after I broke my leg in three places and had to spend the next two months at home because my elementary school classroom was on the 4th floor and there was no elevator in the school building.  (I was home educated by a teacher sent to my apartment until after my cast was removed.  I blogged about that several years ago. I owe a lot to that teacher.)

Sadly, Singer passed away during my recovery.  I remember the date, too, because it was the day before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  I was still in my leg cast. 

Yes, people of my generation remember the date November 22, 1963 well. 

That morning, I was at home, reading or doing homework, perhaps.  My mother had left me to go shopping.  She returned home, and was crying as she opened the door to our Bronx apartment.

Mom turned on the TV, and the next three days were nonstop television coverage.  I had a doctor's appointment the following Monday to have the progress of my leg healing checked, and I remember watching some of the funeral coverage in the waiting room.

We went to the pet store the day after Kennedy died to buy another canary.  In the pet store cage was a yellow canary with a black spot on top of his head.  My Mom and I agreed the bird had the spot to mourn Kennedy, and that was the bird we took home with us.

It's been 60 years since that sad early afternoon when my Mom came home crying and turned the TV set on.  I still find that, in some ways, hard to believe. 

I am thankful for you, my readers.  For those in the United States, may you have a joyous Thanksgiving tomorrow.  For the world, is it too much to hope for peace and full stomachs for all?

 

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.

Another Visit to A Famous Talk Line

Maybe this year, hopefully, things are somewhat back to normal.  

Thursday, in the United States, it is Thanksgiving.  There's no turkey shortage.  There's no cream cheese shortage.

This year, we gather with a small group of family,  Let's hope that, at the last minute, we don't have anyone having to back out due to sickness.  

It truly is a time of gratitude.

Also, it's time once again to tell you the story of the year I called the Butterball turkey number on a dare to get advise for cooking a 28 pound turkey.  This year, we only have a 24 pound turkey to cook.

That 28 pound turkey wasn't even for us.

First, the name of the talk line.  It's not the Butterball Hotline, which I thought it was until 2017.  It's Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line, and it has been giving turkey cooking advice to people in the United States since 1981.  

For years, one would have to call and talk to the kind folks at the Butterball Turkey Talk Line, but now one can text them, too.  The texting number is 844-877-3456.  The phone number is 1-800-BUTTERBALL.  So, if you are having last minute problems on Thursday (or whenever you are cooking), do give them a call or send a text.

Why would Americans need to talk or text turkey? Because on Thanksgiving, it is traditional to cook a turkey, and - well, there are so many ways to prepare turkeys.

I've wanted to call the Hot..I mean, the Turkey Talk-Line for years, but my spouse, the family cook, has never needed turkey advice. 

Comedian Stephen Colbert has made it a Thanksgiving tradition to call the Turkey Talk-Line with prank questions for years.  In recent years, those good folks actually let him loose on the Talk-Line in person. I am not sure he's doing it any more.  He reran one of his exploits last year.

By the way, don't take his advice.

Now, the story.

Back in 2017, someone I know was concerned because she had purchased a 28 pound (12.7 kg) frozen turkey for Thanksgiving (November 26 this year, in the United States) and had tried online research to figure out how long to cook it.  She had never cooked that big a turkey before.

Why don't we call Butterball? I asked.  "OK, but you start the conversation" was her response.  And so I dialed 1-800-BUTTERBALL.  The phone was answered quickly by a woman.

Upon hearing of the 28 pound turkey, the woman exclaimed, "oh, you will have such a beautiful turkey when it is cooked.  It will be golden brown; it will look like something in a Norman Rockwell painting!  It will look wonderful on your table."  Obviously, she sensed our hesitation.  But she was totally prepared with advice.

She took us through the process.  "You need to take the turkey now, today, and put it in your refrigerator.  It will take that long to safely defrost." Then she explained how to pat the turkey dry, take out the giblets (these turkeys are prepped and almost ready to go).  She gave us the oven temperature (325 degrees F), the fact that after a couple of hours we were to tent the turkey with aluminum foil, and the total approximate coking time (4 1/2 hours) for the unstuffed turkey.  And, she recommended we use a meat thermometer and what temperature the breast, or the leg, should be before you consider the bird "done".

She talked with us as if she had all the time in the world (maybe, a week away from Turkey Day, she did have a lot of time. But, on Turkey Day, her and her co workers will field about 10,000 phone calls). And again, she told us how beautiful that turkey was going to look on the table. After our questions were answered, she asked for only one thing - what was our zip code (postal code)?

We answered, and she exclaimed "Binghamton, New York.  Oh, I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania!" (that's about an hour south of us).  She closed by asking if we had any more questions (we didn't).

So ended our conversation with the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line.

It did make me wonder who works for the Talk-Line, and if they enjoy talking turkey all day long.
So, an article about their experiences is quite fascinating, too, especially, when you get to the part about the 89 year old man cooking his first turkey.  It sounds like such a fun place to work, if you are a people person.

Oh, and Stephen Colbert's exploit with the callers to the kind folks at Butterball?  Here it is, starting at about 44 seconds into the video. 

Too bad he didn't do it again this year but I am thankful for the memory.

A Fifth of Classical Music #MusicMovesMe

It's the Monday before Thanksgiving in the United States, and it's time for music!

Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers.

We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.

Our guest host for this month is none other than Xmas Dolly, and it's a Freedom of Choice week.  We can post any music we want to.

Next week, Xmas Dolly has asked us to share some thankful songs, but I wanted to say this now:  We have a lot to be thankful for today, including having this technology that allows us to share music with each other.  

Today, I'm going to feature several songs that are based on works of classical music, or have been influenced by the styles of various classical composers.. These happen to be from different genres, proving that our love of music is universal.

Note:  I am not a musician, nor a student of classical musical.  I just happen to like this music.

First up - The Toys and their hit "A Lover's Concerto" from 1965, which hit #2 on the Billboard charts.  Here's the story of how the melody originated.  

Procul Harum and A Whiter Shade of Pale, which is better described here if you are interested.

From Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, A Fifth of Beethoven. This was adapted from the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Released in 1976, it was later included on the soundtrack of the movie Saturday Night Fever. 

 But this isn't even the biggest of Beethoven's rock hits.  Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Symphony No. 9 in D Minor has been covered countless times.  I had thought about Miguel Rios and his 1970 "A Song of Joy" but decided on this flash mob performance from 2012 instead.

And that's a soaring wrap!

I wish my United States readers a Happy Thanksgiving come Thursday.  May you spend the day in joy with family, friends, or other good company. 

Daytime Light Festival Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

The Broome County Festival of Lights starts tonight.  

One of our local county parks, Otsiningo Park, is dressed up with lighting displays.  We saw them (from the highway) testing the lights on the evening of November 15 and it was spectacular.

The lights started to go up at the end of October, which was a bit strange (they were taking down the Halloween scarecrow contest and colored leaves were still on the trees) but I realized, after a time, that the display was larger than in previous years.  

During the day, the lights aren't visible but the displays cast some nice shadows.  Here is a small sample of shadows from earlier this month, when the lights were still going up.

One of the bigger displays.

Still under construction.

Hope you enjoyed the selection.  I'm sure they look lots better at night while lit.

Joining Magical Mystical Teacher's #ShadowshotSunday.

The New Closing Time

It's closing time, and it's not like in the old days.

Where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, the indoor farm markets used to close up (for the most part) on October 31.  Some of the markets that were also gift shops, or nurseries, would close on Christmas Eve and reopen sometime in April.

But that was then and...

Our two indoor farm markets (not our farmers market, which is open year round) have, in the past three or some years, been open in early to mid November.  One gets a lot of produce from southern Pennsylvania so they still have plenty to sell.  One is open only weekends in November, although they will also be open this Tuesday for last minute Thanksgiving produce shopping.

This year, both of them are closing the day before Thanksgiving.

One, the next day, is going to reopen as a holiday market (selling things like candles, teas, coffees, and little gift items) on Friday.

I will say the words for why:  Climate change.

Today it's bitter.  I exercise walked with my spouse right after noon and it was 43F (6.1C) with a brisk wind.  But yesterday, it got up to 63F (17.2C).

I think second summer is over.  And soon, some of these stores I shop at will be closed for the long, long winter.

I'll be waiting eagerly for April.