Sustainable Saturday-The State of Uncertainty

Interesting mystery.  Where is our regional farmers market? Where is it hiding?  Where is the market that was supposed to revitalize our area?  And should I even hope for it, considering the bombshell recently dropped on our community garden? (more on that at the end of the post.)

It was supposed to be built in popular Otsiningo Park, near Binghamton, New York, where an outdoor farmers market becomes more and more popular each week. But our climate allows outdoor farmers markets only during the spring and summer. A farmers market in Ithaca, New York (about an hour from us) chugs along, on a reduced schedule, until Christmastime.  And last year, we did have an indoor winter market three times a month in downtown Binghamton.

This was supposed to be an indoor market, which would operate year round.  One of its inspirations was supposed to be the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville, NC.  I've been to that market, and the larger market in the North Carolina capital of Raleigh.

I was really looking forward to having our own indoor market, especially as we are winding up outdoor market season here in upstate NY.   An airy market with a roof on it.

Construction was supposed to start this summer.  Summer is gone.  We are into fall. 
No word in the newspapers.

No word on the Internet.

I talked to a vendor at the Otsiningo Farmers Market last Saturday.  She knew only there was supposed to be a ground breaking before the "end of fall", whatever that means.

And she brought us some bad news.  Right now, there is no winter home for the Farmers Market.  Last winter's site has been sold (again) and apparently the new owners aren't interested in having it.

They are looking into some other locations, but nothing definite yet.

Uncertain winter farmers market.  Uncertain indoor market.  And one more little thing....the rumor is, we are going to lose our Otsiningo community garden.  The ground may be taken for parking.  The head of our governing committee has confirmed this is a possibility.

Aaargh!
What a dilemma.  Should I support this market, knowing it may be the end of our community garden?

But for now, we just wait in a state of uncertainty.

Four Seasons Friday

Someone told me that today is the 50th anniversary of the singing group The Four Seasons.  To people my age, of a "certain age", the soundtrack of our lives includes the songs of this group, the inspiration for the Broadway play "Jersey Boys".

I can sing along with so many of them even now, remembering all the words.  They were clean words, too - no songs here that you would wince at if any of your children started to sing them.

I don't know how this 50th anniversary is measured, incidentally- does anyone out there know?

By this date in 1962, the Four Seasons already had their first hit, Sherry, which stayed #1 for five weeks. (this was way before the co-founder Frankie Valli's name was added to the group's title).

 
After Sherry, they followed up with (sorry, poor quality) another #1 hit that stayed #1 for five weeks, Big Girls Don't Cry.

They would end up with eight number one songs, one of which, Rag Doll, was voted by listeners of a NYC radio station as the "#1 song of all time".

Even my spouse, who favors hard rock, remembers the Four Seasons fondly and loves the song "Rag Doll".  Can you imagine - loving Metallica and Rag Doll?

My favorite?  Walk Like a Man.  Check this video out - like we used to say just a few years later, "Can you dig it?"

Any other Four Seasons fans out there?  What's your favorite Four Seasons song?

What You Should Do When Discouraged

There are some days when - things are so stressful that you wonder if you are truly just a voice in the wilderness or making a difference, somehow, somewhere.  And, if it all matters.


I'm not quite there yet, but this is shaping up to be one of those days.  So what is the cure?

Positive thinking?

Practicing gratefulness?

Reminding myself (as a friend with cancer says) "The best part of waking up is waking up?"

These are good.  I have one even better.

When you are having a day like this, my friend, if you have a blog, the cure is to visit.....

Your S*P*A*M Folder, assuming it isn't too big.  If it is (and a blogger I know had a MAJOR problem recently, right in the middle of what may have been one of the worst months in her life), it is no joke.  But for  small time bloggers like me, it can be quite entertaining.

Where else will you find comments declaring how great your writing is, how informative your blog is, and just how worthwhile its existence is, because someone is going to try to sneak a link to THEIR business or blog on there. Or a link to an "adult" site, or even worse.  In that folder, you will find some of the best examples of poor English.  Are these people from other countries?  Or the uneducated (shudder) of ours?  Both?

There is good social engineering out there.  I've never seen one in that folder.

I'm pretty lucky.  I don't get much S*P*A*M (It's the good, flip side, of not getting many comments, either).  But if you don't have enough such comments in your folder to cheer you up, the Internet will provide you with some.  One of our fellow bloggers, apparently, was left  the entire library of comments of an aspiring spamblogger. 

Recognize any of these gems?

Are there writing sweatshops somewhere where these are churned out?  Or is some 13 year old on the other side of the world, home from school and bored, producing these?

I'm at a disadvantage, too, because I use Blogger.  If I ever hit the big time, I am going to be in trouble.  Blogger so far is pretty good about blocking these, but for a while they weren't.  If they let their guard down for even a second...and services like Askimet don't work with Blogger, from what I understand.

I sure wonder what (free service) does.  I may have to look one day.

But until then...what was your favorite S*P*A*M comment?  We might as well laugh together.

Fall Fancies - Manga Pumpkins and Winter Squashes

Pumpkins - it must be October.  But Manga pumpkins?

Yes. I love the fusion of American and Japanese culture.  And I loved this painted pumpkin that was somehow uniquely American.

P

Pumpkins rule in upstate NY this time of years.  Pumpkins are everywhere.  There are orange pumpkins, even warted pumpkins.

Small pumpkins and large pumpkins. White pumpkins and orange "Jack Be Little" pumpkins.  These were for sale at the Otsiningo Park farmers market in Binghamton.

Other squashes, too, including these gourds being sold at the Ithaca farmers market.

Sweet dumpling squashes - so beautiful in their variety, and so good to eat.  These were at a local farm stand.

But pumpkins are the king of squashes.

Yesterday I had a pumpkin flavored coffee.  Everywhere, people are munching on pumpkin bread, chock full of pumpkin and nuts.  Pumpkin cookies, even pumpkin ravioli, are available for sale.  If you don't like to eat pumpkin (true confession, I'm not that crazy about eating pumpkin) there are pumpkins for carving, and pumpkins for painting.

Pumpkins in upstate New York equal fall.

What symbolizes fall where you live?

NaNoWriMoOhNo

Why did I start cyber-hanging around with a bunch of authors?  Maybe it had something to do with this Author Blog Challenge I did earlier this year. 

I feel like my life has turned into an exercise from the What Color is Your Parachute book - you know, the one where you attend the party where there are groups of people in all these corners.  One corner has mathematicians.  One has painters.  One has writers.  One has geeks.  One has people who love to cook.  And you can hang out with whichever group appeals to you.  You don't have to know anything about their craft.  You can just hang out. (and by knowing who you want to hang out with, you figure out Your Life's Work.  In my case, my Retirement Work, as I am about to enter into my 60's and I do plan to retire one day.)

And that's what I did, sort of, thinking of what I would do in my retirement years.  I hung out with writers and I wrote my blog and I was so proud of myself because I had blogged every day since, oh, late April of 2011.

But then, my hanging out people started to blog about something called NaNoWriMo (or NaNo, not to be confused with what Robin Williams used to say on a long-ago TV show).  This NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place every November. 

The Oh No part I'll get to later.

During the month of November these brave souls endeavor to write 50,000 words, which comes out to 1667 words a day.  The purpose, as I understand it, is to get off your sitting part and Write That Novel that has been knocking around most people's heads for years. 

Wow.  Novels get written, and some even get published.  Just thinking of all those people pounding away on their keyboards was dizzy-making.

I said to myself "But I don't HAVE a novel knocking around my head."  And, I suspect, that puts me in a small group, maybe 1/2 of 1% of the American population.  Because everyone is supposed to have a novel rattling around up there somewhere. What I have rattling around in my mental attic is a bunch of file cabinets with overflowing drawers and papers tumbling everywhere onto the floor of my mind.  No novels.

But then I went to the NaNo website and started to read it.  And I saw the part where you could meet fellow writers online. And there would be Actual Published Writers there to lend encouragement through pep talks.  For some reason I started to read through the list of writers.  And came across the name of....

Scott Westerfeld.  My heart skipped a beat.  Because Scott Westerfeld wrote one of my favorite series of all times, the Uglies series.

So....do I dare join NaNo with no novel, and just make it up as I go along? (I take it that such a person is called a "pantser". But even a pantser has to start with an idea.)

Or do I just say:  Oh No? And give up the opportunity forever to learn from Scott Westerfeld?

No, I'm not going to do it.  I don't have the needed fire in the belly. I'm not ready. Not yet. But it will stay in the back of my mind.  Why not try next year?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2012 - Second Summer

It's time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted once again by May Dream Gardens.  Gardeners from all over the world gather to show what is blooming in their gardens.  I'm cheating a bit, because of my schedules today.  Some of these pictures were taken Friday, others Sunday (when it got up to 67 degrees - ahhhh!) but everything that was blooming on Sunday, is still blooming today.

In my Johnson City, NY yard, we had a lot of thing blooming on Friday, despite rain, 44 degrees and a shower of ice pellets. (hey, who turned fall off?). And then, on Saturday morning, without even a frosty morning first, we hit a record low of 26 degrees.  A number of things we covered are in Plant Heaven, brought down by the record low temperatures:  my white marigolds, my red dahlias, my purple peppers, my variegated basil.  Let us have a moment of silence as I remember the joy each plant gave me.

We never covered this mum.  If we had, it would probably still look like this.  Our local supermarket had pots with three different colors in one pot, and I don't think those pots stayed in the store long.

This is the first of two mystery plants in this post.  We were given this as a gift, and have had it for several years, growing in full sun.  It has never bloomed before and the leaves (again, this was taken Friday) were nipped by the frost. I would certainly love to know what this plant, and its mystery blooms, are.  The plant will be back next spring.

This is our second mystery plant.  We covered this and it came through with flying colors.  We bought this last year in a local nursery at 50% off.  We returned this year and they didn't have it.  In a show of our usual disorganization, we now have no idea whatsoever what this plant is.

We didn't even know this viola was blooming.  Surprise!

This yellow bleeding heart didn't miss a beat.

Nature had one last surprise for us.  We had grown a purple sweet potato vine, the ornamental type, in a pot this year. We've tried growing sweet potatoes here without much success in our zone 5b garden.  The plant did very nicely for us and - when moving the pot into the garage for protection,we noticed we had - a sweet potato!  (I wonder if it is edible).  This is what it looked like yesterday.

What a strange gardening year this has been.

I look forward to visiting some of your gardens later today.  Happy GBBD to all!

Civil War Sunday - All Was Not Quiet on the Western Front

The man in the Tennessee welcome center greeted my spouse and I with a smile and asked us to sign their visitor register.  It was the third week of September, and we were on our way home (upstate NY) from western North Carolina.

I had nearly visited Tennessee (for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing commemoration) in late March but we had looked into motel rooms too late.  But, I told the gentleman, I was interested in the Civil War and did he have any material I could use for a future visit.

He looked at me with a smile.  He sure did.  Did you know, he asked, that Tennessee, after Virginia, had the most number of battles in the war?

No - although it did not surprise me.  But it did point to something that I have been negligent about blogging during my Sunday posts about the West.  Shame on me.    I used to live in Arkansas and commuted through two Civil War battlefields on the way to work each weekday for almost 5 years.  I lived in Kansas, the site of a battle few have heard of - Mine Creek (Osage).

When people think "Civil War" they think Virginia, they think Maryland, they think Georgia, and maybe South Carolina.  Next year they will be thinking Pennsylvania, too, as we approach the 150th anniversary of the perhaps most well known battle of all, Gettysburg.

They do not think about how widespread the war was.  It was fought in the then New Mexico territory.  It was fought in Kansas, in Missouri, in Mississippi. There was a small battle fought in Arizona on April 15, 1862, less than 10 days after Shiloh.  The skirmish of Picacho Pass was fought some 50 miles from Tuscon.

Surprised?

All was not quiet on the Western front.  Especially not the state of Tennessee.  Tennessee deserves a lot more than a few words and I promise to blog more about it in the coming months.  In the meantime, know that it was the last state to secede, and many in the state were pro-Union - so much so that Abraham Lincoln's running mate in 1864 (Andrew Johnson), was from Tennessee.

Some bloggers have done an excellent job of examining the western front of the war.  As we approach the 150th anniversary of the two Civil War battles (Prairie Grove and Cane Hill) I commuted through daily, I will feature one of those bloggers.

In the meantime - when you think Civil War, think the entire United States and its territories.

Sustainable Saturday-The Icy Fingers of Fall

Yesterday, ice pellets mixed in with rain, in a mid-40's rain shower.  Today, at my son's house (about 20 minutes from us, in the Southern Tier of New York, it was just under 20 degrees.  Officially, we set a record for the date, of 26 degrees. 

Although we covered plants, we lost our dahlias, our basil and our marigolds.

At the Otsiningo Park Farmers Market, farmers sold the last of their frost-tender vegetables.  We bought our last green beans of the year.  Now, the farmers market will be down to apples, pears, winter squash, chard,and these favorites:  small white and orange mini-pumpkins, and Indian Corn.

Our thoughts go back to last Saturday, when we visited Ithaca, home of Cornell University.  A week ago and an age ago, when somewhat warm weather still favored us.  We knew the sun was getting weaker and weaker by the day, and it was a matter of time.  Time. Just a week ago, the Ithaca market still had

 beautiful, colorful peppers...

...watermelon radishes and black spanish radishes...

....and the gourds so many of us use to decorate.

But now early fall has been replaced by the icy fingers of fall.  As the temperatures dip into the teens for the first time, and ice pellets mix in with rain, we are reminded that it won't be long before our gardens are sleeping underneath a blanket of white.  Sometimes I wish that we humans could join our gardens, in a winter-long snooze that would end when the first buds start to swell next spring.

Goodbye, flowers.  Goodbye, warmth.  It is the natural way of upstate New York, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.  But accepting the cycle of nature is part of sustainable living.

 Today, I sigh.  Tomorrow, I will sip hot chocolate and put up the fall decorations.

The First Ice and the Last Flowers

In 1492, Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue.  But in 2012, on what used to be Columbus Day, we started our day in Binghamton, NY with ice pellets and ended up with a mad dash to get plants under cover for a predicted hard freeze.

A hard freeze - we haven't even had a frost yet!

Ice pellets?

Early spring, early fall.  And there is an old folk belief that the earlier the first hard freeze, the harsher the winter.

(Civil War monument, Courthouse Lawn, Binghamton, NY 10-12-12, photo courtesy of AM)

The last downtown Binghamton farmers market, shrunken down to two booths, shivered in the winds of a day where it only got to 51 degrees.  A few people stopped by to check out the cabbages and apples. 

Goodbye growing season.

On the West Side of Binghamton, a mystery purple flower bravely bloomed in the cold.

And at our house, a rosemary, not yet potted up for the winter (they can't survive our winters outdoors), blooms.  (The flowers are purple - I have no idea why they photographed blue).

Since it was the Columbus Day of my youth (back when Columbus Day was October 12), I thought I would end the post with our local downtown statue of Christopher Columbus  Never mind that he didn't discover America, and that many people already there were sorry he ever found it, there his statue is...

Now I can only hope the folklore is wrong and we have another mild winter.  A winter without ice. A winter without snow.  It almost happened last year.  Wouldn't it be nice if the first ice was also the last ice?

Goodbye, flowers.  Goodbye, summer.  Goodbye, warmth.  See you next spring.

Is Mitt Romney Completely Wrong?

Got your attention, didn't I?

No, this has not turned into a political blog.  Rather, once again, it's time to marvel at this Internet that didn't exist when I was growing up, or for many years after, but rules so much of our lives now.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Search Engines, the entities that allow the Internet to function.  There is a series of valid techniques, which many businesses and business bloggers use, called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO allows bloggers (or businesspeople) to increase the visibility of their blogs or businesses to search engines and, hence, and increase traffic to their site.

But sometimes the way search engines work can lead to what I like to call "unintended consequences". 

The latest buzz is the discovery that searching Google Images under "completely wrong" brings up images of Mitt Romney.

Google says it is not intentional; that it was a result of something Romney said recently that got tied to the photos.

Of course, any young adult (such as my son) has a mental library full of fascinating Google search results.   Good late-night entertainment.  Some of these results are tied into something called "Google bombing", where pranksters intentionally fool Google into giving a certain result.

George W. Bush, Tony Blair, John Kerry and Barack Obama (and, infamously, Rick Santorum) have been victims of Google bombing.

If you do a Google search for "miserable failure", you now will get results pointing to articles about Google bombing rather than George W. Bush.  The "French Military Victory" search no longer results in "Did you mean French military defeats" and "More Evil than Satan Himself" no longer results in a link to Microsoft.  Google has done bomb cleanup well.

 If you have ever wished for 15 minutes of fame - you may want to wish again.  Unless you REALLY want to be bombed...

 As for SEO....this blog is a hobby, and a writing "incubator", for me. But one day, I may have to become serious about increasing traffic.  And if that happens, I will be wishing for my 15 minutes of fame.  At least, I will have many fellow Ultimate Blog Challengers to help me along.

Was your blog ever a hobby?  When did it become serious business?

Fall Fancies - Fall Surprise

After a couple of autumns with drab color, we have some nice fall color, finally - sort of, here in the Southern Tier of New York State.    Because of drought, our fall color forecast originally was for another drab year.

Surprise!

Our trees started to turn earlier than in any year in the recent past here in the Binghamton,NY area.  It makes sense, given our very early spring. And the pattern of turning is a little unusual.  Some hills are green.  Some are full of color.  Some hills, even in the first week of October, are already bare.

Normally, color begins in the hills and moves down off the hills, ending in the river valleys.  Not this year.  Locust trees in downtown Binghamton (in the river valley) are already nearly bare, with some hilltops still green.

Other trees can't make up their mind, with brillant leaves intermixed with plain old green.

Even the leaves that have already dropped have their own beauty, as demonstrated in this West Side of Binghamton yard.  Hostas are naturally mulched by newly fallen leaves.

Not all beauty is due to leaves, either.  Mums decorate yards all over our area.

A blacksmith's sign, near Trumansburg, NY, in the Finger Lakes is decorated by nature this past Saturday.

And finally, the beauty of nature is enhanced with man-made decorations.

Do you have fall color in your area?  Has the color been unusually early for you, too?

So, How is Your Mental Health Today?

I read earlier this evening that tomorrow is World Mental Health Day.  Interesting, because nearly every day, I pass by a building occupied by a mental health advocacy organization.

Today, I noticed, there was something painted on their window.  It was a question.

"How's your mental health today?"

When I was growing up back in the 50's, asking someone that question would have been unthinkable.  Today, it can still be difficult. How many of your friends have ever underwent treatment for depression, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive behavior or something else considered in the arena  of "mental illness"?  You might be surprised, because most of these friends would never tell you.

But meanwhile, back to the 50's...

Rich people had shrinks.  Poor people had alcohol.  And no one talked about it.  Depressed?  That wasn't an illness, it was feeling sorry for yourself and you could talk yourself out of it!  Anxious?  Have a drink. Did you have a relative with a "problem?"  Well, you hid it away.  If you had a problem, you hid it, too.

Does anyone remember the (ha ha, not) saying "Support mental health or I'll kill you?"  I do.

It would seem a lot of us were "hiding it". How many U.S. Presidents were "mentally ill", just as an example?  A 2006 study claimed almost half of them.

And, of the presidents who "had a problem", almost half of them had depression.

Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the most famous example of a President who struggled with depression, but there were others, along with several very heavy drinkers and, here and there, some individuals who may (or may not) have had bipolar disorder.

So, this question posed by the downtown Binghamton window was very serious.

The good news is, today, the question has an answer.  There is help, and less of a stigma.  For many months after the flood our region suffered in September of 2011, mental health volunteers showed up at community events, at farmers markets, even at the annual home show.  Support groups were formed.  Sometimes, all that was needed was an empathetic ear.  If more was needed, referrals were made.

Mental health is NOT A JOKE. If the body can be ill, the mind can be ill, too. (sometimes, one can lead to the other.)  Getting help and support is not weakness.  Shout it from the rooftops.  How's your mental health today?

Or paint it on a window.

Time in a Bottle

Time In A Bottle. One of my favorite Jim Croce songs.

October 8, 1973. 

The place:  Shea Stadium. The NY Mets and the Cincinnati Reds were playing for the National League championship.

There was a fight, considered one of the "best" brawls in major league baseball history.  Pete Rose vs. Bud Harrelson.  And my now spouse and I were there.

 39 years ago today.....

I realize that a lot of my readers may not even have reached the age of 39.  Or were babies or young child on October 8, 1973.

When I look back at those pictures, I sometimes can't believe I was there, either.

My memories in some ways are so sharp.  We were both in college, and had been able to find time to stand on a long line to get those tickets.  No internet to order tickets from. The game was a day game because in those days most championship games were played during the day.

We were sitting on the first place line, not far from the foul pole.

Pete Rose was some 200 lb.  Bud Harrelson was maybe 140 pounds soaking wet.   When you look at the players, they seem so thin, don't they.  It was a different world, 1973.  We never dreamed there would be a place called the Internet, where we could share memories of things that happened 39 years ago.  We never dreamed of a "You Tube" where we could see those memories.

But in some ways, things don't change.  When the two players fought, both benches jumped into the fray.  And then the Mets fans got into it, throwing things onto the field.  The game stopped, the field littered with the fans' displeasure.  Near us, a Reds fan had his Reds cap snatched from his head.  Someone tried to set it on fire, but didn't succeed.

It was scary.  On the first base line, we were half a stadium away from the action in left field.  The Reds pulled their team off the field.  The PA announcer begged the fans to stop, to avoid the possibility of forfeiting the game.

Finally, a delegation of manager and players:  Yogi Berra, Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones and Rusty Staub, came out to left field to appeal to the fans. Order was restored, and the Mets ended up winning the game, 9-2.

Catching time in a bottle, the way video can, doesn't prevent us from aging.  Harrelson is 68.  Pete Rose is 71.  I saw Pete Rose's son play in a minor league ball game several years ago.

And Jim Croce?  It's spooky, when you listen to the lyrics of this song.  I guess, when it comes down to it, and we think of our growing up memories, we wish we could save time in a bottle.  But, despite You Tube, and the Internet, we really can't.

 If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away.....

Jim Croce died, at the age of 30, in a plane crash.

Civil War Sunday - Just A Piece of Paper

It was just a piece of paper.

A 150 year old lost piece of paper, returned to near where it was found 150 years ago.  Big deal.  Well, to some of us, it is a big deal.

The losing and the finding may have changed history, although historians of the Civil War still debate that.

This piece of paper was written on around September 9, 1862, during Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland in what is now known as the Maryland campaign.  General Lee's decision to move the war into Federal territory was a gamble.  His goal was to move north, enlist the support of the people of state of Maryland (many of which had Confederate sympathies), and eventually capture Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

With Harrisburg captured, Lee planned to use the capture as a bargaining chip to end the war, with the Confederacy granted the status of a separate country. 

So, around September 9, 1862, Lee formulated plans to split his army, the Army of Northern Virginia, into various parts.  Each part was given a goal.  Lee's adjunct, Robert Chilton, wrote the order, Lee endorsed it, and the orders were distributed to the various generals under Lee's command in this campaign.  Several copies of the order, each handwritten with Lee's plans.

There was just one tiny problem.

An extra copy was made.  There is some confusion concerning why, and who was responsible for losing it, but history records that on September 13, 1862, a corporal of the 27th Indiana Volunteers discovered this piece of paper, wrapped around two cigars (some accounts say three, but it is immaterial), near the Best Farm near Frederick, Maryland.  At first, no doubt the soldier and his companion thought they was greatly in luck in finding some cigars.

Then they started to read the paper.

That is the piece of paper, containing what is known as Special Orders, No. 191, that was quickly moved up the chain of Federal command and finally into the hands of Major General George McClellan, the head of the Army of the Potomac.

McClellan held the dream of any commanding general - the plans of his opponent.

Oops.  (and what happened after that is another story I will not get into today....but the end result was the bloodiest one day in the history of our country, the Battle of Antietam.)

But then, as a famous commentator of the 20th century liked to say, there is the Rest of the Story, the part I really like.

General McClellan kept what historians now call the Lost Order, in his own private collection. After he died, his son donated it to the Library of Congress.

And, this past September, I was privileged to see the Lost Order, on a rare public exhibit, at the Monocacy Battlefield.

You see, that Best Farm ended up in the midst of an 1864 battle, the Battle of Monocacy (named after a nearby river), a small battle that is sometimes overlooked, but although a Confederate victory, prevented a Confederate invasion of Washington, DC.

Photography of the Lost Order was not permitted but if you go to both Monocacy and to Antietam, you will see plaques with pictures of the order.  The handwriting is hard to read, but it is worth the time to decipher it.

I still get goosebumps over the fact that I was able to view this piece of Civil War history.

You can see it, too, but you need to get to Monocacy before October 31.  (I highly recommend a visit to Monocacy and the best part it - admission is free.)

If you can't make it to this Maryland battefield, this is a copy of the Special Order.

What if......

Sustainable Saturday- The Crisp Apology of Fall

The world of apples is much bigger than the typical American consumer will ever know.  I am fortunate to live in a major apple producing area, and we can get a lot of varieties locally that the average consumer will never have the chance to sample.

Some apples just can't be grown on a large scale.  Others have fallen out of favor for whatever reason.  The consumer must know if he or she wants apples for fresh eating, for baking, for storage.  There is something for everyone.

Apples are the apology of fall for ending our Northern growing season.

Ithaca, New York is about an hour away from where we live in upstate New York.  We go up there every Columbus Day weekend to enjoy an Art Trail, pick up the last of summer's produce, and enjoy some fall foliage.  Our area of upstate New York is a major apple producing area, but between a late frost and hail, apples are not in their normal abundant supply.

In the Ithaca Farmers market, garlic, radishes, turnips, carrots, and swiss chard were abundant.  Apples, much less so.

The above farm grows both heirlooms and conventional apples.  This farmer brought their full harvest of Ambrosia apples to market today, and this is what the bin looked like with the market open about an hour.  $2.80 a lb, but we bought our share.

Zabergau Reinette apples aren't that good straight from the tree (we knew this from last year) but give them a month or two, and they are heavenly.  They are the definition of "applicious".  We stocked up.

Thornberry apples, technically, are a type of crabapple.  They have a distinct pink flesh, and they are not my favorite.  But I wanted to show these to my readers.

I don't know if an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  But today, I accepted the apology of fall and bit into a yummy apple.  Did you?

What is your favorite way to eat apples?

The Binghamton Zombie Apocalypse

In case of a zombie apocalypse in upstate NY, I now know where to go.

Tonight, Binghamton held its third annual Zombie walk.

The zombies helpfully posed for a group photo.

A couple of zombie bellydancers entertained the crowd.  This one danced (slowly, of course) with a sword on top of her head. (Sorry, this picture came out rather blurry.)

A gowned zombie looked on, fake blood glistening on her gown.


Someone calling himself "The Undertaker"and dressed in a steampunk type costume with tophat told the zombies he would be their leader and that they were to refrain from eating the living for tonight only.

The zombies were to visit various venues open for First Friday in downtown Binghamton. Their first stop was to be Phelps Mansion, a mansion built in 1870, now on the edge of downtown.  Some of the everyday people who walk the streets near Phelps Mansion are scarier than any zombie you will ever meet.

My spouse and I hurried to the mansion ahead of the shambling, screaming crowd.  (I will blog more about Phelps Mansion, which has a Civil War connection, another time.) While we waited for the zombies to arrive, we spoke to the staff.

(Interior of Phelps Mansion, courtesy of AM)

Not only did the staff not know the zombies were intending to visit, they didn't know what zombies were.

"They are the undead", I explained helpfully.  "They eat people."

"How disgusting!" a staff member responded

As the zombies arrived, the staff told them they couldn't enter, so they milled around a couple of minutes and then left.  Indeed, if the Zombie Apocalypse comes, Phelps Mansion should be the safest place in the Southern Tier of NY.

"I'm not impressed", a young woman remarked to me.  "You should see the zombie walk in the West Village!"

Well, maybe one day I will.  But at least Binghamton is trying.   And in case of a zombie apocalypse, remember - you don't want to be in a large city.  Trust me on this.

When a Language Dies

Can you imagine English being a dying language one day? 

A small piece of English died yesterday, with the last "Cromarty" native speaker in Scotland dying, at the age of 92.  The dialect was several hundred years old and was the English once spoken in a remote fishing village in Northern Scotland.

Other dialects and languages have have died in my lifetime.  People are attempting to revive one of these languages, Manx, whose last native speaker (in the Isle of Man) died in 1974.

We don't think much about languages dying, but in fact, their death rate has accelerated in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sometimes, an entire culture dies with the last native speaker, which happened in the Indian Ocean with a woman by the name of Boa Sr. in 2010.

In our world, increasingly interconnected, speech is becoming more standardized.  We can think of this as a good thing.  I am utilizing this technology in my blog, written in English, and I post each post knowing that millions of people all over the world are able to read it - and understand it. (I hope)

Nice, isn't it.

But one of the strengths of the English language is its richness.  We have many words in English taken from other languages, and an author with an excellent vocabulary can choose from many words, each with a slightly different meaning, to express something.   Without different languages, which express the world view of their speakers, the richness of our world is diminished.

Note that I talk about both "dialect" and "language". I am not a linguist, and a linguist may disagree with this statement, but a dialect tends to be more a regional subset of a language.  In the United States northerners and southerners can use different vocabulary, but both are still speaking English.

Meanwhile, due to the passing of one Bobby Hogg, our living vocabulary is poorer.

Never again will we hear about "greengaw", the slimy grass left when the tide recedes. (Did anyone know English had a word for this?)  Or "roosky", meaning dirty? 

Cromarty will survive in recordings.  And there are some people in that area of Scotland who have some knowledge of the Cromarty dialect.   But, we need to beware of too much standardization in our world.  Homogenized isn't always better, although it is easier.

Fall Fancies - The First Fall Color

No doubt about it, early fall color is appearing from western North Carolina to the Catskills and Southern Tier of New York. And, even New York City.

I think many "experts" are surprised.  After the "blah" color of the last several years, we may finally have decent color - and much earlier than the past few years, too.  The timing is more like what we had the first 15 or so years I've lived in this area.

(And, it is time for the seasonal renaming of my Wednesday photo feature. This year, Fall Fancies is what this Wednesday feature will be.)

Fall color was appearing even in mid to late September.  It is in full swing now and it appears we may have our first frost here in Binghamton on Monday.  At that point, the coloring will go into high gear. 

Some pictures from the last week:

A tree turning color in Otsiningo Park, near Binghamton, NY.  (Yes, those low clouds seem to be a constant feature lately around here, too.)

Porcelain berries growing in Red Hook, a neighborhood in Brooklyn (New York City).  This is a very invasive plant, related to the grape.  But you have to admit the berries, which ripen in the fall, are beautiful.  (Thank you to my sometimes guest photographer's sister for IDing these).

Color in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania.

And, color on the Vestal Rail Trail in the Southern Tier of New York.

Is it fall where you live?  Will you have good color this year, or will the drought ruin it?

When The Levee Breaks

So many communities have been impacted by floods these past few years.  The flood recovery of my neighborhood of Westover, near Johnson City, New York (in the Town of Union) continues, along with the recovery of many nearby communities.

Tens of houses in my neighborhood remain vacant and crumbling, but government help may finally be on the way.  HUD has approved the Union disaster recovery plan (only 13 months after the flood) which will include improvements (unspecified) to the "Westover levee", replacement of a maintenance building to the Johnson City water plant (located in our neighborhood).  We still await word on 176 proposed buyouts for houses in my neighborhood and several others.

And, there is the former BAE Industries plant,  the building mere blocks from where I live.  It used to be one of the largest wood framed buildings in the United States.  It was where 1300 people used to work before the flood.  Now its population is 2 - the security guards who look over the vacant building.

Government help?  Well, yes.  I rarely get political in my blogs, but I have to say, based on experiences in the past 13 months, that there is a role for government to play in our lives.

It was sure nice to have potable water after days of boil water orders and voluntary water rationing.  The Town was very prompt in removing stinking flood debris.  The post office continued to deliver mail.  Garbage pickup continued.  The services you don't think about until they are endangered....

We love to think we are in control of our lives, and that we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps (to quote a sometimes overused expression).   Believe me when I say we are much less in control of our lives than we think.  All it takes is a summer of record rain, followed by two tropical storms. (Or, for so much of our country, the opposite - record droughts).

Times like that call for more help we can provide for ourselves, or that our neighbors can provide (after all,they are affected, too! ) Yes, the Red Cross was there for us.  The Salvation Army was there, too, along with local charities.  But charity can not carry the entire burden.

Needing help does not mean people are "lazy". It means they are overwhelmed.  There is no shame in reaching out in such a situation.

And then, there is artistic expression.

During the flood, someone posted a video on You Tube of our Southern Tier under water, using Led Zepplin's "When The Levee Breaks" as a soundtrack. I recently tried to find the video and couldn't.  But it is sobering to think that this song was first written in 1927.  The original version details the sufferings of minorities in the Mississippi Delta during and after a great flood in 1927.

Watching that video, those 13 months ago, helped our spirits.


So, what is the good news coming out of what happened 13 months ago?  The good news is that we continue to recover every day, we continue to make progress and we've been given the opportunity to prepare for "next time".

And, I can watch the trees starting to turn fall colors, and be happy I am here to enjoy it.

The Ultimate Gardening Challenge?

First, a welcome to those participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  If you haven't signed up, it isn't too late.  31 posts in 31 days.  Sounds easy but it isn't. But it is well worth the effort.

 I hope you like what you see, and return again.   I have scheduled topics I blog on every Wednesday (flowers), Saturday (sustainable living) and Sunday (the U.S. Civil War).  The rest of the week, I write on a variety of topics.

This past week, I spent a couple of days in Brooklyn, in New York City, and have been sharing some of my finds with you.

Have you ever wondered how people garden in New York City?  They do it in a variety of ways because space is precious. You find gardens in front yards, in back yards, and even on roofs.  New York City's climate is not the harshest, but growing conditions can be - acid rain, thieves (sadly), concrete, pollution - but these devoted gardeners don't let anything stop them.

This pepper plant is one of a number of ornamental pepper in an immigrant's front yard.  I spoke to the gardener briefly - his English wasn't good but his gardening skills more than made up for it.  Note to thieves, he warned me that this pepper is HOT.

A strawberry blooms and fruits in a container.

A rosemary plant sprawls on a concrete back yard.

A luffa squash takes over a fence.

There were more plants growing within a few feet of these yards.  Several fig trees had ripening fruit.  A squash grew up a fire escape.  Tomatoes, which had seen better days and were dying of late blight, were in many yards.    If I had come a month before, I suspect I could have taken even more photos.

They say "bloom where you are planted". Gardeners in Brooklyn respond "Garden where you live!"

Is gardening a special challenge where you live?