Scary Building

How's this as an attention getter?  Wow!  Amazing!  And a bit scary as well.  It is an advertisement for something - perhaps liquor.  The thing that is being advertised is on another wall of the building, to the left of the portrait.  I was stopped dead in my tracks, seeing this, and figured that it would make an arresting photograph.  Brilliant advertising idea.

My Breakfast

This was my breakfast today.  A bran muffin.  So here's the story...  Kathy made bran muffins for all of us.  Everyone except me cut their muffins up, and toasted them in the kitchen, and added butter before bringing them to the table.  I eat my muffin at room temperature with no butter.  So I carried the muffin to the dining room table, on a plate, and brought along a knife to cut it into quarters. As I sat down I decided to do something silly, to see if anyone was watching.  I stuck the knife into the top of the muffin like this.  The good news is that everyone noticed!  And first they were shocked, and then they started laughing.  Mission accomplished!

Planting Fields

We went on a field trip today, just to get out in the beautiful weather.  After considering the possibilities, we headed off to Planting Fields Arboretum and Historic Park.  The grounds are wonderful, with gardens and amazing trees everywhere, as well as Coe Hall - the mansion on the grounds.  And then there are the greenhouses.  The display of plants and flowers in the main greenhouse is just stunning.  I love wandering around their greenhouses, looking for interesting details.  I found this palm in there, and had a lot of fun coming up with the most interesting composition.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the tag for this plant, so I can't give more details about what it is.

Vince & I Go For a Walk

My brother-in-law Vince is here visiting us with his wife Joanne, and he and I took a walk the other day - a three-mile round trip to the power plant and back.  We stopped at the pond to check out the work going on there.  I need to do some posts about the work - they are dredging the pond to remove all the sand and silt that has built up over the last thirty years.  They are also removing all the phragmites to restore the pond with the natural plants that belong there.  We are looking at some of the broken pieces of phragmites floating around, and you can see our shadows.

A Moment on the Street

The four of us went to the city today to see a broadway show.  We walked uptown from Penn Station and then walked around afterwards, and then walked back to the train station to come home.  While walking down 8th avenue, I kept my toy camera in my hand, just looking around for possible photographs.  At a crosswalk with a red light, I was looking around and saw this mother and son looking at something.  I have no idea what, but it made an interesting "street photograph" I think.  I also like seeing the faces of the other two pedestrians.

The Poor Daffodils

I guess I was too overjoyed with the prospect of warm weather.  It felt like it was finally here to stay.  Guess what?  Temperatures back in the 30's.  I feel so badly for the Daffodils.  Here they are, coming out of the ground to bring us joy, and look what happens to them.  I tried to lift some of them up, with the hope they would stay upright, but it didn't work.  I have seen these flowers in other's gardens, and some of those flowers are on the ground as well.  I am wondering if warmer weather will bring new life to them, and they will stand up again.  Or maybe it is just too late this year.

A Different View

Here's a different view of the plant being demolished.  I was able get this shot by putting the lens of the camera through a space in the fence. The power plant has that bleak look because the steel and glass have been removed from all of the windows.  I spoke to one of the workmen today and asked how they would bring the building down, and he said they would pull it down with cables.  Wow. That will be interesting to see!  And sad, of course.