Summer Weekend in New York

We arrived in Astoria last Thursday afternoon.

Morgan and Albert live in a quiet little neighborhood, with a front porch overlooking the sidewalk. It's a nice place to play cards in the evening.....


It was my birthday, the day we arrived.....

We went for dinner at a Greek restaurant nearby, eating out on the back patio under the stars...


Friday morning, George, Morgan, and I headed to the Natural History Museum. We were there most of the afternoon, and only saw a fraction of the exhibits....

Then a subway ride on down to Houston Street for lunch at Katz's deli....



a little shoe shopping for my aching feet, then uptown to meet Albert in the park at the end of his workday....


Yesterday morning we all slept in, then made the trek into the city by bus and subway to the South Street Seaport area and a 90-minute sail around the tip of Manhattan....

to the Statue of Liberty....


and where, looking back, the city seems very small..


Back on dry land, we joined the throngs walking across the Brooklyn Bridge....


and found our way to Front Street for pizza.....

in an area called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)

We finished our evening watching the city light up the night from the Brooklyn Bridge Park, before heading back to the apartment....


and today, exhausted, we headed home!

Deck Entertainment

I've been having my breakfasts out on the deck this week and there has been no lack of entertainment just a few feet away.

Tip-toeing in.....


saying hello....

hearing a friend's call.....

asking my permission.....

to have a friend over for breakfast....


This morning there was Chippy. He thought I wouldn't notice if he held perfectly still.

I blinked long before he did.

The Celtic Potato Festival

We headed out with our umbrellas, a little unsure that we wanted to brave the rain. The crowd was small to start, but the rain let up, and eventually the sun came out. It turned out to be a fun day.
Good music.....

Lots of men in kilts....




and an entertaining leprechaun....

The Week in Pictures

It was a rough week with a lot of overtime. I made it through, though, and now begins my vacation. Today there was a lot of catching up to do, including loading up the week's pictures.

We made a trip to Whitesboro last Sunday, and first spotted what we think was an immature bald eagle near Spencer....

then a great egret north of Eaton....


At home there's the stealthy woodchuck who would love to munch down on my last cabbage....

There's the creeper vine making its way from the compost heap, across the yard....


and this grows from it....I wonder what it is.

We've been picking lots of tomatoes....


and I finally had time to fix a real homemade meal tonight, minestrone....


I'm looking forward to nine more days of R & R.

Just a Perfect Saturday

The weather was just right today, and I had no plans to go anywhere. I enjoyed puttering around the house, working in the garden, reading a book, and enjoying the world from my swing in the back yard.

We had our dinner out on the deck under the awning.....stuffed green peppers and corn on the cob.




Our day's project was making bread and butter pickles.

It was just a slow-paced summer's day, and I needed that.

Loving My Lantana

When we stopped at the Amish greenhouse in the spring, we came across these pretty little plants with their multi-colors, and we decided to buy two of them. I remember other people stopping us and asking where we found them.


We planted ours out front, and watched them fill out their spot, with such pretty pinks, yellows, and shades in-between.


I did a little research and found out that lantana can be invasive and are undesirable in warmer climates where they are a perennial and take over the landscape. Here they will die off with the frost, so I will enjoy them for now, and their ever-changing blossoms. I even expect that I would buy them again next spring!

Home Again

It was a whirlwind weekend away.

We drove up to Buffalo Friday night after work. The sky is always interesting as we approach the city on the thruway. The cloud cover moving in from Lake Erie....

We arrived in time Friday to help Garrett move a few things from his apartment to the new one just down the hall. The next morning we were all up early and the moving (and cleaning) continued, till early afternoon when we finally closed the door on G-6 for the last time.

Saturday afternoon George and I headed to Rochester for a surprise party for my cousin, Jill. I had not seem some of my cousins in many years, so it was a fun reunion with entertainment.


Sunday we took Garrett and Heather to breakfast, then started the trek back home. It was my idea to take the scenic, southern route, rather than the interstate. That made the trip home much longer, but it was worth it.


A storm was moving right in front of us, and we eventually caught up. Arriving in our driveway, we sat in the car for a bit till the downpour let up. The neighbors said that it only rained for a half hour, but the rains had been heavy, and it showed!