Leaves are a changin'

 

It's that time of year when the trees around are preparing for the dormancy of winter and shedding their leaves. But not without first putting on a spectacular show of color. I enjoy this change every year but am in special awe of it this year. I look around and can't believe how lucky I am to be able to experience the glorious show nature is putting on. Just like magic, there is an ever-changing beautiful scene to see. Every corny thing you can think of to describe the colors of the changing leaves I am thinking.

Fall has always been a special time. When we were kids, my sisters and I would walk around the neighborhood and collect colorful leaves. Then we'd take them home and dip them in hot wax to preserve them. That way, we could enjoy the color for months after the leaves outside were gone. 

After I left college, I lived along the Gulf Coast, where there were not four distinct seasons, and I missed the fall colors. I had one friend whose mother would mail her a box of fall leaves every year as a reminder of home in the northeast. When I moved back north, and my friend was still in the south, I also mailed her leaves because her mother had since passed away. 

Our tree, which turned a brilliant red in the fall, was lost in a storm last year. However, as I look out my windows, the neighbors' trees are more than making up for it. I am so lucky.

All is Well

 Ward and I are completely well after our bouts with COVID, and according to the CDC, today, I am free to move about without a mask on. After the first positive test, the game changes to days and symptoms- no negative test is needed as long as you've been without a fever for 24 hours and symptoms are improving. Current guidelines have you isolating for 5 days and wearing a mask for 5 days after that. I am on day 11 but will continue to wear a mask as I did before. We are both very thankful that we had mild cases, probably because we are fully vaccinated and boosted. And very grateful for the technology and researchers that made them possible.

I haven't been out of the house much for the last two weeks, so I had the Go-fever, as we used to call it as kids. To treat my Go-fever, Ward and I set off on a drive to look at the fall leaves, which are in all of their glory. But a funny thing happened on the way, we passed a sign for Gathland State Park, and I decided that was where we needed to be. 

Gathland belonged to George Alfred Townsend and was the site of the Civil War Battle of South Mountain. Townsend was a reporter during the Civil war and decided he liked the area while working there. Rumor has it that he got 100 acres cheap because people didn't like former battle sites. His penname was Gath, thus the name Gathland State Park.

Gathland is popular with hikers because the Appalachian Trail runs through it. In fact, Ward had been there several times on backpacking trips, but I had only been there once for a drop-off for one of those trips. We had a nice hike and saw some interesting history. And I was oh so happy to be out again. 

Below are a few more details of our outing.

The arch in the back is a memorial to journalists who lost their lives in the Civil War. Townsend built it in 1896 and it was the first of its kind. In the foreground are a few of the numerous signs describing the battle that took place there.

There were tributes to other journalists as well as those from the Civil War.

This was his wife Bessie's house. It housed a kitchen and meeting rooms. Today it is a museum about being a reporter during the Civil War.

The floor inside the museum was covered with an annotated carpet map of the area - a first for me.

Townsend had a total of nine buildings on his property. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything identifying this ruin, although it might have been a barn.

After exploring the central area, we hiked. The trail was nice, although rocky.

In fact, the whole area was rocky, and there was a prevalence of stone walls on the farms in the area. This was one of Townsend's.

An overnight shelter for through hikers on the Appalachian Trail. According to Ward, this was a nice one.

The park has many more places to explore, and we will definitely be making a return trip.

Until next time...

I've Joined the Crowd

Anemone

Just like clockwork, five days after Ward came down with COVID, I tested positive. This is my second day, and it's not too bad. I had a fever that broke last night, and I feel better today than yesterday. Now it's just the common respiratory symptoms, a runny nose, a hacking cough, and some achiness.

Ward is on day seven and is feeling much better. In fact, according to the CDC, he's free to move about with a mask, so he's out getting some groceries for us. He is very happy to be out of the house, and we are both happy that we do not have to keep up the vigilance of staying apart. In fact, the first thing we did was sit together on the couch - a welcome change from the past week.

To get some fresh air this afternoon, I looked at some of the flowers in the yard. Even though the cats protested, it was good to get off the couch. Below are a few pictures.

These mums are quite the show-stopper every year.

A lone surviving zinnia among the mums.

Various vincas are still blooming around the yard, but our first frost last week has slowed them down quite a bit.

I put these marigolds in late, so they're just starting to bloom. 

These mums were some that Miss Landers was throwing out. I take seasonal mums that people don't want and plant them with varying success. I can usually get a couple more seasons out of them before they die out.

Same story with these mums.

Until next time...

We've Joined the Majority

Ward tested positive last Saturday for COVID, which means that our family joined the many other families who have had a member with COVID. In April, over half (58%) of the US population had already had COVID infections; no doubt, this number is even higher now. In the almost 3 years since the coronavirus was discovered, our family has been able to dodge getting infected. However, even though we have been careful, the coronavirus is so widespread it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ward missed Family Day at Theo's
work because he was sick.

So far, Ward's infection is no worse than a bad cold. He feels well enough that he is getting bored because he has been sequestered to just a few rooms in the house. In the mornings, before I go to work, I make sure he has food, drink, and activities to fill his time until I get back since he's not allowed in the kitchen, the basement, our bedroom, or the den. He's working on a puzzle right now. I anticipate that in a few days, he should be good to join the world again. But this virus, if nothing else, is unpredictable. So we shall see.

In the meantime, Theo and I are symptom-free and are testing negative. And with every day that goes by, I feel more confident that things will stay that way. But we shall see.

We all feel lucky that we have been fully vaccinated and boosted because things could be much worse.

Home Again

One of our rest stops. 

We drove home yesterday from our vacation. The original plan was to do another sightseeing stop on the way home, but the weather convinced us otherwise. The first four hours of the trip were in cold rain and fog before letting up to light rain. And after about an hour into the trip, our minds had switched out of vacation mode into home mode - meaning we had stopped thinking about hikes and ice cream shops and started thinking about what we left undone at work and the chores waiting for us. Also, we missed our purring, demanding cats. So other than bathroom breaks, we powered through the trip without stops until we were home. 

We've emptied our suitcases, done the laundry, and gone through the mail. And now we have to deal with the annoyances of everyday life. For example, within the last week, Wally, Theo, and Ward and I have all had our credit cards compromised. We wonder what's going on. Is credit card theft so prevalent that this is just a coincidence? Or are we all in some database that was compromised? Whatever the case, it's a big hassle. 

And on that cheery note, 

Until next time...

Travel Log, Day 4, Finger Lakes, NY

The temperatures were in the 30s this morning, so we decided that it was time for some indoor activity, so we headed to the Corning Museum of Glass, a little over an hour away. We visited the museum many years ago and weren't sure if we wanted to go back or someplace new. However, every place we were interested in was closed on Monday, so Corning it was.

And I'm so glad that we went because the place is spectacular. As the name suggests, everything in the museum pertains to glass. There were glass art exhibits, history of glass exhibits, and glass technology exhibits, as well as glass-making demos. We had hoped to make our own glass pieces, but the workshops were filled for the day.

After a few hours there, we headed back to Ithaca with a stop at Robert Treman State Park along the way, where we hoped to take an easy hike. Information on the trails in the park was sketchy, but we started out along another gorge trail with a plan to take the rim trail back as we had done at other parks. The plan worked out, except it was not the easy hike we had hoped for. I climbed many more steep steps from one trail to the other than I had planned. I describe this as a hike that is good for me because it forces me out of my comfort zone. I probably wouldn't have gone if I had known about all of the steps before I started. But once I was in the middle of it, I had no choice but to move forward, resulting in good exercise and views I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Back in Ithaca, we did a little more sightseeing while driving around Cornell University and the city center. An interesting drive during which we probably dodged more than 100 students. I know that the students have the right away, but it would be nice if they put their phones down every once in a while and look up while walking, she says like the old person she is.

We picked up dinner from a local Italian place to eat back at our cabin in the woods. Now everyone has spread to their respective corners of the house for some downtime after being together all day. Have I mentioned that we are a family of introverts who need our alone time?

A few pictures from the day.

Corning Museum:

Wally examining an exhibit in the stained glass section.

The history of wine bottles with bottles dating back to the 1600s.

These were casserole dishes showing how the glass transparency changed at different tempering temperatures. This exhibit explained the discovery of glass ceramics.

A piece from the current art gallery.

Ward's favorite exhibit in the art gallery.

A family selfie taken in front of a thermal camera showing the effectiveness of different glass coatings and heat transmission.

Robert Treman State Park:

It's hard to get perspective in these pictures. Lucifer Falls, shown here, has a 115' drop.

Travel Log, Day 3, Finger Lakes, NY

It's the end of a long but good day, and I'm tired. We're back to our home base, and it's only 8 pm - too early to go to bed, so I'll see what I can remember about our day today.

Several years ago, we came to Ithaca to tour Cornell University with Wally, and as part of that trip, we visited Cornell's Botanical Gardens. I remembered them as the best botanical gardens I had ever visited, so I wanted to see them again. That was our destination for the morning. This time, as well as exploring the botanical gardens, we visited the adjacent arboretum. We had a pleasant few hours wandering around both of them. 

Soon enough, lunch was calling, and after a few misses with recommended places, we ended up at Purity Ice Cream for burgers and fries, which were pretty good. Purity had been recommended for the ice cream, so we planned to come back for it after another hike. 

Next, we visited Taughannock State Park (Thanks, Janet Wood, for the recommendation.) to see the 215' Taughannock Falls. The hike through the gorge was on a wide trail with a steep hill on one side and a wide flat stream bed on the other. Quite a pleasant 1.5-mile walk, especially since the weather continued to cooperate with temperatures around 60 F.

The other side of the park ran along Lake Cayuga, and we took a walk along the shore after we saw the falls. It was not quite as windy and cold as our walk along Seneca Lake yesterday, but windy all the same. Just windy enough to work up an appetite for ice cream, so back we went to Purity Ice Cream.

Purity Ice Cream has been in business since 1936 and was on almost everyone's list of places to go to in the area. During our visit this time, Wally had a huge milkshake, and the rest of us had hot fudge brownie sundaes of various kinds. Purity did an excellent job in living up to its reputation.

Then it was back to our cabin in the woods for a catch as catch can supper with the various things we had in the fridge. No one went hungry, and some were still not hungry after their ice cream treat.

And here we are once again back at the beginning of the post. As it turns out, the TV where we're staying has several streaming services we don't get, so we're enjoying some shows as we relax from our busy days. So I think that's where I'm headed now.

Below are some pictures from the day. 

The Botanical Gardens

Not surprisingly, these are called waterlily crocus.

I'm always inspired by the layering and variety of textures I see in gardens. But, of course, It never looks quite the same when I try it.

A possible idea for another way to do our split rail fence.

These naranjilla leaves had spikes on both the top and bottom of the leaves. 

Ward and Theo examining the allium sculpture.

The Arboretum:

Maple trees

We could hear frogs in this pond.

Theo at Newman's Overlook

Birch trees

Taughannock State Park:

There were other falls along the way to the tall ones.

Where the stream was shallow, there were expanses of rock exposed.

Taughannock Falls

Lake Cayuga

Purity Ice Cream:

Travel Log to the Finger Lakes, Day 1, 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes

It's dark now, and we're enjoying a quiet evening here in our cabin in the woods. Wally has taken the car to meet friends, and Ward, Theo, and I are working puzzles and eating pizza. We are on a short vacation together in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A rare treat because coordinating the schedules of four adults is not easy.

We left Friday morning with Theo in charge of the day. He drove, and our first stop was in Harrisburg, PA, to visit the State Museum of PA. We were lucky to time our stop between two school visits, so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We have gone to many museums, and this was definitely one of the better ones. After lunch at a nearby hamburger place, we continued on our way.

The next stop was the Tioga Reservoir along the PA and NY border. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the advertised bald eagles, but we enjoyed the stop anyway. Then we continued onto our final destination outside of Ithaca, NY,  arriving at dinner time. When people heard we were coming to this area, they all had a recommendation for where we had to eat. But we were tired and hungry, and the restaurants were crowded, so we found our own place--a tasty Mexican restaurant.

Then on to our VRBO cabin in the woods, which is about 10 miles out of town. It is a nice cabin that the owner vacated for us to rent. It feels strange to be staying in the middle of all of her stuff without her being here, but I guess that's how business is done these days. 

Today we went to Watkins Glen State Park. It is at the southern end of Lake Seneca, one of the larger Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes are a series of 11 long skinny lakes that were scoured out by glaciers and dammed up by glacial debris (terminal moraines) forming the lakes. Hiking the Watkins Glen gorge was the main impetus for this trip. It was something that Ward did with his family when he was little, and he wanted to do it again.

The gorge was formed from a hanging stream left from the glaciers. This hanging stream (Glen Creek) deeply eroded the area forming the gorge. The trail was narrow in places, and the crowds sometimes made it difficult to maneuver. However, the scenery and 19 waterfalls along the way made it worth it. We hiked the rim trail above the gorge on the way back. Fewer people chose this route, making the trek quite enjoyable.

Then we went in search of a better view of Seneca Lake. This lead us to accidentally find the US Salt mines and processing plant. Very interesting, but it was not open to the public, so we had to move on. Finally, we found the pier and docks of Lake Seneca in Watkins Glen and took a short walk along the shore. We contemplated taking a boat ride on the lake, but it was windy and cold, so the idea became much less appealing.

We were back in Ithaca for a late lunch at the Ithaca Bakery - one of the recommended places to eat, and it did not disappoint. Then, after a quick stop at Aldi's for supper fixings, we returned to our cabin in the woods. And I think this is where I started.

A few pictures.

The museum was next to the PA state capitol building.

The museum covered all parts of Pennsylvania's history, both natural and social. While Ward was studying Pennsylvania's early charters and constitutions, I was scoping out some things invented in PA, like the Slinky and the banana split.

The Tioga Reservoir was actually two lakes that were connected through this channel.

You could walk behind some of the waterfalls in the gorge.

Bridges were built across the stream in several places.

Glen Creek was eroding through mostly horizontal layers of shale and limestone.

The hardest part of the rim trail was all of the steps at the end, which were not kind to our knees.

Lake Seneca is one of the deepest lakes in the US, at 618' deep.

Ward and Theo were bracing against the wind on their walk along a jetty. While Theo had short sleeves, I had three layers, and we were both cold.

Until next time...