2017 Saranac Lake, NY Ice Palace

Perhaps my favorite local yearly event is the Saranac Lake, NY Winter Carnival. I arrived this year on the very first day and found that nothing was up and running yet except for the ice palace. That was OK with me, since it's my favorite part. I parked and entered the building site on the edge of frozen Lake Flower, my first view of the rear of the palace:

 But first I had to go see the ice lean-to, which honored the traditional Adirondack structure. This was the first year I'd seen a lean-to::

 I walked out onto frozen Lake Flower to snap a photo of the front of the lean-to. There was a pile of wood in front of it, just as campers might supply the real forest versions. I supposed they kept fires burning during the night:

 And also honoring the Adirondacks were two ice sculptures of Adirondack chairs for visitors to sit in:

 I walked from the lean-to toward the rear of the ice palace. Notice the crawl hole for children:

 The structures on the rear were mazes. This year I didn't fully investigate them, though I have in the past:
 

 I walked around to the side entrance and saw lots of other visitors already exploring the interior of the ice palace:

 In the rear were two thrones, for the Winter Carnival King and Queen:

 Behind the thrones were buck and doe ice sculptures, with a fawn between them:

 And off to one side was a giant ice beaver, perhaps eight feet long:

 And two howling wolves, next to a crawl hole for children:

 I took the adult tunnel, which led out to front exterior of the ice palace:

 There it was explained that this year's theme was "Adirondack Wildlife." A giant ice bear stood on each side of the entrance doorway and an ice eagle perched on the top:

 The two bears were popular for taking pictures:

 The smaller bear was kind of cute:

 Outside, by the road, was a gigantic moose:

 And that was the end of my ice palace tour. I had to walk around to the back of it again to get to my car. Maybe next year I'll bring Seamus with me. I see dogs there every year:

Part 2 - Owl's Head Quilts

I'd made a purchase at the Owl's Head Quilt and Gift store in Keene, and then asked if I could take pictures for my blog (see yesterday's post). This is a continuation of my photo tour of the store. They had a whole section of quilts for babies:

And pink teddy bears:

And blue teddy bears:

And quilted teddy bears:

Braided rugs and mats:

Adirondack soaps:

Outside were Adirondack themed furniture, throws, weather vanes and a giant stuffed moose:

Adirondack bentwood rockers and pack baskets:

Throw pillows with such Adirondack images as bears, loons, pines and dragonflies:

And Adirondack chairs galore:

Locally produced jams and jellies:

Maple syrup and Adirondack soaps:

This chair, presumably made from a gnarled tree root, was certainly a one of a kind. But I'd made my purchase and taken a photo tour. The dogs waited anxiously in the car and were barking for me to hurry up. So I said good bye to the owner and continued on my journey home. And if you'd like to see more, the website for both Owl's Head stores is here:

Beginning A Driving Tour on Route 11B - Dickinson, New York

I'd arrived at the farm on a Sunday afternoon and everything looked great. But the weather was lovely and there was lots of day left so I decided to drive to Malone, New York and take a photo tour. I set out on Route 11B headed east. The tenant was home with her brand new baby, so I took Seamus, Fergus, Daphne and Clover with me to keep them from waking the baby with their barking. I left old Wally and Winky in the apartment to snooze. I headed out of Nicholville on Route 11B, passing first through Dickinson, New York:

Dickinson is real farm country and the scenery was superb:

I was enjoying the homes and barns along the way. Taking photos for this blog has surely helped open my eyes to the beauty and interesting places all around me:

Apparently Route 11B sits high up on a ridge as I could see all the way out across the St. Lawrence Seaway to Canada from many places along the way. Many homes, including the one in the above photo, looked out over Canada. The photo below doesn't show all the detail of real life, but I could see Canadian buildings and farm fields way off in the distance:

Barns and homes were spread out along the highway:

I passed by an old cemetery:

And more stately old farm homes, this one built with brick and an interesting wooden deck where its owner could sit in an Adirondack chair and watch the (rather sparse) traffic go by:

I saw more than one roadside stand advertising homegrown honey. Apparently this is a beekeeping mecca:

Most of the old farm houses were large, perhaps because farm families were usually big and multi-generational:

More old barns and silos. I'd only planned to take photos in Malone, but the scenery was so entrancing along Route 11B that I couldn't resist. I'll post more tomorrow: