It's Party Time!

By the time you read this, I'll be totally and permanently moved to the farm. But I wanted to show these moments with some wonderful people. Many of the folks I knew when we all volunteered at a local animal shelter threw me a going away party at a little park, a part of historic Fort Crailo, on the shores of the Hudson River:

We were just getting started when this historic ship made its way up the Hudson. I thought it was the Half Moon, but was told it was actually the OnRust. Both are faithful reproductions of Dutch Ships which plied the waters of the Hudson in the very early 1600s. You can read more about each of them by clicking on the links:

There was a magnificent cake and snack foods, balloons and lots of talk of dog rescue missions, past and present, happy and sad:

Notice the cake decoration. It's the farm house and barn, taken from a photo on this blog!

It was a most pleasant assemblage and, happily, they'd arranged to be sure we'd have a canopy because it rained lightly the whole afternoon:

I took a time out to admire the Albany skyline , or at least part of it, which was visible just across the Hudson River:

There was a little singing and then we ate the delicious cake. Then there was packing up, saying good bye and everyone went home:

I brought home lots of cake leftovers which the dogs smelled and begged for (unsuccessfully). But the big hit of the night was the floating balloons which trailed ribbons beneath them. Both Bramble and Draco got involved:

Bramble was especially happy to have such moving, interactive toys:

And I received a Bobble-head RCA Nipper in honor of my previous blog posts which you see, if you are so inclined, here, here and here. This Nipper now sits on my kitchen counter facing the door and greeting anyone who enters:

Part 2 - The Fire Tower On Beebe Hill

The hike up Beebe Hill to the fire tower was quite brief, less than 1.5 miles, and it wasn't long before I spotted the caretaker's cabin up ahead with the fire tower itself rising up behind it:

A man with two little girls and a small dog arrived at the same time we did. He told me that he hadn't brought a leash for his dog and didn't want her interacting with mine, so I said I'd wait by the caretaker's cabin while he and his girls went on ahead to the fire tower. While I was waiting with my dogs on a leash, a friendly family of six adults arrived to explore the tower for themselves:

I tied Seamus and Fergus at the bottom of the fire tower:

And Clover and Daphne to the other side. I didn't want any of them attempting to follow me up those steps:

And then I began ascending the fire tower. As I climbed, the caretaker's cabin began to look smaller and smaller down below. The Taconic Mountains formed an attractive backdrop:

One couple did not want to climb the tower, so they waited on the ground for the rest of their party, by now at the top of the fire tower. My dogs were barking for attention and by time I arrived back down on ground level, this couple had made friends with all four dogs:

And the view from the top was superb, clearer than I'd ever seen it before. I could clearly see the windmills atop Brodie Mountain and Mount Greylock in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Alas, the photo doesn't show enough detail to be of much help, but even my aging eyes were able to clearly see the windmills' details. I couldn't, however, make out the tower atop Mount Greylock:

The towers of the Empire State Plaza in Albany rose up above the trees like the city of Oz in the distance, about 40 miles away:

I enlarged and cropped the above photo to help illustrate what I so clearly saw on that sunny afternoon. Because most of Albany's downtown sits down in a valley, only the Empire State Plaza (and sometimes the State University towers) are usually visible from mountaintops. Can't you just imagine Dorothy, Toto and friends following the yellow brick road toward that city in the distance?:

And the rolling hills of the Hudson Valley stretched out below us in another direction:

Seamus and Fergus looked quite tiny down on the ground below:

I had a nice conversation about hiking with a man from Pittsfield, Massachusetts as we stood at the top of the fire tower enjoying the view. But it was windy and my dogs were anxious, so I began to descend the stairs to continue the hike back to the trail head:

Long Distance Urban Views

I was on my way to the gym one frigid January afternoon when I saw the modern Rensselaer/Albany (NY) Amtrak Station just ahead. Smoke stacks billowed steam in the background and I just had to pull over and snap a picture:

And from where I was standing I could also look directly east across the Hudson River to downtown Albany. That "bridge" spanning left to right is Broadway (in Rensselaer) as it crosses the Amtrak yard. Those are locomotives parked below it:

I went to the gym and the grocery store but took a different route home. When I saw the Albany skyline ahead once again I stopped for a photo. That boxy white building on the left is the New York State Museum and the other white marble buildings are collectively the Empire State Plaza. The Egg, a performance venue, is clearly visible on the right, appearing next to the light pole in this picture:

And turning my camera to the southwest, I snapped a picture of the Port Of Rensselaer, an industrial area on the eastern shore of the Hudson River:

One last photo of the Albany skyline and then I hopped back into my car to warm up. There wasn't any snow on that day but it sure was cold!:

Albany In The Distance

It was a fine December day with very little snow on the ground and I was driving to Wal-Mart to do my weekly shopping. But when I saw the Albany skyline deep down in the Hudson River Valley below, I just had to stop and snap a few photos:

I cropped this photo so that you could see some detail. That boxy building on the left is the State Museum and towers are the Empire State Plaza, of which The Egg is a part. To the far right is a black tower and there's a white spot just to the right of it. That's Nipper, the RCA dog:

Winter Beauty

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago in mid-December. Our roses had kept blooming due to our warm start to winter. But after an overnight snowfall, I found them still red and pink beneath their coating of wintry white:

These lovely buds were only inches from the ground after their branches were bowed down with the weight of the snow and ice:

But the hardy leaves were still growing and still green:

Rose hips generally persist right through even the coldest of winters, at least if they don't get eaten:

And they sure are pretty:

A few individual flowers just sort of fell apart. Some drooped, and some revived as soon as the snow melted. This has, as of this writing, sure been a mild winter:

My little potted mini-roses also stood right up to the snow and ice. They appear to be every bit as hardy as I'd hoped. I like to think I can move them up to the farm some day when I retire:

And that evening, just a block or so from my house, I caught the sun setting over Albany's skyline across the Hudson River:

It was a lovely and serene landscape, quite different than the wintry beauty one might usually find in mid-December. This world is filled with wonder and glory. We only need to be mindful to see it:

Adorning The Sky

I was on my way to church one fine Sunday morning and driving through the city of Albany. As I passed the Albany County Family Court building, I noticed the replica of the Hudson River explorer, the Half Moon, adorning the sky over its dome:

Here's a close up. Albany is chock full of such ornaments, and also ornate church spires and other such architectural wonders. I began to formulate an idea for a photographic tour of such beauties against a clear summer sky, but for the time being would content myself with a few of them I'd pass on my way:

A historic spire in downtown Albany is always covered with a sort of green fabric:

It always looks like a condom to the fifth grader in me. I suppose that its real function is to protect pedestrians from falling debris as this is a very old building:

The beautiful brownstone spire of the Albany City Hall, next door to the marble Court Of Appeals, contains a renowned carillon:

Close up, you can see that it also has a lot of ornate detail:

St. Peter's Church, one of the many by that name, has an odd asymmetrical spire:

I think the Hunchback of Notre Dame would have been right at home up there:

Another church which I pass by frequently has a very large trumpeting angel atop its spire:

Close up, you can see the detail:

I was almost at my destination when I passed by the New York State Capitol. It certainly has lots of ornamentation in addition to multiple spires:

A close up reveals some of the fancy detail: