Montezuma's Last Stand...at least for this year

Saturday Max and I made one last trip to Montezuma, encouraged by a newspaper article and photos showing flocks of snow geese and great egrets. Much to our dismay we saw none of those. Much to our pleasure we saw seven bald eagles. There were lots and lots - and lots - of geese. The light was great and the colors were stunning.

Experiments with light and shadow

I never really learned artistic technique in school. Art class was not my forte. So now I'm trying to learn some of the basics. Here are a few photos where I tried to take advantage of natural light and shadows.

Understanding the wooly bear

I spotted this wooly bear trying to cross the highway on my way to Indian Lake on Sunday. Tell me - what do his stripes tell you? I've heard three versions:

--- When I was growing up, I always learned that the lighter the brown band, the milder the winter. Ergo, this little fella is telling us we'll have a nice mild winter.

---A few years ago someone told me that the stripes indicated the length of the winter as well so this wooly would be telling us that we'd have harsh weather for the first part of the season, followed by a long mild stretch and ending in another short stretch of bad weather before spring. (FYI - this guy's head is on the right).

---Just last week a second grade teacher insisted that the three bands indicated three seasons, hence, according to Mr. Wooly Bear, we will have an average-length fall, a long winter, and a short spring.

Which one is it?

What is this?

Click on the picture to open it in a separate window so you can get a really good look. Then tell me what you think.

Autumn in the Adirondacks

I left home early Sunday morning headed for what will likely be my last visit to the Adirondacks this year. The weather promised to be sunny but it sure didn't look that way at 7:30 am. Along the way I saw this red tailed hawk sitting in the top of a tree and admiring the fall scenery while he scanned the bushes for lunch.

By 11:30 I already had made several stops, taken lots of pictures, and arrived at the cabin Max was renting for the weekend in Indian Lake. We stopped to get a sub and sodas then headed north towards Tupper Lake via Blue Mountain and Long Lakes. The wind was cold and the sky was overcast but eventually the sun came out In Long Lake we saw this loon enjoying the brisk afternoon weather. He seemed to be having a good time and once even looked to be on his back preening his belly feathers. There was an eagle soaring not too far overhead - probably a bald eagle though we couldn't get a good enough look to be sure.

On the way home it was bright so I got a few good pictures of the fall colors. Somewhere near Poland I came upon this buck standing in someone's front yard. He seemed not to mind my attention, even doing me a great favor by striking a pose before he wandered on his way. I'm not sure where he came by the yellow "necklace" or whether he was wild or tame, but in Old Forge the deer are extremely tame, and I wasn't that far from Old Forge. It was a great day.

Celebrating Life

I attended my father-in-law's funeral this past week and saw several aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family that I hadn't seen in ages. "This is insane," I thought. "First it was weddings, baby showers, graduations, and now we only see our families at wakes and funerals." That was to be the subject of this post.
But as the idea simmered in my head I realized that these are exactly the times that we need our families and, yes, it would be great to see them at other times, but the reality is that we all have full plates, we are geographically scattered, and life gets by us faster than we might like.
So here is my new perspective: weddings, baby showers, graduations, wakes, funerals....these are our life celebrations. Yes, even wakes and funerals. At my father-in-law's funeral, we shared stories of the man we would always remember and the memories he left behind. When better to gather our families close and celebrate life?

They're playing where???

In my e-mail inbox this morning was this auto dealership promo:

Win A trip for 4 to see the Buffalo Bills play the New England Patriots in a Limo!
Now, I don't know about you, but I'd LOVE to see Tom Brady and his pals scrunched into a stretch limo with the Bills.....talk about your personal foul!