Graduation Day, 2014

17/365

Well...the grandson graduated today.  I'm not quite sure how that could have happened.  It seems like only a few years ago that I was baby-sitting him when he was still pre-school.  And yet, here we are, on graduation day.  Oh dear.

He was an easy-going baby, a spirited but compliant toddler, a hard-working and conscientious student and he is now one of the nicest young people I know.  

It was a bittersweet day. 

Comfort Food

16/365

When I think of comfort food, I think spaghetti, chili, burgers/fries, chicken fricasse (I think that's spelled wrong, but I can't find the correct spelling).  But today I got the idea to make chicken cutlets, which, upon reflection, was one of my favorite foods when I was growing up, and therefore a comfort food for me.  We didn't necessarily have rice or broccoli salad with it, but it doesn't matter what the side dishes are, the cutlets themselves are soooo good.

The main reason I wanted to make this is that I wanted to take photos of it.  That and the meat was already thawed out so I had to do something with it!

Okay, now it's time for dinner.

Once Upon a Time...

15/365

Once upon a time there was a great little roadside farm stand not too far from my house--actually, it was right on one of the routes I could take to get to town.  It had been there for years and years.  They sold the most amazing produce.  I stopped there at least every other day throughout the summer and well into the Fall.

They grew their own corn and I have never tasted better corn on the cob than theirs.

Well, once upon a time there was a storm, unlike any that had hit our area before.  It rained and rained and the floods came and the waters rose and continued to rise until--devastation and destruction.  Some homes were lost, others were seriously damaged, one person lost his life and Pine's Farm stand was destroyed.

You might be thinking, "well, it's only a farm stand and compared to the homes and the one life that was lost, it's a small thing in the big scheme".  You're right.  But....it was an icon.  One that used to draw people from miles around, and it was, after all, the livelihood of the family that owned it.

So even after all theses years, I still miss it. Others do too.  Every spring you'll hear someone say, "gee, I wish Pine's was still around".  This spring was no different.

Rural Upstate NY

14/365

Late this afternoon I got a great idea for a food photograph that I want to work on in the morning.  It requires ice-cream, so I decided to go to Stewarts tonight...

I figured out that I also needed eggs and milk, not for the photo, but just because....

As I was driving down the hill, I noticed a sign for eggs at the farm stand.  I turned around. I wondered if there were any eggs at the stand so late in the afternoon when I noticed the mini-fridge.  Sure enough, there was one dozen eggs left along with some cans of soda and water and a money can. Payment by the honor system.

I continued down to Stewarts.  When I asked for a hand-packed pint of my favorite ice-cream, they said they were OUT!!  Working really hard not to hyperventilate, I asked if they could call the store on Rt 5S to see if they had any--I wanted to drive over there but not if they didn't have it.  They had no clue which store I was talking about--go figure.  I decided to drive there and take a chance.

So, in addition to the 5 miles I drove to the first store, I drove 10 more to the second store and then about 12 more to get home.  It was a very expensive and time consuming pint of ice-cream, to be sure.

But I have to tell you, it was worth it.

Whoever came up with this flavor is brilliant.  Kudos to him/her.

Another Trip to Chinatown

8/365

My friend, Jackie, and I decided to make another trip to Chinatown today.  We got there pretty early while it was still cool and not too crowded.  We both did a lot of random shooting.  It surprises me that every time we go there, we manage to find something interesting to shoot, but I think that's pretty true of any street photography--things are different minute by minute and all you have to do is keep your eyes open and be aware of what's going on around you.  

We found a couple of very colorful doors.  We just stood on the street across from the doors and waited for people to walk by.  I've only posted a selection of the ones I took of this green doorway because I didn't want to overload you with such similar images.

After making our usual stop at our favorite Starbucks we drove over Magic Island just to see if there would be anything interesting.  Usually there isn't in the middle of the day, but we took a chance.  There were 4 different bride/groom couples having their photos taken.  This couple was really fun, but I think it was partly to do with the photographer--he kept giving them suggestions for fun things to do.  

Lesson Day

13/365

It's been a while.  A long while.  I'd have a difficult time saying why I haven't posted, but it seems like the time just gets away from me.

I found out about halfway through the day today that the grandkids were scheduled for a horseback riding lesson.  The girl was taking lessons last Fall and she started again this spring with her brother, but this is the first one I heard about so I jumped at the chance to be there and get a few photos.

They both did so well.  Even though their expressions are very somber because of all the concentrating they were doing, they really had fun.

After horseback riding lesson, soccer.  I was glad to get home tonight, it was a busy day.