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SNAP: The Moon

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Tracy’s family rents a cottage each summer on one of the Finger Lakes. This year it’s on Honeoye Lake, and luckily, a week for the full moon. Here are four shots taken on two different nights, checking off #13 on Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt.

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These are not the best shots of the moon I’ve ever taken, but I’m really quite happy with them, since they were all handheld shots. Better than I expected. I’m hoping to have the tripod ready tomorrow night. After tomorrow, the moon rise gets pretty late, and we drive the hour home every night. Plus the moon will be waning after tonight. Linking up with Helena for another week of SNAP sets. You can find others right here.

Memorandum Monday

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It’s been a few weeks since I could truly say I’d done something new over the weekend. But this weekend, friends of ours met us in Buffalo, NY to visit and tour the Darwin Martin House, one of Frank Lloyd Wrights early architectural projects. Darwin Martin was an executive in Buffalo at the turn of the century and hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for his family. It’s a beautiful place, with several buildings on over an acre of land. Over time, the foundation has restored much of the home, but the work is still ongoing. Much of the interior of the main house is still under restoration, and next summer they are planning to install all the gardens that were originally part of the plan. Wright was also the landscape architect. 

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This is a view of the main house, part of the pergola which connects the main house to a beautiful conservatory, and the covered porch on the left. The pergola and conservatory were dismantled by subsequent owners in the 1950’s and part of the property was sold off. An apartment building was constructed across the back of the property. In the early 1990’s a corporation was formed to restore the house which had sat empty for many years. Shortly thereafter, the apartment building went up for sale, and was purchased by the foundation. The apartment building was taken down, and the pergola and the conservatory as well as the stables have been reconstructed using Wright’s detailed plans. They have done a remarkable job, as I would have been unaware that they were relatively new constructions.

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Here’s the view of the pergola from the other side. I didn’t get a photo of the conservatory, and no photos inside the complex are allowed.

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A closer view that lets you see the remarkable detail and many angles that reflect Wright’s prairie style. The house and most of the complex were originally built between 1903 and 1905. 

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In addition to the main house, the pergola, the conservatory, and the stables two other buildings are on the property. A much smaller home that was built for Darwin Martin’s sister and her family and the house above, which was the gardener’s cottage, built in 1909. Neither Martin nor his wife came from wealthy families. Martin made his fortune as an executive with the Larkin Company. The Martin’s treated their help more as members of the family than servants. One of the chauffeur’s daughters was married in their home.

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Wright is known for his beautiful windows. These are the windows in the gardener’s cottage. I’ll count these as #12 in Rinda’s Summertime Scavenger Hunt–a window.

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Another view of the windows, and finally, another gorgeous window near the front door of the main house. The windows in each of the buildings are a different design, but consistent throughout that building.

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We had a wonderful docent for our 90 minute tour, and we all agreed we’d like to return in two years to see the completed restoration of the interior as well as the extensive gardens that were part of the original plan. 

After our tour and lunch at a lovely little restaurant nearby, our friends drove on to Michigan to visit their daughter. Tracy and I decided to go to Buffalo’s newly restored Outer Harbor and Canalside.  I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. It’s a lovely parklike area, but there isn’t much to do there unless you’re interested in military history, water parks, or fast food. 

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We did walk along the river and I got a couple photos, and one more photo for the scavenger hunt (alternative #1), a lighthouse. (I expect to find a better example for this one in August when we’re on vacation.)

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Waving to Sian and other friends who are posting for Memorandum Monday!

 

5 in 5: July

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Last month, I missed the linky for Sandi’s monthly meme: 5 in 5: five photos shot within a five minute time frame. Kindly, Sandi linked me up after the fact, but I was determined to be more timely this month. In June, most of the photos were from the gardens surrounding our patio.  Last night when we came home from dinner, the light was just right so I went out to my cutting garden in our lower yard to take some photos. It takes awhile in western New York for the flowers to get established. The cutting garden is about 85% perennials, and 15% annuals this year. I always plant a patch of zinnias, and usually some snapdragons. The goal is to have flowers to cut and bring inside all summer long.

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I love the Shasta daisies. They bloom almost all summer long, and always look great in an arrangement.

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Last year a critter ate all of my lupine plants, so I am thrilled to have four lupines one of which is always blooming this summer.

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Last year, I bought some plant identity signs and carefully added all the plants’ names to them. Despite the assurance that the ink was permanent, it turned out not to be, and I no longer know for sure what this beautiful orange flower is. I’m guessing someone who’s a finer gardener than I am will be able to identify it.

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We have lots of astilbe in our shade garden, and although it provides some color there, it is much more beautiful in this garden where it gets more sunlight.

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And finally, one of my lovely zinnias.

I thought I’d add one last photo, not part of the 5 in 5 to show you the vase that’s currently on the kitchen table. There’s another arrangement in the living room as well.

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Linking up to Sandi at itchifingers where you can find other 5 in 5 sets.

SNAP: Strawberries

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I think strawberries might be my favorite fruit, at least when they’re fresh from the farm market. Years ago we used to pick our own, but the local farm stand has fresh strawberries from their fields every day, so I’m willing to pay a little extra for not having to do the work. I’m pretty sure my knees thank me. On Saturday I bought four quarts and froze three of them. It was so easy, I went to the farm market at Brighton High School on Sunday and bought four more quarts to freeze. I thought they’d make a good SNAP collection, red being my favorite color.

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It’s a “steps in the process” SNAP:  cleaning the fruit, drying it on paper towels, then slicing the strawberries and sprinkling them with super fine sugar. Finally, they are vacuumed sealed and popped into the freezer. There are seven bags in there. Not too sure how long they’ll last! The farmer at the market on Sunday said the dry, hot weather we’ve been having has shortened the season. I’m hoping to buy two more fresh quarts near the weekend, before Sarah, Adam, and Caleb arrive, but if not, we can still indulge in strawberry shortcake.

I’m linking up with Helena and her wonderful meme of three or four linked photos: SNAP.

5 in 5: June Edition

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We’ve spent a lot of time in the yard and on the patio the last few days. Tracy’s done a lot of transplanting, and clearing out in our overgrown shade garden, and it’s looking really nice. I’m the mulcher, and I have about half of it done. Today is too hot and humid to be outside for long. We got a little (much needed) rain overnight, but it didn’t cool things down at all, and the humidity is worse than ever. When I saw Sandi’s post for 5 in 5 this morning, I knew that taking some photos in the yard would be a good solution to getting this meme done before the calendar turns to July this coming weekend. Where does the time go? 

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If you’re standing in the middle of our patio looking to the back property line, this is the right-hand side of our garden. You can see beyond it the lower yard, which Tracy has just started to clean out. Shade loving plants are the ones that do well here:  Japanese ferns, ferns, hostas, astilbe, some hydrangeas, and some peonies to the right where there is more sun.

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This is the left side, many of the same plants, and our fountain which I should have turned on before I started taking photos.

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To the side of our house in the lower yard, I have a perennial/annual bed. Last year some animal ate every one of my lupines. I was so sad, but replaced them this year, and we are spraying our anti-deer spray regularly. This is the latest bloom, although we’ve had several of different colors already.

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Next to the house along the patio we have a bed with five large geraniums. I love that they bloom all summer, so no matter how my potted flowers are doing at any moment, there is always some good color. This year we have three of these beauties, and two solid pink ones the same color as the darker pink in this flower.

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Last, a Martha Washington geranium in a pot on the patio. I brought it back from a garden store in Evanston, IL when we were helping Sarah get plants for her patio. I loved the colors, and was afraid I wouldn’t find one locally. But, in fact, I saw one just the other day when I was buying some strawberries at the farm market.

I’m linking these up with Sandi’s 5 in 5 meme where you take as many photos as you’d like in 5 minutes, and choose 5 of them. I think I took 16 photos this morning. It was a snap, snap, snap event!

 

SNAP: Eastman Vibes

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Once a month during the summer, the Eastman Museum hosts a concert in their beautiful gardens. Last Wednesday was the first one. The group was from Louisiana playing cajun tunes, so it was a lively event. In the first photo, you can see the band on the right, and members of the audience dancing on the left. We arrived just as the gates were suppose to open, but judging from the crowd that had already chosen their spots, it must have opened early. We were lucky, though, to run into friends as we came in, and enjoyed their company as well as the music.

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All the photos were taken with my iPhone so there aren’t any close-ups of the band. I did try to get photos from different perspectives which give you a sense of the crowd and the beautiful grounds at the Eastman Museum. You can purchase a meal from a food truck at the museum, or bring your own, which is always our choice. A bottle of wine is also encouraged, and we are happy to oblige. It makes for a very pleasant evening.

Linking up with Helena, as always, the gracious hostess of SNAP!

SNAP: Stairs

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Helena set up a wonderful meme for this year:  three or four related photos. I’m really enjoying participating each week, and usually have several photos from the previous week to link together. There were no particular photographic events last week, so I looked to a list I made early on of possible subjects. One of several subjects I often choose to photograph is stairs, so I looked back over the last few month, and relatively quickly came up with:

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The top two photos were taken in March at the Art Institute in Chicago, the bottom left in New Orleans in April, and the one on the bottom right at the Eastman Museum here in Rochester in February.

 

SNAP: Poppies

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Monday I shared a photo from the Eastman Museum’s beautiful garden. I was particularly taken with the red poppies which sometimes are a challenge to photograph. This time I had enough good ones to share for Helena’s SNAP meme which asks for three or four related photos.

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It’s interesting to me how different the greens look depending on the angle (and therefore, the light) of the photograph. Off to see the other SNAP collections for the week.

SNAP: The Poet’s Garden (Spring Edition)

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In February (SNAP #5) I posted photos of a walk through the Poet’s Garden in Highland Park, and I promised to do another walk through this spring. I must say, it’s a lot lovelier in the spring than it was in February. I ought to go again this winter when there’s snow, and see what it’s like then.

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I told a bit about the garden in my previous post, but here’s a link to an article about the garden which was first planted in 1916 to honor William Shakespeare. Thanks, as always, to Helena who’s hosting this meme each week featuring three or four linked photos.

SNAP: The Lilacs

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It was a bit belated, but the lilacs are finally in bloom at Highland Park. I’ve made a couple more trips to the park to take photos, not only of the lilacs, but of the festival since there were a couple of requests to know a bit more about the Lilac Festival itself. First, this week’s SNAP collection—thanks again to Helena for hosting this meme of three or four related photos every week.

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This years festival was the 118th Lilac Festival. It’s held every year at Highland Park designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead and planted with over 1200 lilacs representing over 500 different varieties. It’s grown over the last 40 years that I’ve lived here, and there are more and more special events, activity booths, food tents and trucks, as well as the children’s ride area. The first weekend of the festival is the parade. This past weekend was the 5K and 10K runs. There’s live music nearly all day, every day, and into the evening. Tracy’s brother played the first night of the festival. He came in from Austin, TX and played with two other musicians from his very popular band of the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

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The pansy bed is always an attraction. Every year it’s planted in a different design.

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Most of the tents and activities take place in the park across the street from the lilac bushes, the magnolias, and other flowering plants and trees.

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Cornell Cooperative Extension always has a plant sale. This year there were lilacs (of course), hydrangeas, peonies, a variety of succulents and other perennial plants.

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This is the area where the activity and informational booths are set up. Just up this path a ways was the Artful Fairy booth where Skylar made her fairy garden.

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Thursday morning when we walked over, one of the high school bands was setting up to play. Professional bands that draw big crowds are scheduled for the weekend evening slots.

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The one area I didn’t get to this year was the craft fair which is set up on the two weekends. The first weekend we were busy with the parade and the fairy garden, and last weekend was cold and rainy so we decided to pass. 

I’ll leave you with a few photographs of the flowering trees and lilacs.

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SNAP: On the Slide

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When I edited the photos Sunday night from the Lilac Festival Parade, I realized I had a great set of photos of Matt, Skylar, and Ella on one of the “rides” at the Lilac Festival.

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We knew Skylar would love the slide. It was her first choice. We weren’t so sure about Ella, and about half way down she looked rather uncertain. There’s a good little “bump” in the slide that gives you a bit of a surprise. By the time she got to the bottom, she was hooked and wanted to go right back up to the top, which they did!

Linking up with Helena, as always on Wednesday for the SNAP collections.

There were a couple requests for more information about the Lilac Festival. I’ll be back with that! 

SNAP: Spring Flowers

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The days seem to be flying by! How can it be Wednesday already? I went off in search of some spring flowers yesterday. It’s been rainy and cool for days on end it seems, and we finally had a sunny afternoon. The annual Lilac Festival begins on Friday at Highland Park. The festival draws thousands of visitors, many from out of town. If they’ve booked for the first of the two weeks, I’m afraid they’ll be disappointed. There were hardly any buds on the lilacs yet, and nothing in full bloom. There isn’t any moderation in temperature in the forecast either, which would certainly help. 

But all is not lost, the magnolias are blooming as are the spring bulbs, and we found one azalea blooming already.

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I’m linking up with Helena’s meme, SNAP, featuring three or four photos that create a set. Hoping next week to be back with lilacs from the festival!

SNAP: Colorful

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We took Caleb to the Skokie Exploratorium while we were in Chicago. I’m always looking for an interesting shot that’s a bit different and colorful, and took the first shot (top left) in the Week 15 collage there. Afterwards when I was editing the photos from the trip, I remembered taking a photo at the Strong Museum when we took Caleb and Skylar (photo bottom right). After looking through Lightroom, I came up with two more photos to make a SNAP collection for this week. The magnetic “blocks” were taken in Chicago a year or so ago, and the wooden blocks in our living room one night when Skylar was playing with them. 

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This one makes me happy. It’s been a gray, cold, wintery week here, though it’s supposed to improve soon. Linking up with Helena for this week’s SNAP collections.

SNAP: A Day in Chicago

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Tracy and I took the train into Chicago last week to see the current exhibition, “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms,” at The Art Institute. Van Gogh painted three variations of his bedroom in his yellow house in Arles, and this may be the first time they’ve been hung together. It’s certainly the first time a museum has created a exhibition focusing on them, and it was fascinating. I learned a lot about his life from the exhibition as well as enjoying the paintings. I was surprised that taking photographs was allowed. The first photo in the collage is the first known self-portrait Van Gogh painted. The second one is actually a digital projection of the three bedroom paintings which zoom in and out showing the differences between the three paintings. 

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After a delicious lunch at The Gage, we strolled up Michigan Avenue. I loved the yellow sight-seeing boat that was taking off down the river as we walked across the bridge. A friend told us about Eataly, so we stopped to check it out. It’s a wonderland of Italian eateries and food shops. I took quite a few photos, but my favorite was this display of cookbooks. I wished we weren’t so full from lunch, because the gelato looked delicious. Michigan Avenue is lined with exclusive shops and department stores, but we didn’t do any shopping. We walked almost to the end of the avenue, and although we were just short of getting our 10,000 steps for the day, decided to take the bus back to the train station. In less than half an hour, we were back in Evanston. Now that we know how easy it is to get in and out of the city, we’ll be planning more excursions when we come to visit Sarah and Adam.

SNAP: Easter

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Celebrating Easter in Chicago is always fun. Sarah’s church in Winnetka is lovely, and the service is always beautiful. Caleb’s Cherub Choir sang during the service, and the weather was good enough that the Easter egg hunt could be held outside. When we got home from lunch, Caleb got the first of eight clues (drawn by his talented father) for a scavenger hunt to find his Easter basket. He couldn’t wait to begin. I have lots of great photos which will eventually show up in my project life pages, but for now here’s a collection for Helena’s meme: SNAP.

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We’re spending today in the city. For all our trips to Chicago, we usually spend all our time on the North Shore. There’s an exhibit at the Art Institute I’m anxious to see, and I’m hoping to get to a few other sights as well. The weather is somewhat iffy, so we’ll see how it goes.