Life in the Bristolwood

We are still struggling, learning how to live without our little Angus, but today, I actually felt like taking some photos.  These are all taken within just a few miles of our house….(and some in our yard!)

I forewarned the family I was going off for a little photo shoot this morning, I was excited!

I got a later than planned start, but it was “that kind of day!”.  The skies were bright blue, the temperature, mellow, and the sunshine was generous! I don’t know if everyone feels like I do, but when I get a block of time to take pictures, I am so happy!

I stopped at a graveyard not too far from home to see the marker for one of our neighbors.  Barbara was such an amazing woman!  She seemed like nothing could get her down.  They had built a cute log house across the street from our house a few years before we moved here.  Barbara was always knitting something and she encouraged me to take up the needles!  She got sick a few years after we moved in and they moved to Henrietta.  Barbara began to suffer memory loss and slowly, she became totally at a loss….I cannot imagine her husband without her…..he loved her so dearly.

I didn’t have a huge amount of time, so I was off once again.  I did have to stop at a vineyard to take a photo of the remarkable grapes dangling in bunches like prize jewels!  Oh, how I love grapes!

Once again, I dared not linger, so off I went!  It is a shame not to have an entire day when everything was as beautiful as today!

I knew where my destination was, but wasn’t exactly sure how to get there!  As I drove down the country road, it soon became obvious that all I needed to do was follow “the trail”.  The area I refer to is Mennonite and Amish country.  Many Mennonite families have moved to this area and the houses, farms, and scenery are vastly improving! 

Soooo, you might be wondering,  What is she talking about?

I wanted to photograph this….

and this….

I didn’t photograph the church, but it is a large, plain white building.  It is surrounded on three sides by stalls where families “park” their horses and buggies.  It is so beautiful to see.  As I drove past the building this morning,  the doors were open to let the fresh air inside.  I could see a small room separating the sanctuary from the road outside.  On the dividing wall were pegs and the ladies hung their black bonnets there.

I believe this is a Mennonite church.  I am unsure how the Mennonites are divided.  I know the Amish have many “flavors” as one of my Amish friends says,  but I do think the Mennonites have Old Order and more progressive orders as well. 

I began making my way back homeward, but had made a mental note of a particular farm where I saw some miniature horses in a field.  I love horses and these were so little…they caught my eye and I wanted to see if I could capture a few pictures of them.  The farm where I saw them was a Mennonite farm, so I figured I could snap away without any problems.

As I was taking photos, I saw a figure walking toward me.  I looked up and saw a young fellow coming my way.  I told him I wanted to take some photos and he was agreeable.  As I snapped away, he talked about his little horses and told me all about them.  They belong to him and he absolutely loves them! He even told me about how he used one of them to take his two younger sisters to the schoolhouse up the road.

5 month old Firefly and Chess the mare

These horses are quite tiny….Chess, the older mare, cannot stand more than three feet tall!

As we talked, I could see the young man’s shepherd in the distance.  He told me she had puppies and when I asked to see them, he took me to the pen where they were kept.  OH MY!!!!!

Yeah..CUTE!  There were seven of them, total, but it is impossible to capture all of them together!  They were so sweet!

See that little pup in the center?  She was described by the young man as “comical” with her half and half face!  She was also the first of the pups to be claimed!  They will be going to their new homes this week as they are eight weeks old tomorrow.

The pups were kept in a very nice area near the barn and as I looked around, I saw little calves in pens.  Someone once told me these calves are designated “veal calves”, but when I asked,  the fellow told me no, they are isolated so they will not pick up any sicknesses or diseases from their mothers or any other animals in the herd.  He said they will be turned out with the others in a few months when they are strong and healthy.

My, they were so cute, too!

Two days old!

Five days old.

I had promised to be back home again around ten-thirty. As it was, I didn’t arrive back until eleven.  What a wonder-filled visit….totally unexpected, but so much fun!

Oh, and as an aside….the young man told me the reason he was not in church was because he was minding a cow that was going to calf today!  Ah, life on the farm….

This barn is one I have wanted to photograph for so long, but could never seem to get a good angle on it.  Today, I stopped along the road and was totally in awe of the blazing yellow goldenrod.  How could I not get a quick capture?

I had a busy day today, although some in the family would say I wasted my time.  Ah well. Such is life.

I would love to have captured a pretty Monarch I saw dancing through the field of gold, but I know the nature of those little “flutterbies”!  As soon as the camera is produced, they scoot! So, we shall settle for the poor broken barn!

Naw, that isn’t me rumbling and grumbling….it was my stomach last night.  More on that later, though.

The kids had planned to attend a music show down in Bath last night.  We decided to take them on down, then we would go for a little ride to Corning.  We left the house mid afternoon and after dropping the kids by the music store where the concert was held, we were off on a little ride.

We drove on down to the Corning WalMart where I went inside and got a few things.  We had taken the Expressway on the way there, so when I asked Mark if we could take the “road less traveled” on our way back, he checked the GPS and found another more scenic route.  We had stopped at a Burger King store and I had a hamburger and small onion rings and as we drove along, my stomach began to revolt.

Carly had called me earlier and told me about a terrible accident that had happened near Penn Yan. It seems there were thirteen Amish people in a van being driven by an “English” (anyone who is not Amish is called English by the Amish) driver.  The group had been invited by their county’s co-operative extension to visit some farms in Penn Yan to learn about ways to improve productivity.  The group had stopped in Penn Yan and had lunch in a park, then were heading north to visit another farm.

The van was driving along as a large piece of farm machinery (a piece that looks two stories tall) was approaching in the opposing lane.  It was moving slowly and a car behind it began to pass on a curve. (a definite no passing zone)  The car sideswiped the van, causing it to lose control as the driver tried to swerve, and the van ended up beneath the farm machinery.  Five of the Amish people were killed on the scene…reports were so heartwrenching about several ambulances and four helicopters arriving at the scene where firefighters worked for hours to free bodies from the wreckage.

This was such a sad accident…but then again,  isn’t an accident when something goes wrong or is miscalculated?  Well, the news today is that the driver of the car who caused this (and incidentally escaped unscathed) was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.  Today, a sixth person passed away…this was one of a couple who now leave behind thirteen children.  Thirteen orphans.  Would it be too much to demand that the man who caused this to happen pay child support for those children? Surely he would have to work many hours a week to do this and hopefully, would have less time to imbibe. His conscience will bring to memory the evil deed he committed, but to hit his pocketbook would be a stark reminder that he will never drink and drive again.

The news about this really freaked me out and made me upset.  Add to that the heat.  And the fact that perhaps the food I ate didn’t agree with me.  I had stomach cramps and was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Here are photos I took…

I love old barns and this one, with the golden grass in front was just beautiful!

As we pulled into Bath, we were greeted by a beautiful sky…the sun was playing peekaboo, hiding in and out of clouds!

We approached the little park in the town square and there were several old cars parked along the street there.  I got out and looked at them. One really caught my eye…

A 1957 Ford Fairlane!  My parents had one of these cars!  Ours was black and white.

Wow, as I looked inside this car, it brought back some memories! As I was taking pictures of the car,  the buildings in the background caught my eye.  Bath is located in Steuben County, and the old buildings are part of the county complex.

The kids finally called after ten, and we went and picked them up.  Mark stopped at McDonald’s so the kids could grab something quick to eat, then we headed home.  Although I felt horrible,  the ride home was not unbearable.  I was having some difficulty breathing, along with the stomach cramps, and then I began to get heartburn as well. 

When we got home, I headed right upstairs, feeling really sick.  I finally wound up vomiting and then felt better right away. Both of the kids came into the bedroom to tell me not to sleep on my back in case I got sick again.  I was fine and thought perhaps what I experienced was food poisoning since the symptoms left suddenly. 

Today was so hot, I could barely stand the heat.  Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse.  Oh, how I long for shorter days with chilly nights!

My kids have been doing the most creative and awesome things lately!

Michelle asked us for a Babycakes cupcake maker for Christmas, but I just could not do it.  Instead, I looked and looked around until I found a nice Wilton cake decorating set.  I thought Michelle might get more use from the set than from the cupcake maker that makes small cupcakes.  I thought perhaps I made a mistake at first,  unsure if she was going to use it.

Michelle is cut from the same cloth as I am.  Obviously, she has trouble getting projects started, or maybe just getting motivated, when there are people around.  So…yesterday, while we were getting new tires installed,  Michelle decided to get creative!

She did much of the decorating today, but as I opened the refrigerator last night, I was greeted by pink roses and a bag of green frosting!

There were little flowers on a tray on the counter!

As if this was not enough, our little baker went to town and made this today, as well. (She said it is a kinda Alice in Wonderland  theme!)

Michelle says that fondant on the cake must be kneaded, then stretched to fit over the cake.  I think she has done a pretty great job for her first two cakes!

Ben has been spending some time in the garage under Mark’s guidance, building a new bed for his room.  Since his room is very tiny by today’s standards,  he must really economize in his room.  The funny part of all this is that when friends come over for a party, they always seem to congregate in Ben’s tiny room.  So, we came up with a fairly slick arrangement!

Ben wavered some between wanting a loft bed and not.  As he worked on planning his room, he soon realized a loft bed would give him some more bang for his buck.  Mark and Ben went to work on building a solid bed that would hold the weight, but not overwhelm the room.

We all helped get the bed up into position so it could be mounted to the walls. Since Mark built the house, he was confident using the studs in the walls for mounting the frame of the bed.  The bed will be taken down and painted soon, but  Mark wanted Ben to give the new bed a whirl tonight.  Also, Mark is going to build a small headboard with shelves and a door for little things he would like to keep up there with him, like his Ipod and speakers for it.

Mark bought the futon under the bed so friends can sit on it to watch videos and such.  Ben is still trying to figure out what color he wants to paint the bad. He originally thought black, but is wondering if a charcoal gray might be better. He wants burgundy highlights, such as the sheets, curtains, and pillows.  I cannot wait until his room is complete. He has been waiting for this project for a long time.

After getting Ben’s bed up late this afternoon, I needed to take a package down to be picked up by UPS.  I thought since I was out, I would try out Mark’s new tires on the truck by going for a little ride.  The sky was glorious with clouds, but patches of blue and sunshine sparkling through.

Canandaigua Lake is just so beautiful, no matter what the season! I decided to take a jaunt to Woodville, so I turned down a little side road.  I have shown this barn before, but I really like the green wreaths and the sled added for Christmas.  It is so pretty!

I stopped briefly at the boat launch and marvelled at the beauty…yet again!  I would love to spend a day down here, as a  fellow from the marina just a stone’s throw away told me that the eagles come down and feed on the ice from time to time.  He said it is an awesome sight.  I have not seen the eagles since fall, but they do overwinter here.

I knew I could spend hours in Woodville, but needed to get back home.  I smiled as I passed by the garden in the side yard.  Everything is pretty buried under a mantle of white!

I looked back as I walked up the ramp behind the house…

The Jotul stove in the garage has a catalytic converter, which means it is smokeless, but some smoke does appear when it is reloaded.  I admired those blushing clouds above.  The moon was out too, playing peekaboo, hiding behind the clouds, then reappearing!

What a nice day this was.  Both of my creative kids are quite well-pleased.  Ah, the sense of satisfaction!

As Michelle and I were traveling toward Canandaigua,  I just had to pull over off the road to take a quick photo of this particular barn.  Everything was so perfect, after all. The lighting.  The colors of the trees.  I love this falling down barn. It is along Route 21 and this road is so narrow, there is little allowance for stopping.  Since it is a major road leading to Canandaigua from the south,  it is heavily traveled and vehicles rarely go slowly.  Thus, I was thrilled we were early enough in the morning that I was able to stop even momentarily.

After dropping Michelle off at school, I decided to take a drive east.  Oh my, to say the sun was brilliant is a major understatement!

Uh, that shot was made entirely with the camera propped on the dashboard!  I merely snapped! In order to get to the farming communities, I needed to travel along some interesting roads!

Of course, all along the roads I journeyed on,  there were orange orbs of all sizes and shapes! There were also signs selling said decorations. I really like this next photo, as the sun was playing so brilliantly on the leaves on the trees.

As I drove by, it seems many barns were the new lower variety instead of the two-story gambrel style. I thought this barn was incredible.  Do you think the animals seriously enjoy the view?

Well, perhaps the farmer does as well, since the barn seems to be missing generous portions of its sides! (Nice gate, though!)

At one point,  I saw a large truck coming out of a field;  it was a truck that carries large quantities of product and apparently, it was loaded with corn.  The corn that fell off was lying in a thick line across the road.

I was enjoying this little excursion so much.  It is rare that I take the time to wander off by myself with no agenda.  I saw all kinds of farm machinery and cattle and views so awesome, there is no adjective colorful enough to descibe them.

I did begin to wander back home since Ben had an early afternoon music class at the college.   This barn isn’t too far from home…

And although this is not a barn, I have often pondered  where I might find the story behind it.

What a cool trip out this was.   The autumn rays from Mr. Sun were just perfect for shooting colorful photos.  As I drove home, however, the skies changed from bright and sunny to foreboding!  By the time I got home,  there were raindrops scattered over the windshield!

Michelle wasn’t feeling much better today when she got up.  In fact, she came to me in the middle of the night and asked me if her hands were cold.  She touched my arm and she felt like an icicle! I told her yeah, she was cold! Well, when I told her about it today, she said she didn’t remember getting up during the night.  I think she has been sleeping so miserably, she has been doing a bit of sleepwalking.

Mark called the doctor’s office this morning and made an appointment with the pediatrician who has seen Michelle from the time she was born.  I was happy with this because I wasn’t real confident in the earlier diagnosis. 

We saw Dr. Kaplan shortly after two, and he looked Michelle over.  He told us that sometimes rashes are just about impossible to figure out.  He ordered a blood draw and put a rush on it.  He wants to make sure Michelle has no infections or inflammation.  He said the results will be in tomorrow and he will decide on treatment. Tentatively,  he will prescribe a low dose steroid just to eradicate the rash.  After all the running about for this,  I think this course of action will be good.  In the meantime, Michelle has discovered that staying cool and holding a bag of ice in her hands on and off alleviates the itching and burning she has felt the past couple of days. Poor kid!

I did take a photo of Michelle’s hands ast night.  You aren’t going to put that on your blog, are you?  I assured her, no, I wasn’t.  I wanted an image just in case the doctor’s office said we didn’t need to come in today. 

I did take a grand total of two photos today.  They were of a barn with lots of hay in it. The owner sells bales of straw and hay. The first photo I took just because it was “that time of day”when the sun pours on that gorgeous golden hue and everything that is photographed suddenly becomes a work of art!  I just loved the golden hue of the hay.

The second photo I took was from another perspective just to show my readers just how “much!” hay was there!

Well, hopefully by tomorrow at this time, Michelle will be feeling much better!

Yes, I am afraid Angus just does not want to cooperate with me!!!  Well, not really. It is just that there is so much going on around here,  I have not had the time (or energy) to photograph the little fellow.

The kids had a friend over yesterday and they went sledding for awhile, ate, then went down to Naples for a concert.  I was so pooped after running around!  I was also trying to watch a Sabres game between taking two runs to Naples, so it was really crazy! Thankfully, the Sabres won. Yay!

Here are a few photos for your perusal, taken throughout last week.  I am seriously loving the Nikon D-90 and would recommend it to anyone looking into buying a great D-SLR. 

The weather today was quite frightful….it wasn’t cold or blustery, but rather warm and springlike, complete with rain! Somehow, cold rain feels much more chilling than snow this time of the year.  Mark needed to do a little repair on the ATV before finally plowing the driveway.  By the time he got out there,  he was plowing the wettest slush!  Hopefully, it will remain warm enough tomorrow to finish melting all the slush from the driveway so it is clear before we get another Arctic blast midweek.

Tomorrow looks like another active day.  The kids have an early morning dental cleaning and in the afternoon, we are expected at Mark’s mom’s house.  Didn’t I mention that wintry weather was a time for *hibernation*?  Well, perhaps after Christmas?

I know I have featured some of the beautiful scenery near our home in the past,  but these are a few of the photos I shot today….some this morning (rather dark shots!) and some this afternoon.  All of these photos were taken within five miles or so from our house.

I wouldn’t say we are “lucky” to live where we do,  but rather “privileged” to do so!

Yeah, I thought so…

As Mark was going through bills and such today, he discovered that we had a rebate check for $30 that needed to be depostited today or it was VOID!  Argh!!  He asked me if I would mind running to Canandaigua to do “a few errands”. 

I went and got ready and was out the door shortly after one.  I got to the bank well before two, then drove over to Wegman’s to return an ocean full of soda bottles and cans.  I had two large trash bags full of bottles and cans that had been sitting in the garage for a very long time…Mark *gently* remarked that perhaps they needed to be recycled!

After feeding nearly ten dollars worth of recyclables into the hungry machines,  I grabbed a shopping cart and headed inside the store.  I love, love, love Wegman’s produce.  Their fruits and veggies far surpass any other grocers in the area.  I shopped around for awhile, then realized I was hungry.  I  hopped on over to the Chinese food and swooped up some Hot and Spicy Chicken, along with some Fried Green Beans. 

I hurried to the register to pay for my goodies, paper in hand from the bottle machine.  When it came time to pay, I completely forgot the paper and paid.  It was as I looked down for my keys that I realized I needed to redeem the slip of paper.  The cashier laughed and said she does the same thing all the time….she said she is always buying some stupid new item only because there is a coupon and then she forgets to redeem the coupon! Boy, did I feel better!

I rushed to the City Pier and ate my Chinese, watching the Coots, Mallards, and *suddenly* Bufflehead Ducks.  I shot a couple of photos of the ducks.   The water was so choppy and the wind so chilly, I decided to just stay inside the Explorer.

After lunch, I headed to the other side of Canandaigua to have two propane tanks for the grill filled.  Due to a case of daydreaming,  I way overshot my destination, so I took a few photos….

 Old barn (circa 1880) in color…..

And sepia…..

After filling the tanks, I shopped at WalMart (grabbing two roast chickens and a loaf of delicious French Bread for dinner!)  and then off to Big Lots for a jar of olives imported from Greece for Mark.  It was getting late and I knew I was going to be too tired to prepare dinner.

As I left Big Lots,  Ben called wanting to know if I could get him a “Slushy” from Hess.  I reluctantly headed to Hess and went inside to look for “the machine”.  No Slushy machine there. But, there was a drink called an “Avalanche”.  It comes in two flavors….Pepsi and Mountain Dew.

I  grabbed a cup and filled it up.  I turned to grab a lid for the drink and when I was about to place it on the drink,  I nearly shrieked! The drink had risen up a good two inches above the top of the cup! Argh!!! I began to giggle and “swipe” the excess drink off the top and into the runoff trough on the machine.  Being MUCH wiser, I filled another cup, allowing expansion room for the drink to rise.  I smiled as the lid easily snapped on!

I paid and rushed to the Explorer and headed home….As I drove, I made mental notes on the order of preparation for dinner.  Michelle helped me by heating the chickens  as I took a head of cabbage and grated it and made coleslaw.  Everything was ready to eat in fifteen minutes.

I expressed how tired I was and Mark snickered.  After all, he had already composed a NEW list of errands for tomorrow.  Top of the list?  A trip to Canandaigua!!!

Oh, did I mention that I also baked a loaf of Whole Wheat Walnut Bread this morning?  A very full day,  A very full day, indeed!