View from the farm

October 11, 2010 Mending Wall

One of the most interesting and different stops on the tour is the wall building site run by Ken Ely.

 

This is the new wall being built over the three day weekend.

This is the wall from last year.  Note that this is not just flat rock on flat rock.  The wall has a variety of sizes, shapes and textures, and lots of visual interest in the little fill-in rocks.  It also has a beautiful slab with fossils in the top layer for serious visual impact.

The necessary tools.

The able-bodied workmen.

Here Ken is explaining what is going on to some visitors to the site.

The interesting thing about this plastic hammer is that they head is filled with metal shot.  All of the force of your blow is transmitted into what you are hitting.  And he told us where he bought some of his tools – Harbor Freight down in Scranton.  What do you know?  I’ve been in that store.

Doesn’t that make a great entrance to this property?

Let’s see.  I’m going to need hammers, levels, a chisel – no make that two or three chisels ….

With apologies to Robert Frost, he should have written:

“Some thing there is which does love a wall…”

Later.

October 11, 2010 Artist’s Open House Weekend

Good evening…from the farm.

The annual Artist’s Open House occurs the three days of the Columbus Day weekend.  I had other things I had to do, so I only got to spend one day going to some of the interesting and accessible sites.

I plan to load all of the pictures, then go back and caption them so you know which artist and where I was when I took the pictures.

Joe Welden was first on the list this year, and since I know him and his wife, I enjoyed my visit, and Ester even gave me a bowl of excellent vegetarian chili while I was sitting there with them.  Joe is also a wonderful musician, and you can see the influence in his pictures.

Everyone should have an artist’s cat!

Next up is Marc Schimsky who has a studio on the third floor of the building that also houses the Butternut gallery.

I had a wonderful time talking to the two ladies who share a studio in the Holy Name of Mary Parrish Center, Rita Eddy, and Chris Lathrop.

This is Rita Eddy.

And here is Chris Lathrop.

Thanks, ladies.  I really enjoyed chatting with you!

The final stop on my personal artists tour is something a little different.  Ken Ely builds stone walls, with an artist’s eye.  I am going to do the stone wall place as a separate post.  Catch it shortly.

Later.

October 10, 2010 Harvest Festival

Good evening…from the farm.

The Columbus Day weekend also marks the last church festival of the year – that I know of.  My favorite thing about the festivals in Pennsylvania is the food – and the variety of :  Italian sausage, Polish pirogues, and Greek stuffed olive leaves to mention a few.  It was also a beautiful fall day – perfect for checking out the sights and eating the treats.  Where else can you get pizza fritte?  That’s squares, circles, or – in this case – long thin wedges of pizza dough, deep fried and rolled in sugar.  Sort of like a weird chewy flat donut.  Delish!  So, enjoy the sights of a small town church festival.

See the pizza fritte in the paper container on the table?  They were kind enough to give me a piece – which just wetted my appetite.  I took pigs in the blanket and pizza fritte home for supper.

 

The “wheelbarrel of cheer” raffle.  I think if I were a drinking person it would cheer me!

My pizza fritte salesperson!

After I picked up my pigs-in-the-blanket and pizza fritte, it was time to go.  Great festival, folks.  See you next year!

October 4, 2010 More Civil War

Dear Readers, 

Just to let you know.  There are more civil war encampment photos coming.  The previous post got too hard to navigate, so I am doing the rest of the photos in a separate post.  Be sure to look for it.

Jan

October 2, 2010 Tunkhannock PA: Airing of the Quilts

Driving home Saturday morning to attend the theater presentation, I drove through Tunkhannock and realized that this was the weekend that they were doing the 9th annual Airing of the Quilts. 

All of the local quilters display their handmade quilts on porches, and banisters, and every way you can imagine.

We got there late in the day, so some quilts had already been taken down, and I KNOW I didn’t even get close to seeing all of the quilts on display, but I saw and photographed as many as I could.

I apologize to any quilter whose quilts I missed this year.  I’ll try again next year.  All of the outside pictures were taken from the moving car.  I’m even going to leave in the bad pictures so you know I did the best that I could.

Also, guys. there are going to be about 80 pictures of quilts coming next.  Be patient with me though, Sunday we went to the Civil War Encampment, and I’ve got some GREAT pictures of cannons going off! 

*****

September 11, 2010 Remembering…and an Apple Festival

Good evening…from the farm.

September 11, a time to remember, both public and personal losses.  But also a time to celebrate:  happy birthday to my cousin John.

In Montrose, Saturday was a day to celebrate the Apple Festival on the green.

Here are some pictures of the day’s activities.

Later.

The Harford Fair

The Harford Fair is the perfect size for me, anymore.  Lots to see, but small enough for me to walk around.  We didn’t get there during the week, unfortunately, since we wanted to see the band in which my brother plays.  So this is only a very small selection of what you could see if you went to the fair.

This was right at the entrance to the fair.

This year there was an extension to the Shade Pavilion which was built perpendicular to the original pavilion.

My favorite potato pancakes, and Binghamton, NY style spiedies – which are delicious marinated pieces of meat, stuck on skewers and grilled, then served in a roll.

The band got to compete with a demolition derby in the arena.  Fortunately, most of the sound stayed in the arena!

This is me yelling.  This is what happens when you are taking a nice picture of some cows, and the flash doesn’t go off, and you turn the camera around to see what happened, and it does.  I thought the lady watching me take the pictures would fall over she got laughing so hard.

Here are the nice cows.

There are so many, many things I didn’t photograph:  the bee exhibit, the fine arts exhibit, the many stores, the fairway, the rabbits and chickens, the guy wrestling the alligator, the antiques shop, the Stanley dealer, and dozens and dozens more.  You’ll just have to go yourself, next year.

August 8, 2010 Binghamton Balloons

Good evening…from the farm.

We had the Blueberry Festival in Montrose this weekend, and up in Binghamton, they were doing their annual balloon festival.  I think it’s really the Spiedie Festival, but I’ll have to check.

My aunt and cousin were kind enough to send me pictures of a few of the balloons that floated by their house.

How could you not like that ladybug?   And the way he caught the picture so it looks like it’s landing on that plant – made me laugh!

Later.

August 7, 2010 Montrose Blueberry Festival Day 2 (Part 2)

You might notice I do not Photoshop my pictures.  I did when I first started my blog, but I changed my mind.  I wanted my pictures to look like you were walking with me looking at the sights.  So, pretty much what you see is what you get.

Yep, that’s the new book van, again.

Pennstar sponsored the blueberry pie booth.

The police department does safety fingerprinting of children.

The hamburgers were going great, but the crepes were already sold out.

The band is getting geared up to play.  Unfortunately, I had to leave and couldn’t photograph their performance.  Next year.

The Montrose Fire Department has a wonderful little museum that they open on holidays/festivals, and occasionally, by special appointment, for groups.  I was really impressed.  The wallpaper in the rooms is original – 1855!  They have all kinds of helmets, gear, equipment, and memorabilia.  If you get a chance, and you are interested in that kind of thing, you will really enjoy it.

The Farmer’s Market is at the far end of the square on the other side of the parking lot.

*****

August 6, 2010 Blueberry Festival

Today was the first day of the 31st annual Montrose Blueberry Festival.  Although there were tons of food places and thousands of books, there were very few craft booths.  Since we were expecting 20 to 30 booths – which we had seen in other years – we were disappointed.  Still, there is a bunch to see and do.  Take a look.

 

We had a great time, and came away with enough books to last until next year!  Paperbacks were $0.50 and most hardbacks were $2.00.  A few days after the festival, leftover books will be sold in paperbags-full – a really good deal.

Later.