All aboard!

Today we took a fall train ride. There’s a train that does scenic rides out of the depot in Hamburg, NY. We did this a year ago and greatly enjoyed it, so we did it again today. It’s an out-and-back ride, covering maybe twenty miles out and twenty back, or maybe less; the train slows way down when going over two trestles that cross the two branches of Eighteen Mile Creek, mainly so people on board can go Ooooh and Aaaaah and take pictures.

First, when going on a train ride, one dresses appropriately. Bring on the hickory stripes!

It was also cool out, hence the scarf. First wearing of a scarf this season!

Also, a couple of the workers on the train complimented my outfit. So that’s two weekends in a row getting compliments on my overalls. Yay! (I really love the hickory stripe pattern, if you couldn’t tell.)

And now, photos. All of these were taken on the return trip, when I got the window seat; The Wife had the window on the way out. WNY is putting on a lovely show so far this fall, I must admit. The stream is Eighteen Mile Creek, which actually has two branches that meet in a confluence a mile or so downstream of each place where the train crosses. The creek is named by virtue of its mouth lying eighteen miles downshore from the beginning of the Niagara River.

I’m told there is lots of good hiking along Eighteen Mile Creek. Cane and I never made it down here. Alas….

If you want to see all of the photos from the ride, plus a video I culled together, it’s all in a Flickr album, here.

Now, photos:

Today was the kind of day when the sun came and went and the clouds moved so quickly you could see their shadows rolling across the fields.
This is just somebody’s yard, but they have three giant willow trees. I love willows. I wonder how the one in front of our old house is doing….

Lots of old railroad detritus on the sidings by the depot.

 

 

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An illusion of autumn

Taken the other evening. The sun had not quite set all the way, but was almost gone, and all that was left was the red light on the tops of the trees. These trees haven’t begun turning yet.

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I see the Moon…

I like taking photos of the moon.

Here’s one from the other night, taken through some trees at the end of my street, with a Prisma filter applied.

Have a good Sunday, y’all!

 

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Artemis

Had things gone according to plan, today would have seen the launch of Artemis I, the first rocket in a series of missions intended to return humans to the Moon. Sadly, Artemis did not launch. This is not a bad thing. There is a reason why we say something is not difficult via the pithy metaphor, “Hey, this ain’t rocket science.”

So, no launch…but there is still something amazing and beautiful about a rocket being readied for its flight.

Best of luck next time, Artemis!

Images via NASA HQ’s Flickr page.

 

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The peanut gallery…. (and a new newsletter!)

I had a lovely writing session outside yesterday, but here Carla appears to be laughing at my work. Hmmmm.

In other news, my newest newsletter issue is available! You should sign up, because it’s fun getting things in e-mail. Link is in the sidebar! And hey, if you don’t feel like going to the sidebar, there’s a link right here!

 

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Linen

As my personal fashion style continues to develop, I continue to find appreciate not just for new styles of garments, but new fabrics as well. Denim, obviously…and more recently, flannel. But I’ve also been finding linen to my liking.

I thrifted these two shirts a few years ago. Both are made of linen, and I like both enormously:

 

More recently, I’ve purchased a couple new linen shirts from Etsy dealers. One is still in transit (there were some shipping snafus and errors, of which I am being forgiving since the seller is from Ukraine!), but I got the other a few weeks back. It’s the shirt I wore to the County Fair week before last, and I loved it. (I honestly thought I’d see more people in overalls that day, but alas! Just one or two. Though I did overhear a woman behind me saying to her date, “I used to have a train engineer hat just like that guy’s overalls!” I’m perfectly happy to provoke your nostalgia, y’all.)

Anyway, back to the linen shirt, which I (obviously) paired with a pair of vintage Lee hickory-striped overalls, which I chose because besides looking cool, hickory-striped denim tends to be lighter in weight than regular blue denim.

This material is super comfortable. I just loved this shirt! I stayed cool the entire day–the material is light and of an open-enough weave to allow good airflow through it. I found wearing this shirt on a nice summer day (albeit a cool and low-humidity one) very comfortable. I suspect I was more comfortable in my loose, air-flow encouraging outfit of long-sleeved linen shirt under a pair of overalls than a lot of other guys were in belted shorts and t-shirts. I know that we want to avoid cultural appropriation and all of that, but surely we could listen to what other cultures have to tell us–such as the idea that hot weather doesn’t mean tight cotton clothes and bare skin. (Here’s more on linen as a summer fabric.)

Anyway….

(Same pic as immediately above, detail)
(No idea what that facial expression is about)
I like how “lived-in” linen looks. A nice crisp cotton shirt is lovely, but so is soft and worn-in linen.

(Detail and enhancement of last photo above.)

To sum up: Wear more linen, folks! You’ll be happy you did. Here endeth the lesson!

 

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“Then you may take me to the Fair–” “We did that.” “No, it’s a DIFFERENT Fair this time!”

Our summers often pivot on two fairs: the Sterling Renaissance Festival, and the Erie County Fair, which we attended on Friday the 12th. (I would have posted about it sooner, but then that dumbassed virus showed up and put its feet on the furniture and drank from coasterless glasses and got crumbs over everything and was basically just a big asshole.) While The Wife was unable to attend Sterling because of her recent foot surgery, she was able to attend the County Fair, by virtue of a day-long scooter rental.

This year we were graced with probably the most perfect weather for the Fair we’ve ever had: it was clear with low humidity, there was a light breeze all day, and the high temperature was 72 or so. It was simply a perfect day for going to the Fair.

We had a mostly great day, though The Wife petered out quickly by the end (it was her first major long outing since before her foot surgery in June). There are some notable things from years past that aren’t there anymore, which does happen every year but seems more sadly common moving forward. The biggest thing I missed this year was the giant model railroad exhibit that used to always be set up in the Grange Building; hopefully that manages to return next year. Also, the lovely old building that used to house the woodcarving exhibits is entirely gone, having been demolished for safety reasons, which is a shame. The Fair is still a huge amount of fun and can easily kill and entire day, but it did feel–this year and last–a bit more wide-open, which is to say, a bit more empty. I’m hoping for rebounds in the future, but…who knows.

After reading lots of online complaining about prices, I have to report that while prices were up, they did not seem wildly up to me. I spent roughly what I usually spend in terms of food, plus a little. But I never got the sticker shock that I had at the Sterling Renfest when I saw that the turkey legs that were once $9 are now $16. They also rolled parking and admission into a single price, which eliminates the need for money handlers at the parking entrances and makes getting into the park that much quicker, but folks are complaining about that online too, for reasons I can’t fathom.

Here are some photos from our day at The Fair. I have more available in a Flickr album, if you like this sort of thing.

Proper Fair attire.
Wide view of one of the main junctions at the Fair. No, I did not eat at Mr. Sticky’s. Sticky buns and cinnamon rolls are wonderful, but I can’t eat such heavy stuff at The Fair.

 

I always love the ole firefighting equipment.

 

This guy won SECOND place for woodcarving! I’d have given it first, which went to a duck decoy. (Yes, it was a VERY well-done duck. I just love this dude better!)

Beautiful chess board! I like how this carver took inspiration from, but did not reproduce, the classic Staunton pieces.
Always a favorite thing: the quilts.
Mural on the Grandstand exterior.
We don’t eat NEARLY as much at The Fair as we used to. Ribbon fries, though, are ESSENTIAL.
Dinner is always Chiavetta’s. I make some mean Chiavetta’s in my backyard, but the pros just somehow always seem to get it done just right.
Sheep. (I am not convinced that sheeps and goats aren’t somehow the same beasties, just at different points in their lives. I mean, I know they’re not, but some part of me remains pretty sure they are.)
The Fair is most beautiful at the end of the day and into early evening. We left shortly after taking this. Hopefully next year we can manage a little later stay….

I’m already looking forward to the 2023 Fair!

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“Then you may take me to the Fair….” (but a different one!)

Our summers are partially dominated by two Fairs: the Sterling Renaissance Festival (or Faire), and the Erie County Fair. We’ve done the former already, and later today, we go to the latter! More to come on that…but for now, here’s my favorite of all the photos I’ve ever taken at the EC Fair. I took this eleven years ago, and I’m not sure which camera this was. But I like the energy here and the gentle hazing of the light….

 

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The Rainbows of the 716

One of the things that sticks in my memory most strongly from our trip last December to Oahu is the rainbowsEvery day, at least one rainbow. It just became this thing I did every morning: Get up, make the coffee, go out to our balcony, look off to the right, and see a rainbow. I even saw my first moonbow there.

Western New York is not nearly so prolific in the rainbow department.

But the other night, our WNY skies put on a show. A series of thunderstorms rolled in from Lake Erie, and in their wake, the sunlight did its thing. It started with the faintest wisp of a rainbow, barely there:

As the evening progressed, the bit of rainbow brightened…

…until finally…

And the rainbows were impressive in their duration, too: this one lingered in the sky for a good, long time. On the second pic above, we were heading home from dinner at a gluten-free restaurant in Lockport, which is way up north, about 30 miles. I took that full rainbow shot from the car in I-990, north of the Amherst UB campus, after about ten miles of driving. (Safety note: I was not driving! The Wife was driving. I was not doing sky-photography while driving.)

Another ten or twelve miles later, as we were approaching downtown Buffalo on I-190, there was this.

That just made me all kinds of happy.

Meanwhile, in the other direction, out over the lake, the sky was doing this:

Obviously nobody is ever going to mistake Buffalo for Waikiki, all right? But the sky here can really put on a show sometimes. And in Buffalo you can see sunset over water.

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