Category: Photographic Documentation

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Autumnal Images

A lovely post about autumn, over at Nerdishly:

Punctuated by long nights and scented by benign smoke and wet leaves, the period between first frost and December is my favorite part of the year. The furnace is pressed into service by 5 a.m., and I, now be-sweatered and -socked from rising until bedtime, begin yawning before 6:45 p.m., but the rest is a sort of everyday magic, from the perfect circles bored into the pumpkins by what I imagine to be a stout but agreeable-enough nocturnal animal to the prehistoric trumpeting of the sandhill cranes as they gather in ever-widening circles over our home before beginning their journey away from the prairie; from the slant of the afternoon sun on the living room floor to the color of the sky when I collect the mail; from best-of booklists to seasonal menus… I adore autumn.

I make no secret of my love for autumn. While I enjoy a lot of summer activities, I always feel a certain disconnect during summer. We’re culturally wired to worship summer, but I tend to keep summer at arm’s length. Warmth is nice, to a point; hot gets unpleasant. And there’s too damned much sunlight in summer! I know that sounds weird in our sun-drenched culture, but I like nighttime, I like moonlight and stars and the flicker of firelight when it’s the only light to be had. I don’t like sunrise before 7am, and I really really really don’t like that it’s light enough to read outside at 10pm.

No, I don’t hate summer. But I’m always glad to see it in the rear-view mirror.

Fall? The time of crisp mornings, earlier sunsets? When the winter stars start to peek over the horizon? The time of lovely flannel and sweaters and overalls after multiple months of boring shorts and t-shirts? The time of color and of apples? Of spooky tales? Of huddling around the fire, and not just sitting near it? Yeah, autumn is the stuff.

This year the transition has been significantly warmer than usual, and the traditional fall color hasn’t been its usual self to this point. By this point we’re usually “past peak”, but this year…heck, maybe we won’t even peak at all. But there’s still a lot of beauty out there.

Here are a few images from just the other day, taken at Knox Farm State Park and from the Mill Road Overlook in East Aurora.

From Knox Farm:

From the Mill Road overlook:

I live in a beautiful place, and this is its most beautiful time of year.

 

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A man, a plan, a…blanket

Since The Wife has been working remotely at home for over a year, at times she has had to allow Carla to hang out in her home office with her as she works. Carla does have a crate, as does Cane, but we don’t like to crate Carla for long periods of time. (Retired racing greyhounds are used to their crates and even like them.)

The Wife has a particular soft blanket that she likes to use as a wrap for those cold times in her office, but Carla has, in the grand tradition of our domesticated pets, decided that this blanket is hers, and she loves sleeping on it. So much so that the few attempts I made to have Carla hang out in my library while I read or write on weekends met with failure.

After thinking on this a bit, I wondered: maybe I needed a soft blanket of my own! Maybe that would be what I needed to convince Carla to become my Faithful Library Companion dog! Maybe, just maybe!

The Family thought this was jealousy on my part, but I deny this. I will only note that…today I am writing this post from my library, whilst Carla sleeps on her–no, my new soft yellow blanket. No jealousy or manipulation here! Just a sleeping doggo on a rainy Saturday as I write.

As the gods intended!

Carla sleeps. I write.
Carla sleeps. I write.

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The 716 from the Ridge

Here are two photos of the Buffalo Niagara region, taken from atop Chestnut Ridge! The first is clearer, but the second is obviously a wider shot, in which can be seen in the distance the skyline of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. (Note that Niagara Falls, NY has no visible skyline from this distance, which is a statement in itself.)

A fall morning overlooking Buffalo, NY
A fall morning overlooking Buffalo, NY

Here’s the wider shot! I took both of these with my still-new-enough-to-me-to-call-it-new new phone. I have to say, I really love that waiting three or four years to get a new phone allows enough improvements to make me say, “Holy crap, my phone can do that?!”

Wider view of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, ON from Chestnut Ridge
Wider view of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, ON from Chestnut Ridge

If you’re wondering where Niagara Falls, NY is, see the Seneca One tower there? It’s the reddish building that’s the tallest in Buffalo. Go along the horizon to the left until you see a faint boxy-looking building. That’s the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino, the only building in that city tall enough to have a horizon-topping presence from this distance. This angle also makes it look like it’s a much farther distance separating the two Niagara Falls cities; the Seneca Casino on the American side actually lies at the far end of the city, well away from the Falls and the gorge themselves. The American side, at least right up to the river, falls, and gorge, emphasizes nature parks and the like; the Canadians have built their side’s touristy stuff and giant resort skyscrapers almost right up to the brink of the gorge itself.

Anyway, on a fall morning, that’s what a big chunk of the 716 looks like!

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