Tag: Photo Posts

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Dispatches from the Fair, 2014 edition

As another August starts to wind down, another iteration of the Erie County Fair recedes into memory. The Fair is one of our favorite things, and a source of a lot of bright and happy memories, all the way back to the first time we attended, way back in, I think, summer 2001. Here are some photographic memories of our time at this year’s Fair!

You know how the biggest flags around are at Perkins Restaurants? Not so much!

It’s kind of hard to make out, but behind the flag, you can see the long wire that served as the infrastructure for this year’s Big Event, when highwire artist Nik Wallenda (who made big news a couple years back traversing Niagara Falls on one of those) walked over the Fair. Sadly, this took place the day after our day at the Fair. Oh well, maybe next time!

As always, we spent some time at the animal barns (which are now less ‘barns’ than ‘big metal buildings’, which are frankly a lot nicer than the old buildings). I didn’t take too many animal pictures this year, but I couldn’t resist bunnies.

There’s also a new building devoted to more general agricultural information and education, the chief attraction of which is this big machine. I don’t know what this Big Machine does, but those tires are taller than me.
And did you ever wonder how much cut lumber can come out of a single tree trunk? Wonder no more! This display fascinated me.
No, I did not buy this Audrey Hepburn print. I did consider it, but I did not buy it.
I did, though, get one of these NiftyLamps! (That’s not the official name. I don’t actually know what these are called, but they’re cool. You get to pick your shape, size, and colors. I got blue, yellow, and orange.)
We lingered in the horse barns:
And we met the Budweiser Clydesdales!
As well as their tried Dalmatian buddy.
Seeing the Clydesdales in action is always a thrill. They are gorgeous animals.
My favorite part of the Fair each year is the Creative Arts building, which is where all the things made and entered for judging are kept. Painting, sculpture, photography, clothing-making, quilting, the creation of place-settings — it’s all here, and I always spend the most time lingering in this wonderful place. Witness this amazing flower:
And then there was this creation, meant to illustrate the theme of Nik Wallenda’s wirewalk over the Fair:
The judges’ comments are always provided for the public to peruse as well, and I thought that their tone this year was a bit more, shall we say, douchey than usual.
My stock answer to comments like this is, “Wow, somebody open a window, man!”
The most amazing things at the Fair’s Creative Arts building this year were the quilts. Look at some of this work. I am amazed by this stuff!
Those quilts are amazing. This is just a stunning, stunning blend of art and craft.
And so the sun set on the Fair, as it always does, and we left. See you next year, County Fair!
Oh, and my new NiftyLamp? It looks awesome in my library!
It’s groovy, man.

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Instaweeks!

Time to photographically document some of the recent doings (when I haven’t been all-editing, all-the-time)!

A while back I happened to drive by this odd-looking cookie-cutter housing development near the University At Buffalo. Places like this always look odd to me.

Here in Buffalo, one of our major landmarks for navigating people around our system of expressways is a big blue water tower near the junction of I-90 and I-290. Yes, it really is a big blue water tower. That’s how we describe it: “Get off the 90 at the big blue water tower.”

The local “Business Park” ain’t doin’ too much business….

A couple weeks ago the Sunday newspaper was relentlessly depressing. I thought it was just me, maybe, but then on his teevee show, John Oliver commented that the entire preceding week’s news had been, in his words, “f***ing depressing”. So it wasn’t just me.

Chicken on skewers!

Lettuce wraps, a la PF Chang’s!

Barbecue chicken! (This stuff turned out awesome. I’ve struggled at times with chicken on the grill, but I think I’m finally figuring it out.)

Coffee!

I continue to be sad that I can’t get my beloved Planters Cheez Ballz. However, there are avenues to at least partially scratch that itch….

The Wife made meatballs, and they were awesome (and gluten-free)!

This instructional graphic on a hand dryer in a restaurant does not make sense to me. It’s like it’s telling you to operate it with your brain, or something.

Sometimes we get visitors, like my parents’ cat.

Lester visits me in my library.

How’s that song go? “I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me….”


Summer of Spiders?

And editing. Lots of editing. Editing at home….

Editing at work….

Always, always editing.

In the end, I’ve been generally feeling smug….

…because it was really a pretty great July.

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An act of scarvery

I suspect that “scarvery” isn’t a word. Oh well.

In a bit of retail therapy this week, I made my first ever Etsy purchase, from tartx.com. The item in question? A new scarf! Check it out:

Yes, that’s old Will himself, the Bard, Mr. Shakespeare to you.

Here’s a closer look at Mr. Shakespeare:

And the printing at the scarf’s other end:

I can’t wait for scarf weather to return! Actually, for this one, I don’t even need really cold weather, because it’s a much thinner material than my other scarves. I might wear this one on our annual trip to Ithaca in the fall…scarves and overalls are a way of life, folks!
I also made one other small purchase for the library decor, but I don’t have it on the wall yet, so that’s going to wait. It’s cool, though. Really.

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Instaweeks!

Been a while since I did one of these, so here is some recent photographic evidence of my misdeeds!

So far this summer has been one of many blue skies.

…and much green.

I’ve added to my library a little:

And that top book, about how to make drinks, has turned out quite useful, as the wonderful Mojito has become a staple at Casa Jaquandor!

The cats continue to discover the magical realm beneath my desk. Julio, the resident foot-fetishist, especially loves curling up around my feet when I’m trying to work.

Writing continues, slowly….

At 9:00 am on a Saturday morning, downtown Buffalo is abuzz with activity.
Lester and Julio guard the upstairs. Patience and Fortitude, they ain’t.
Lester does not wish me to be successful.
It’s all about caffeine and air flow.
It’s also about reading outside and sipping Scotch.
It’s been an oddly cool summer thus far. Usually I spend July suffering endlessly and not even thinking about wearing overalls, but on the 4th of July this year, it was cool enough!
In fact, by the time the sun was dropping and it was time to start thinking about heading out for fireworks, a sweatshirt became handy. This is unprecedented, folks!
From afar, at dusk, Buffalo Niagara looks like this.
I also baptized our new fire pit.
Some stuff I haven’t done:
One day the rains came…
And an hour later, were completely gone….
Minty M&Ms!
Drink up, folks!

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Dispatches from the Faire

This Saturday past, we traveled to the shores of Lake Ontario for the Sterling Renaissance Festival, which we have attended most years over the last decade or so. We missed it last year, owing to our vacation in Cape May, NJ, but this year we were back in form, so off we went! I love Renaissance Festivals in general, ever since I attended the Minnesota Faire back in college. I find them enormously entertaining, and I especially love buying things directly from the people who made them. You can’t beat that, and I never quibble price for something that was not only not mass-produced in China, but might well have just been made a day or two before.

Some photos from our day at the Festival, starting with the icky one right off the bat. We were sitting down for a water break when The Wife and The Daughter both freaked out, simultaneously. Seems this little guy was hanging out on my shoulder. The Wife knocked him down, and I then used a twig to move him to safety under the bench. This is quite the close-up, by the way; he’s really only about an inch long.


One of my favorite things about the Festival each year is seeing older couples, in period dress, still very much dating each other. This makes me happy.


Maybe new this year — or possibly last, as we weren’t there — was this Faerie, who spent her day roaming and interacting.


One vendor whose wares we never stopped to appreciate before is the one that makes bronze sculptures for yard display. We haven’t had a yard, so what was the point. Well, this year we have a yard, so we looked. The items there are stunning and wonderful, but also way out of our price range. And this spouting dragon, towering above everyone, didn’t even have a price tag that I could see.


This next item, however, did have a price tag. It’s a pirate ship where all the details are made of glass, right down to the water on which it sails.


Ten thousand dollars will let you bring that home!

No, this is not George RR Martin. At least, I don’t think it’s George RR Martin. I didn’t ask him.


And, as always, Her Highness the Queen!


Hopefully we have so good a time next year!

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We’re building that so we can look at…Buffalo?!

Apparently it’s been 40 years since a big construction project unfolded near Toronto’s waterfront, resulting in the CN Tower.


Oddly, I’ve never gone up in the tower — we’re always doing other stuff when we’re in Toronto, and we go to TO less often than we should anyway. I’d love to go up there, though; as a kid, I remember when we’d always make the trek to the top of the Space Needle when we went to Seattle.

Anyway, more photos of the construction phase here. I guess I was wrong in that they didn’t build the thing complete, lay it down on its side, and then pull it upright.

(No, I didn’t think that.)

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