Harvesting

The youngest helping gather in the fruits of his labour, in this case a yellow squash. We have a plot at the local community garden and it's been glorious to see all the plants maturing in everyone's place. There's something magical about eating food grown with your own hands.

Skywatch Friday

Here's another Skywatch Friday post, taken just this morning. Visit the link for all the other participants!

Yes, it's cloudy here and it looks like we'll be getting rain again. Had about a week free of it, so that was nice.

Turtlehead

I guess they're called turtleheads because they look like a turtle's head. We started out with one, and bit by bit a few more grow each year. Now, we have a 4 foot long section of flowers! They're quite attractive and have a very delicate scent. The bees really like them because there aren't too many flowers open right now.

Chelone obliqua speciosa are apparently known all over the Eastern US.

Drinking fountain

In 1904, the Schenectady Women's Christian Temperance Union spent $850 to build this drinking fountain and donate it to the city. The park where it's situated is now called Veteran's Park. Back then it was called Crescent Park; a suitable name, since it's just a sliver of green at the foot of State Street hill, at Lafayette Street.

The WCTU was formed by women worried about the destructive nature of alcoholic drink; they were in favour of moderation in healthy things; total abstinence from those that harm.

Sadly, the fountain is disconnected; no water for the thirsty now.

House blessing

We have many Guyanese families in Schenectady. Many of them are Hindu. There is a custom of blessing a house with a religious ceremony called a puja. This is done on a particularly auspicious day for the home owner. The celebration includes food, offerings, music, singing and the erection of small flags, called jhandis.

We'd noticed the flags, of course - they're beautiful and bright when new, but they remain in the yard until tattered and faded. To our Western eyes, they don't look quite so appealing then.

One very kind lady explained to us that flying the jhandis are a way to keep blessings on the house. As the wind blows, it blows the blessings from the flags to the house. There's real poetry in that.

Blessings on you all.

Airport window

The Albany International Airport has artistic works in many places. This window is one of them. This one is Flying Fishes by Lillian Mulero
Digital print on vinyl applied to the window. The accompanying card reads: 'A Flying Fish darts through both sea and sky in this work that transforms our view to an aquarium of great proportions. The massive silver bodies of planes and fish overlap against the blue of air and water in this visual pun meant to cleverly delight and displace.'

It's beautiful.

Harvesting

Taken at the community garden plot, our youngest thins out the radishes. The plot is a thicket given all the rain we've had.