Schenectady is sort of old. Not as old as Rome, but 1661 isn't too shabby. A lot of our local history is gone. Plowed under to make way for development, or the caretakers died, or, or, or...
By our usual standards, we might not consider this plane historic. She didn't drop any bombs, didn't end (or start) a war, and she was built in 1944, so she isn't really that old.
But it isn't the physical aircraft that's historic, it's the feelings she evokes in people when she flies in.
Liberty Belle is a B-17, the plane nicknamed the
Flying Fortress because of all the self-defence guns poking out of them. This type of plane carried out many bombing missions in Europe in WWII, and one of the reasons this particular plane brings out fond memories was her reputation to take battle damage and still fly home.
When I went to see Liberty Belle, she was at the Albany airport. It had rained earlier, messing up their schedule. As a means of raising money to keep her flying, the organisation that owns her takes people for brief (an hour or so) flights. For a fee, of course. I had hoped to climb aboard for a ground tour, but they had so many people who wanted flights that they were going to be busy flying.
She was a thing of wonder to see glide in. Not many B-17s are still flying; around a dozen. An amazing, historic aircraft.
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Threatening clouds. They seemed more dramatic before I looked at the photo. It's been dry lately, so I hope for rain but these are storm clouds - come and go. Need a more steady soak.
He weighs 60 pounds, she weighs 100. One of the most people-friendly dogs we've known. Of course she gets along with the cats as well. She's a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, rescued from a breeder. She's more patient with him than I am!
I don't know the name of these, but they come up by themselves in various places every year. I have a soft spot in my heart for the native plants so I am not as tidy about trimming and pulling as I probably should be. All in all, I'll trade a messy looking fence for these beauties!
Taken at my daughter's house, I think they are robins, but I'm no ornithologist! Until recently, I thought that most of the local birds only raised one brood a year, but many species raise two or three families every year!
It's probably the wrong name for this insect, but I've been calling them grasshoppers since I was a little boy. 
Schenectady is sort of old. Not as old as Rome, but 1661 isn't too shabby. A lot of our local history is gone. Plowed under to make way for development, or the caretakers died, or, or, or... 
The sky from the community garden plot framed the cloud which framed the tree. How could I resist?
