Chicory

I went downtown to the Greenmarket yesterday and spent some time browsing through local produce, meats, cheeses and wines. Crafters were there too, and a very nice guitarist. Downtown on Jay St, near City Hall. On my way there, I saw this chicory plant growing out of the sidewalk. These blue flowers tend to grow at the sides of highways, but they can be found pretty much anywhere that full sun is available.

Grapevine beetle

Found this fellow crawling on my grape vine, where else? The Internet tells me it's a Pelidnota punctata, common name Spotted June Beetle or Grapevine Beetle. He is large - over an inch (25mm) long which made him easy to spot among those large leaves. The hooks on the ends of his legs allow him to really, really hang on. My youngest let the beetle crawl on his arm for a bit, but was he found it very ticklish.

Skywatch Friday

It's Friday, when photo-bloggers round the world post photos of their skies, for Skywatch Friday. Do pay them a visit!

This is St. Adalbert's Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1903, part of the Albany Diocese. It is built high on the hill in the Mont Pleasant neighbourhood that overlooks General Electric.

Built as a reminder of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the spiritual and cultural focal point of Poland, St. Adalbert's Church has had nine pastors, all of Polish descent. In the early part of the 20th century, Poles, then Italians were emigrating to the US, and many of them settled here in Mont Pleasant. In 1890 there about 200 Poles lived here; in 1900 about 1700; in 1910 4200. Italians started coming about 10 years behind the Poles. Where there are people, there are churches...

It's not easy to get a good look at St Adalbert's from below - lots of trees on the sides of that hill. Oddly, the best view might be from the elevated highway Interstate-890 (which we often think of as an eyesore itself.) This was taken as we were driving by on I-890. The sky behind the church is what it looks like today, an amazing clear blue.

Fishing

Sometimes it seems that living with a 7 year-old is nothing but noise and movement - the energy the young possess can be overwhelming at times.

And sometimes there's peace.

By the bye, when we go fishing, we release the fish unharmed back into the water.

Spanish-American War memorial

We have small memorials scattered throughout the city. I might probably say hidden, because they are often difficult to find, or they're in a place where it's inconvenient to stop the car for a look.

This is located in Central Park, on the hill that comes down from Central Park school to the Rose Garden. He overlooks Iroquois Lake, high enough on the hill that few people walk up there when they go on the path round the lake. He's tucked into the trees - it isn't easy to get a photo!

Researching this, I came across an interesting web site that has many historical markers catalogued: http://www.hmdb.org

Baby grapes

Wild grapes. The vines are quite common, but not all grape vines seem to produce grape clusters. I don't know enough about grapes to understand why. Most of the wild grapes in these parts are vitis labrusca, or fox grapes.

Back in the 1850s, fox grapes were bred (is that the right word?) to form several varieties for human consumption. Fox grapes can be... well, foxy. It's not a flavour everyone likes. One of the most popular varieties is the Concord grape, now more popular in jellies and juice than they are eaten as fruit. Speaking of which, they have seeds!

Theme Day - Night

It's the first of the month, and another theme day for the City Daily Photo blogging community. This month's theme is Night. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

I think this might be the most difficult theme day I've participated in. I could not come up with an idea to save my life. I almost posted my shaky hand-held photo of the International Space Station going overhead, but figured that would be a speck of meaningless light to most everyone but me.

So I chose the Moon instead. It turned out to be an interesting job to get the exposure just so - I wanted to keep the trees but I didn't want the Moon completely washed out either. If I ever get my act together and learn to use the Gimp I'll be able to tweak photos like this one, but for now, this is what was captured by the camera.