The fall colors are beautiful right now…but many were surprised by the snow yesterday, that continues to fall very lightly this morning. Acorns and the clumps of wet snow falling from the leaves onto our cabin-home roof were an odd mix of sounds to listen to throughout the evening last night.
But it was enough to take me outside with my camera to try and capture a few pictures. I’m not really ready for snow, but better to enjoy it a bit than complain.
It was such a treat to attend the very first air show not far from our home at the Greenwood Lake Airport here in my home town, West Milford, New Jersey. I have always loved air shows…we’ve traveled miles and stayed over night in hotels to visit some, so having one so close by was an extra blessing.
We were there on Saturday, September 26, 2009, and probably the best day as it rained and was very overcast on Sunday. This is an airport that we brought our children to when they were young to watch the small planes take off. Now they are adults…it’s also a place we occasionally visit for a weekend lunch at their restaurant. Always so quiet and peaceful, nestled in an area surrounded by trees, but last Saturday, the crowds were amazing to see. Parking was up in the parking lot for the old Jungle Habitat, and was handled with great efficiency by our local police dept. and what I believe were members of a unit of the air national guard…correct me in comment if you happen to stop by and read this and I’m wrong.
I have always loved planes, this going back I’m sure to having a grandfather who was a Navy man and a retired US Air Force Captain. Then there was my own Dad who was an electrical engineer all of his working years in the aeronautics division of a large company…designing parts for planes, including an invention or two, as well as designing parts for the space program when that became important to our Nation. So I guess you could say it’s in my blood. The funny part is that I prefer my feet to be on the ground, not in a plane…but there’s no greater sound to me than the rush of a powerful military jet flying low overhead, and nothing more fun than watching extremely skilled pilots make smaller sized planes do things I never imagined possible.
I’m including a couple pictures here, and plan to devote some more time, pictures and detail to the air show through another venue soon, I’ll link to it here when it’s done. You’ll also want to visit http://www.greenwoodlakeairshow.com - I hope this is the first of what will become an annual event.
Just noticed that my son added some pictures to his facebook page, stop by and take a look, he’s a better photographer than I am.
As we get ready to celebrate the birthday of our Nation, only a few days after Canada celebrated their birthday, I began to think back to things that I learned in history. When in school, I actually hated history classes, sad, I know…I think it was more because of the way it was taught than anything. A teacher who makes history come alive is a great teacher indeed, if you are left with a text book with an overwhelming number of words and a few pictures, and no intrigue in what is written, it is to me, boring.
So this boomer, over the years, has gained a great love for history in my own way. It started out innocently as a love for historical novels…history mixed in with a bit of drama, romance, and other things that made it more interesting to read. Then great movies that portray events in history, then stumbling on museums and historic spots while traveling, and finally, the internet provides an endless resource for researching the history of anything.
Little things intrigue me, like when a light goes on because you realize that the name of a bridge has historical significance. I remember when they built the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that reaches from Brooklyn to Staten Island, NY. I didn’t give it much thought at the time…it made it easier to visit some relatives and it was REALLY big was all that registered to me as a child.
The bridge itself is named after the Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, who came and explored the NEW YORK coast under commission by France. But he also explored the New Jersey coast in the early 1600’s. I grew up thinking that this beautiful bridge went from my State to Staten Island, but I guess the only connection that it has to NJ is the fact that the man it was named after explored the NJ coast.
Happy first day of Spring! Spring arrived, not like a lion…but not quite like a lamb either, if a touch of snow coating everything can be used as a measure. I don’t suppose everyone in New Jersey woke up to snow, we are a bit higher in elevation than some parts of NJ.
I took a couple of pictures, one of tulips that are starting in the garden, and one out over our deck showing snow, the empty lake while our dam is being restored, and across the “lake”, the hillside. The view will be transformed in only a matter of weeks, with green and color, I can’t wait, it’s been a LONG and COLD winter. In fact, the wood stove that has kept us warm all winter so we could save a bit on oil is going right now, but soon that will change. I can’t wait.
What a surprise it was to be called by Sid Johnston from the Suburban Trends, a local/regional paper, to ask me questions about my blogs and websites. As much as I share in writing, verbally, I’m relatively quiet (some may disagree, but it’s true, I promise LOL!) by nature, so just say that I live in Northern NJ on most of my sites to maintain some privacy, but Sid was persistent, and tracked me down, and then put together this wonderful article…thank you so much! Actually when you think about it, there isn’t a lot of privacy when you post to blogs and on the web, your audience is huge, hmmm. Well anyway, never expected a full page article, and very much appreciate it.
Everything is true in the article…well, almost…I guess since I have a blog for Work at Home Grandmothers, and a small but growing network of Work at Home Grandmothers one would imagine that I’m a grandmom…not yet, but maybe one day. Most if not all of my other blogs and sites will be listed in my blogroll as soon as I finish typing this.
One thing I wasn’t “savvy” enough to do was figure out how to make the images so that you could click on them and bring up a bigger image, so if you’d like to be able to read the article, email me at claudiascorner[at]gmail.com and I’ll send you larger images, or if you live locally, stop by the store and pick up a copy of the Trends, and for more information about the paper, or to subscribe, click here.
The snow has finally melted and after weeks of looking at white we are back to browns and grays except for where the occasional evergreens grow. My Graphic Artist son who finds himself unemployed due to the economy at present finished his job search for the day, and then settled into uploading some photos to Webshots.
I loved the photo below (click on it to be taken to his other photos on Webshots), taken in the summer over the lake out in back of our home. Presently the lake has been drawn down as a new dam is being built and looks more like a moon or mars-scape than a lake. We hope that this coming summer, at some point, it will look like this picture again.
The picture was taken during a misty morning…there are actually some houses on the other side of the lake, but you can hardly make them out through the mist.
