Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
The tree man cometh. Actually there were two of them (three today) and they’ve been here every day this week. They’ve cut down and removed three large trees and still have two more to go.
Taken with a Sony A7IV, Sony FE 28-75 f3.5-5.6 OSS and Tamron Di III VXD A056SF 70-180mm f2.8.
On March 18 I posted that I had lost my 17+ years old cat, Gypsy. I’m such a cat person that I couldn’t go long without having one in the house. So I’m introducing Sophie (at least that’s what the previous owner called her). My family (myself included) is pretty much unanimous that she doesn’t look like a Sophie so we’ll probably call her something else. Any ideas?
She’s a Maine Coon, a cat that I’ve always loved and always wanted to have.
She’s been here for less than a day and she’s already taken over one of my dog, Harley’s dog beds.
Taken with a Sony A7IV and Sony FE 28-75 f3.5-5.6 OSS.
There were three parts to my walk. The walk along the Old Croton Aqueduct was the longest. This part was the shortest, but the most difficult. The problem is the my house is on top of a hill and at the end of the walk I always have to go up this hill. On this particular day I had walked the dog for one hour earlier and had walked for 2.5 miles until I reached the church (Scarborough Presbyterian Church) you can see in the background in the second picture. Since there were some benches outside the church I decided to take a brief rest while deciding what to do. I almost gave up and called for an Uber to take me home, but I decided to tough it out and walk up the hill. All told I walked for about four hours on that day. My legs/feet hurt for days afterwards.
Above: The former entrance to to the Frank A. Vanderlip, Beechwood. While Vanderlip was vice president of the First National City Bank (later Citibank), he had two fluted smoked granite columns from the headquarters 55 Wall Street shipped to Beechwood (55 Wall Street was being remodeled and the columns were re-spaced, with two left over). He had the columns placed two-thirds above ground in Beechwood’s entranceway off of Albany Post Road , an entrance which was later closed due to increasing traffic volume on Route 9 (the current entrance is off Scarborough Station Road).
Taken with a Canon EOS 5DII and Canon EF20-105mm f3.5-4.5 II USM
To the Rockefeller State Park Preserve and back. Part 2: Heading for home along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. For anyone who doesn’t know what the Old Croton Aqueduct is, it was built between 1837 and 1842 and was New York City’s first water supply system. It replaced the inadequate wells, springs, and ponds used until then. Drawn from the Croton River in Westchester County, the abundant clean water helped fuel a population boom and remained in service until 1958.
Although most of the 41 mile long aqueduct lies underground, some structures are still visible in the Bronx and Manhattan. This trail highlights the remains of the aqueduct and provides a sense of the complex engineering and difficult labor that was required to build it. Above: One of the 21 ventilators along the aqueduct.
Taken with a Canon EOS 5DII and Canon EF20-105mm f3.5-4.5 II USM
It was a glorious, sunny when I woke up so I decided to get out of the house and take a walk. Unfortunately the good weather didn’t last long. Pretty soon it clouded over and got quite dark and gloomy. The weather forecast even suggested rain. Still I’d decided to go out. I took the dog for a one hour walk around the neighborhood and after a brief rest on returning home I caught a ride to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. On the way there I decided I would try to walk back to the house so I walked through the park, onto the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, along Route 9 and then up the hill along Scarborough Road back to the house. All told it took me about three hours. So including the walk with the dog I walked for about four hours in all. Above: Bridge over the Pocantico River. Although most of the trees were still bare, a few were starting to show leaves.
Taken with a Canon EOS 5DII and Canon EF20-105mm f3.5-4.5 II USM