Into the Woods

by Posted in Landscapes, Woodland Leave a comment
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Although I walk around a lot, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been for a walk in the woods for some time. Summer in New York’s lower Hudson valley is extremely hot and humid. And when it’s not hot and humid it rains. I don’t like to go out in this kind of weather. However, it’s now Autumn, the temperatures are much lower and we’re going through a dry patch at the moment. So, off I went for what turned out to be a 2.5 hour walk in the woods.

I’d hoped that the leaves had changed by now but, unfortunately only a few of them had. This was the first of the disappointments I encountered:

The second was my choice of camera – A Sony RX10 IV. I’d used it before, but mostly in fairly bright sunlight – and it did a great job. However, I discovered that it’s not all that good in the woods. Light in woodland tends to be very bright in some patches, and extremely dark in others. Unfortunately, the one-inch sensor in this didn’t have enough dynamic range to cope with this. I tried to bracket shots so that I could blend them together when I processed them, but unfortunately this doesn’t work well when things (in this case leaves) are moving around, in this case in the wind. Still, even though the pictures as not as good as I would have liked them to be, I think they’re good enough for sharing online e.g. on this blog, on social media etc.

The third was my choice of footware. I recently bought a new pair of shoes and was breaking them in. It was probably not such a good idea to do this during a fairly long (for me) walk. Soon after I finished the walk my feet and legs started to hurt.

Still, I had a great time and intend to do more – assuming the weather holds and my feet/legs improve.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

A stone wall

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, History Leave a comment
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This ordinary picture of a somewhat unassuming wall is all that remains of what was at various times the site of three different bodies that played important roles in the history of Briarcliff Manor:

  • The School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture.
  • Pocantico Lodge
  • Miss Knox’s School
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The building that housed these three entities remained more or less the same (see below). It was just the occupants who changed. It burned down during the occupancy of Miss’s Knox School and was not rebuilt. The attractive Tudor revival building seen in the background in the second picture above is called The Manor House. It was built later (in 1925) and I’ve already posted about it (See: The Manor House).

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If you’d like to know more about this story, take a look here: The School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture/Pocantico Lodge/Miss Knox’s School. Notebook 2024 – 11

Taken with a Sony RX100 III

Lunch in Manhattan

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Food and Drink Leave a comment
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Last Tuesday I went into New York City (Manhattan) to have lunch with an old friend and her daughter. She was meeting someone at the UN at 4:00pm so we decided to have lunch at a Georgian (that’s Georgian as in the country not the state) restaurant a block away from the UN. It was very close to where I used to work, but it wasn’t there before I retired, and I had never tried it.

The ambience was great, the service was friendly, and the food was exceptional. I’d definitely come again.

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Taken with a Sony RX100 III except for the last one which was taken with my friend’s daughter’s phone and then edited a bit by me.

Snakeskin

by Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment
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It’s seems that Sunday, September 22 was my day for wildlife.

I had no sooner finished with the vultures (See: Vultures on my roof) when I came across this by my front door.

A couple of snakes live under my porch (see below). I used to see them basking in front of my door. As soon as they heard me coming, they’d slither away at high speed. I haven’t seen them for a while, but I guess that at least one of them is still around as I just came across this molted snakeskin. This individual seems be a little over three feet long.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV