Mallards on Lodge Pond

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Mallards (and small Canda Geese in the distance in one shot) on lodge pool, about a 15-minute walk from my house.

Lodge pool was once the exterior swimming pool at the Briarcliff Lodge (See last picture. This is the first stage of the development of Briarcliff Lodge. It subsequently grew to be much, much larger). Celebrities must have swum here. US Olympics swimming trials were held here.

Popular legend hereabouts suggests that if you were to dive to the bottom, you’d find tiles beneath the mud.

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Taken with Sony A77II and Minolta 35-105 f3.5-4.5

A Beetle

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When I came home the other day this was on the wall by my front door. I believe it’s a False Potato Beetle.

The false potato beetle (Leptinotarsa juncta) is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. Its distribution extends to Maine.

Adult beetles emerge from the soil in the late spring or early summer and begin breeding, and a population may go through one to three generations in a summer.

The false potato beetle feeds on solanaceous weeds such as horsenettle, Solanum carolinense. It also feeds on other solanaceous plants, such as species of ground cherry or husk tomato, Physalis spp., and bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara, but no growth and reproduction occurs when feeding on the potato, Solanum tuberosum (Wikipedia)

It’s not considered a serious pest, at least not compared to the Colorado Potato beetle., which it resembles.

Taken with a Sony A7IV and and Laowa 85mm f5.6 Macro 2:1

Mariandale

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At Mariandale.

“Situated on 61 wooded acres, The Center at Mariandale is a spiritual retreat center founded on the mission of the Dominican Sisters of Hope, with care of the Earth as its central tenet. The retreat center offers programs and events centered around spirituality and love for Nature and the Earth. They encourage our community and retreatants to find ways to lighten our footprint on the Earth, and to practice land and environmental justice.

It sponsors retreats and programs in numerous areas, including spirituality, contemplative practices, social and environmental justice, interfaith dialogue, the arts, wellness of body, mind, and spirit, and more.
The center also welcomes nonprofit groups and organizations for day or overnight workshops, retreats, and conferences. Our guests enjoy the quiet, serene environment at the center.”

When I first started collecting old film cameras, this was one of the first places I visited to try them out. At that time there were some lovely, old barn-like buildings on the property. There were also a few interesting old, rusting farm implements. Unfortunately, they have now gone. For a couple of pictures taken at the time take a look at the bottom of this post.

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Taken with Sony A77II and Minolta 35-105 f3.5-4.5 except for the last two, which were taken with a a Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ), Zorki 4 and KMZ 50mm f2 Jupiter 8.