A walk to Sparta Cemetery – Overview and a statue

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It’s been very hot and humid for the past several days, so I haven’t been getting out much. After a few days of this I was starting to get “cabin fever”. I decided that I would get up early and go for a walk while it was still fairly cool. My plan was to leave the house, walk down Scarborough Road to Route 9/Albany Post Road, which I would cross near the Presbyterian Church and go down to historic Sparta Cemetery. After that I planned to continue on the Stop and Shop, pick up some groceries and then get an Uber back home.

My first picture taking opportunity was the statue above. It’s not far from my house. I’ve tried to take pictures of it before, but it’s quite a long way away from the road on private land and I’d never been able to get a picture I was happy with…until now. I was quite satisfied with this one.

I don’t know what the subject of the statue is. I thought it might be Pan because of the pipes he’s playing, but the statue doesn’t seem to have the goat’s legs normally associated with Pan. After a bit of research, I’ve found images of similar statues called: “Boy Playing Pipers”. I thought the flowers were a nice touch, as were the frogs around the base.

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50

Children in a bouncy castle

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It’s that time of year again. School’s out and the Briarcliff Manor Recreation Department organizes a variety of different summer camps. That means that there are swarms of excited children all around the village.

As I was walking into the village to have some lunch, I spotted a “bouncy castle” in the distance. I didn’t need to get too close to as the little Sony DSC-H50 that I was testing has a 31-465mm (35mm equiv) lens.

The children seemed to be having a great time.

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50

Pocantico River

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As it passes by the library building where I volunteer at the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society.

The Pocantico River is a nine-mile-long (14 km) tributary of the Hudson River in western central Westchester County, New York, United States. It rises from Echo Lake, in the town of New Castle south of the hamlet of Millwood and flows generally southwest past Briarcliff Manor to its outlet at Sleepy Hollow. Portions of the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining are within its 16-square-mile (41 km2) watershed.

Writer Washington Irving, who lived in the area for most of his life, was inspired by the undeveloped area above the river’s mouth to write his classic “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Later in the 19th century much of the land was purchased by the Rockefeller family as part of their Kykuit estate; today much of that land has become Rockefeller State Park Preserve. A former reservoir used by the city of New Rochelle has likewise been converted into county-run Pocantico Lake Park. While the river runs predominantly through those parks and suburban land, it is still one of the most polluted tributaries of the Hudson. (Wikipedia)

As you can see it’s hardly a roaring torrent at this part of its course. Not even what you’d call a river in fact? It does get a bit more interesting in other parts e.g. see picture below of the so-called Pocantico Falls in Rockefeller State Park Preserve. (picture taken with an Olympus OM-D EM-10 and Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42 f3.5-4.6 II in January, 2021

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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I liked the contrast between the bare, dead tree and the lush, green foliage around it.

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50