• A Visit to Boston – Day Two – Norman B Leventhal Park According to the park’s website: “In the heart of the financial district, nestled among the high-rise office buildings, lies a lush oasis of green, a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of a group of people, both public and private, who joined together to foster this unique vision. What had previously been a decrepit and unsightly ...
  • Croton Aqueduct in Art In an earlier post I mentioned Cornela Cotton and her book store/gallery (See: Cornelia). I also mentioned that she was going to give a presentation organized by the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society on “The Croton Aqueduct in Art”. She gave the presentation to an almost full house at Briarcliff Manor’s Vescio Community Center. It ...
  • A walk around Dobbs Ferry – Overview A while back I went for a walk around the Hudson River Town of Dobbs Ferry. Above view of the Dobbs Ferry Metro North Station from the other side of the the tracks. “Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States ...
  • Around the neighborhood – Trump National Golf Club Westchester The Trump National Golf Club is just a short walk from the House. Trump National Golf Club Westchester is a private golf club in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The 140-acre (57 ha) course has eighteen holes, with a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) clubhouse. Founded in 1922 as Briarcliff Country Club, it later operated as Briar Hills Country ...
  • Fat City Rockers at the Downtown Peekskill Music Series Every Saturday evening during Summer the town of Peekskill, NY closes a section of North Division Street and presents a band of some kind. This part of Division Street has a number of restaurants, which put tables and chairs outside so that you can eat while listening to the music. The whole thing has ...
  • A walk around Cold Spring, NY – Overview Back in June I decided to have a walk around Cold Spring, NY. I’ve been there many times but there are still areas that I have not really explored, so I decided to focus on them. However, inevitably I found my way into familiar areas including the picturesque area around the bandstand and ...
  • Birthday Celebration at “The Falcon” A while back our friend Joan invited us to a celebration in honor of her birthday. It was to take place at ‘The Falcon‘ a live music venue on Route 9w in Marlboro, NY. From the road the falcon doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually rather interesting. It’s built on multiple, terraced ...
  • At Lincoln Center We recently went into New York City to see a concert at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The all- Beethoven Programme featured the Violin Concerto in D major & his Symphony #3 in E flat major ‘Eroica’. The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra was conducted by Andrew Manze and the soloist was Norwegian violinist Vilde ...
  • Downing Park, Newburgh – Overview I’ve often passed Downing Park in Newburgh, but this was the first time I’d visited it (while taking the dog for a walk). It has an interesting history. According to the City of Newburgh website: Most of Downing Park was a farm owned by the Smith family, whose 1750s farmhouse stood at the present ...
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – River in the frame What a clever idea! Apparently it’s a memorial to the late Pat Keener who passed away July 8, 2010. According to her obituary: “When time comes for us to again rejoin the infinite stream of water flowing to and from the great timeless ocean, our little droplet of soulful water will once again flow ...
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – A collection of gourds I came across this artfully arranged collection of gourds outside a house on Main Street, New Hartford. It looked as if, at certain times of year, there is a farm stand here selling fresh vegetables. When I was there though the farm stand was empty and only these gourds remained. Taken with a Sony ...
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – Bear Encounter I came across this delightful sculpture outside the New Hartford Town Hall. According to a plaque it’s called “A Very Berry Bear” and it’s by Ellen Childs. Taken with a Sony RX-100M3
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – More buildings on Main Street The New Hartford House (see preceding post) is on Main Street, New Hartford. So are these two eye catching buildings. So far I have unfortunately been unable to find out any additional information about them. Taken with a Sony RX-100 M3.
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – Immaculate Conception Church According to Historic Buildings of Connecticut: The first Catholic Mass in New Hartford was celebrated in 1849 in a private home. Masses continued to be offered in various residences and rented halls, as well as the Brick Machine Shop, for the next two decades. During that time, the Catholic population of New Hartford grew as Irish ...
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – Ski Sundown According to NewEnglandSkiHistory.com: Located northwest of Hartford, Ski Sundown is a popular regional facility for skiers of all abilities. Ski Sundown’s lift…likely dates back to the 1963-64 season, when Satan’s Ridge ski area opened by Russell Smith and Frank Linnell. While it is possible that the area had a soft start on surface lifts in December or ...
  • A short visit to New Hartford, Connecticut – Overview For some reason when we go out we tend to go either North in New York State (e.g to Dutchess County and points farther North) or South in New York State (e.g. to Westchester County and New York City). From time to time we go West (e.g. to Rockland, Orange Counties etc.). What ...
  • Stony Point Battlefield After visiting Fort Montgomery we decided to have lunch and then afterwards follow the trail over Popolopen Creek up to what’s left(virtually nothing) of Fort Clinton. However, we changed our plans and decided to visit the nearby Stony Point battle site, described on its website as follows: …Battle of Stony Point, one of the last ...
  • Fort Montgomery Revisited Cannon overlooking the Hudson River. I recently went with a friend to Fort Montgomery. According to the Fort Montgomery web site: Fort Montgomery was the scene of a fierce Revolutionary War battle for control of the Hudson River. Visitors today can tour the remains of the 14-acre fortification, perched on a cliff overlooking the magnificent Hudson. On October ...
  • A visit to the Bronx Zoo – Overview We had visitors, including two children, last week. We decided to take them to the zoo. Many years had gone by since we’d last been to the zoo so it seemed like a fun thing to do. Unfortunately we’d failed to take into account that it was the Easter holidays, schools ...
  • Quaker Hamlet District of Old Chappaqua The other day I went for a quick tour around the Quaker District of Old Chappaqua followed by lunch at the Jardin du Roi. According to Wikipedia: The Old Chappaqua Historic District is located along Quaker Road (New York State Route 120) in the town of New Castle, New York, United States, between the hamlets of Chappaqua ...
  • Lunch with the royals A while back we went for lunch to Florrie Kaye’s Tearoom in Carmel, NY. It’s a very pleasant place with a fine selection of teas and a number of British delicacies to eat. This is the closest I’ve gotten to British Royalty (although I did once shake hands with the Queen of Spain). I wonder ...
  • Maude’s Tavern Maude’s Tavern is located near the Metro North Station on the Hudson River in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. I went there with a friend for lunch a couple of weeks ago. When we’d decided to go there I hadn’t realized that I had in fact been there before – with another friend after a visit ...
  • Columns of Glass Globes Seen in the same bar as the cougar (see: Cougar). Taken with a Sony RX-100 M3.
  • Stuart’s farm – Overview I friend had recommended Stuart’s Farm as a great place to get plants. We’d had a stretch of bad weather, which suddenly turned better so on a glorious, sunny day off we went. According to its website: Stuart’s Fruit Farm is a family-operated farm since 1828 located in Westchester County, New York. It is about ...
  • A walk around Ossining – Overview I hadn’t been for a walk around Ossining in five or six years, but a couple of weeks ago the weather was lovely and my wife had gone out shopping. She had the car so I decided to take the dog for a walk down to the Ossining waterfront. During our walk the signs of ...
  • Lunch at Las Mañanitas We had to go up to Brewster yesterday and while we already knew a couple of restaurants near our destination (The Arch and Clocktower Grill) we’d thought we’d go somewhere we hadn’t yet tried and settled on Las Mañanitas, a restaurant we’d heard of but never visited. It’s a fairly large restaurant with a nice atmosphere ...
  • Lasdon Park and Arboretum – Overview I’d been to the Lasdon Park and Arboretum a couple of times: once for an antiques fair; and once for a concert. This time I wanted to take a look at something I’d bumped into while browsing the internet: the Trail of Honor. According to the Park’s website: The Lasdon estate, originally called Cobbling Rock Farm, ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – A Couple of Storefronts Dinos Barber Shop on Grand Street. I just liked the way it looked. I think it was the off kilter letters in the sign over the door that caught my attention. Old Book Room and Cornelia Cotton Gallery. Also on Grand Street. Taken with a Sony RX-100 M3.
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – Vassallo Park I’m afraid that the Town of Croton-on-Hudson is not a very “dog-friendly” town. It seems that dogs are not allowed in any of their parks, including this one: Vassallo Park. It’s quite a small park with very little to commend it other than a rather impressive old tree and a millstone. A nearby sign ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – Asbury United Methodist Church According to the church’s website: In the middle of the 18th century, Methodist Circuit Riders often stopped at Van Cortlandt Manor House, where a corner bedroom was kept in readiness for traveling dignitaries. So often was the room occupied by such men as George Whitfield and Francis Asbury that it became known as “Prophets Corner”. By 1780 ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – Shadow on the Street I was walking past the Church of the Holy Name of Mary when I noticed that the sun had cast a shadow of the cross on top onto the street. I also liked the diagonal lines: the light blue of the crossing and the yellow of center line. Taken with a Sony RX-100 M3
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – Church of the Holy Name of Mary According to the church’s website: Catholics attending Mass from ‘Croton Landing’ had to walk over five miles to St. Patrick’s in Verplanck until 1850; then they walked three miles to St. Augustine’s in Ossining. From 1850 to 1874, priests from Ossining would celebrate Mass weekly in the Edward White residence on Mt. Airy Road and then ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – No Turn on Red This curious structure stands at the intersection of Grand Street and Old Post Road South. Called a “Dummy Light” it’s one of a dying breed as explained in an article in Westchester Magazine entitled: Red-Light District: The term “dummy light” is something of a misnomer, in that the upright, freestanding traffic-control mechanism functions the same way ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church Saint Augustine’s Church was formally organized in 1842. The first rector was Augustus Clarkson. The church as modeled on the Chapel of Christ Episcopal Church in Tarryton and was built in 1857 on land donated by Philip Van Wyck. Two additional buildings (the Parish Hall and vesting room were built in 1880. Clarksons ...
  • A Walk Through Croton-On-Hudson – Overview We’d often driven through Croton-on-Hudson on our way up to the lake, but it wasn’t until we went to dinner there with a couple of friends that I realized that I’d never actually been to the main town center. It was quite quaint and I determined to go back there some day to take ...
  • Rickshaws, Kathmandu, 1999 Taken during a visit to Nepal in 1999 probably with a Canon AE-1 camera and I can’t recall what lens. I say Canon AE-1 because the only other camera I had at that time was a Minolta Hi-Matic 7sii. Some of the other pictures in this batch could not have been taken with ...
  • Mystery Point – Manitou Station If you follow Mystery Point Road past the ruin mentioned in the previous post you come to Manitou Station. This has to be the smallest station I’ve ever come across. According to my very approximate measurements the platforms are about 23 feet long. My first thought was “What famous/powerful person lives here who has enough clout ...
  • Happy Traum at the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center I’d never heard of Happy Traum, but the events at the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center (TCCC) (see also: Tompkins Corners Cultural Center; Latino music festival at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center; David Amram Quintet at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center) are usually worth going do so when my wife mentioned that this was taking place we decided ...
  • Phoenix arising from the ashes In a post in December, 2015 I mentioned a fire in the pavilion in our local park (see: Fire In Law Park, Briarcliff Manor). I was walking in the park the other day and the pavilion is now almost back. They’ve almost finished the roof. This is quite an achievement as they had to ...
  • At the Shakespeare I went into New York City about a week ago to have lunch with old friend/colleague, Tom. We went to the Shakespeare pub on 39th Street between Park and Madison. I find it a very pleasant, cosy place for a chat, an English meal (I had a chicken pie and chips), and a ...
  • Thousand lotus terrace I recently visited the Chuang Yen monastery again. As I was leaving I noticed an area that I had not so far visited. It’s called the Thousand Lotus Memorial Terrace and the Chuang Yen website describes it as follows: The Thousand Lotus Memorial Terrace is a service Chuang Yen Monastery provides. Twice a year, in ...
  • Fred Dill Wildlife Sanctuary 1: Overview While walking along the Putnam County Trailway a while ago I noticed a path going off into the woods. I followed it for a while, but at that time the trees were bare, snow was on the ground and the trails were icy so I didn’t go too far. This time I approached the ...
  • A lighthouse Taken during a trip to the United Kingdom in 2004, this is, with it’s distinctive read and white stripes, the well-known Beachy Head Lighthouse near Eastbourne in East Sussex. According to Wikipedia: In 1900 to 1902 under the direction of Sir Thomas Matthews, the Trinity House Engineer-in-Chief, the lighthouse was built, sited about 165 metres seawards from ...
  • Mills Mansion, Staatsburg, NY We recently visited the Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, NY. Since we had the dog with us so I couldn’t go on the house tour, but my wife did and found it interesting. It’s a good place to walk a dog with attractive trails along the river and some nice views out towards the Catskills. According ...
  • A walk around Sparta I’ve been living near Sparta for about eighteen years and for most of that period have passed through it twice a day on the way to work and back. Never once have I thought to look up its history and to date I have not taken the walking tour (I’ll have to rectify that). ...
  • Vision is better – by David DuChemin I recently came across this video from David Duchemin. I have a couple of his books and I like the way he focuses on building photographic vision rather than the more common approach of improving photographic technique. In the video he mentions two things, which relate to this post. The first is to look ...
  • Lugano I came across these negatives recently. I remember where they were taken (Lugano), but I don’t remember exactly when – sometime in the mid 1990s I believe. I do remember the trip though – vividly! We’d decided to drive from Geneva to Lugano for Easter and left before 9:00am on a gorgeous sunny day. ...
  • African Street Scene Taken on Gorée Island, off Dakar, Senegal in October, 2003.
  • Maui Seascape In December 2005 we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. As soon as we stepped off the plane a hard to describe sense of calm descended on me and persisted for the entire time we were there (we returned the following year and it happened again). ...
  • Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow A Sleepy Hollow website describes the church as follows: Founded around 1685, this is the church and churchyard that appear in Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It is often confused with the adjacent but separate Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The church’s 3-acre burying ground is, of course, the purported haunt of the headless horseman, ...
  • Owen Jones Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery This spectacular memorial to Owen Jones is, with its gothic embellishments, to me one of the most striking in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. I’d been up at the top, nearer to the memorial, but close up I found it difficult to get a good angle on this rather large structure. I gave up and ...
  • Happy Anniversary! Mural by the entrance. January 10 is our wedding anniversary and we decided to go to La Cremaillaire in Banksville. It’s a lovely place: although billed as a “French Country Restaurant” (which it certainly is) it also has many of the characteristics of a certain type of English Pub (low ceilings; wooden beams; lots of ...
  • Frances Frith Francis Frith collaborated with a lecturer and scholar of antiquities at the British Museum, Reginald Poole, and with Poole’s mother, Sophia, to produce this mammoth album of photographs. It is interesting that at the same time, Sophia’s brother Edward W. Lane (1801-1876), a scholar of Oriental linguistics, was working with Reginald on an illustrated edition ...
  • Hector Falls Another one from our trip to Seneca Lake in Upstate New York. This is Hector Falls, also on Seneca Lake – Just north of Watkins Glen. The figures on the left are three of my nieces and the person on the right is the husband of the one on the right. He’s ...
  • Give my regards to Broadway Taken in March, 2010 at Duffy Square (between Broadway-7th Ave and 45-47th Street) in Manhattan, NY. In case anyone reading this is not familiar with New York City, Duffy Square makes up the northern part of the Times Square neighborhood. Statues: in the foreground George M. Cohan and in the background Father Francis ...
  • I think I’m in the wrong country Recently I’ve been reading “The Plantagenets” by Dan Jones.  I’ve also been watching the TV series: Britains Bloodiest Dynasty.  The Plantagenets  narrated by Dan Brown.  In the TV version there are some wonderful scenes with ruined castles.  I love ruins and although there are many ruined buildings in the US very few of them have the ...
  • Main Street Briarcliff Manor Above a picture of Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor. Although it’s not called ‘main street’ that’s pretty much what it is. It has a butchers, a hardware store, a stationary store, an art store, a few restaurants etc. We’ve lived there for about 17 years and it really is a charming village. ...
  • David Amram Quintet at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center I’ve posted earlier on the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center. Their latest event was a performance of the David Amran Quintet. The music was great and Mr. Amram, acting as host, was informative and amusing. The weather was good and on a clear, cool evening a great time was had by all. And yes ...
  • Woman on a Jetty Taken one evening on the waterfront in Ossining, NY.
  • Tompkins Corners Cultural Center Friday marked the opening of the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center in the former United Methodist Church, now to be the regular venue for a famers market. Fruit, vegetables, crafts, wine and entertainment (including the renowned John Cohen of New Lost City Ramblers fame). We missed the dinner and movie in the evening. According to Wikipedia: Tompkins Corners ...
  • Here’s where we live No, not in the large house in the photograph – that’s long gone. As far as I can determine our house is approximately where the star is. Vestiges of some of the structures still remain, one of them as a wall on the edge of our property. We were told (don’t know if ...
  • Nepal 1999 – Buildings I was looking through some old pictures when I came across these scans of buildings in and around Kathmandu (Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur), Nepal. They were taken some time around 1999 and unfortunately I no longer remember which picture was taken where. Seeing them made me think of the recent earthquake. The cost in ...
  • Thailand – Ayutthya Historical Park Wat Phra Si Sanphet. According to Wikipedia: The Ayutthaya Historical Park (Thai: อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์พระนครศรีอยุธยา (Pronunciation)) covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350 and was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767. In 1969 the Fine Arts Department ...
  • My first elephant ride My first, and so far only ride on an elephant – seen here in the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthya (you can see some of the ruins in the background). It’s not much of a picture, but I can take solace in the fact that I clearly didn’t take it (that’s me on the left ...
  • Thailand – Bang Pa In Statue and Lake. Some old negatives (about three rolls of 36 exposure film) recently came to light. I believe they were taken during a work related trip to Bangkok, Thailand around 1999. Usually when I travel on business I don’t find the time to look around much – mostly seeing the hotel, the road ...
  • Bannerman’s Island I’ve taken pictures of Bannerman’s Island from afar – from both the west shore and the east shore of the Hudson. I finally decided to see it up close and took the tour – the island is about a 25 minute boat ride from Beacon, NY and the tour leaves from right next to ...
  • Storm King Art Center Revisited Five Swords, Alexander Calder and in the background Pyriamidian by Mark di Suvero. I’ve posted a couple of times before on Storm King Art Center: Something’s afoot at Storm King Art Center Storm King Arts Center, New Windsor, NY I find it a fascinating place and had the occasion to visit twice in rapid succession in the past few ...
  • Rye Playland Rye Playland. Familiar to anyone who has seen the movie: “Big“. According to Wikipedia: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Playland’s waterfront area of Westchester County, New York along the Long Island Sound was the site of a growing collection of recreational developments, including hotels, resorts, and “amusement areas”. Local residents concerned about ...
  • Woodstock, NY We went to Woodstock several years ago and stayed for a few days over Easter. We had a nice time exploring and eating in some of the restaurants. More recently my wife went to a spa there and while I waited for her I took a look around, initially at the Byrdcliffe Arts ...
  • Grand Canal, Venice The scanning project continues. This “postcard” shot is a scan of a 4×6 print of the Grand Canal, Venice taken sometime in the 1990s. The view is from the Rialto Bridge and the camera is either a Canon AE-1 or a Minolta Hi-Matic 7sii, the only cameras I had at the time. ...
  • Railway Carriage Interiors Taken at the Danbury Railway Museum in June, 2013 with a Sony NEX5n and the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens. An earlier post can be found at: Danbury Railway Museum In the image above I like the color contrasts and the converging lines. I hadn’t been expecting to find a kitchen. Liked the reflections ...
  • An elusive statue It’s elusive not because it’s hard to find, but because I find it hard to get a decent picture of it. I’ve loved this statue ever since I started frequenting the nearby cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY. That’s almost 17 years now. On a number of occasions I’ve tried to take pictures ...
  • Contrasts My memory tells me that these two pictures were taken on the same day, but the metadata associated with them seems contradict this – making them two days apart. The picture above was taken from the front door of our house in Briarcliff Manor. The second one (below) was taken from a friend’s ...
  • Bali part IV: A few more pictures Kertha Gosa Pavilion. This is the last batch of pictures (I promise) derived from scanned negatives from a trip to Bali. The rest can be found at: Bali I: Batiks Bali II: Around Ubud Bali III: Temples Another Batik Devotions at the temple. Monkeys A performance. Statue Bali Landscape
  • Parker Bale Post 1597, Crotonvillle, NY Half a block away from the Fraternal Order Of Eagles, Ossining Aerie 1545 stands the American Legion Parker Bale Post 1597 – yet another interesting looking building. Apparently this was formerly the Crotonville School.
  • Ossining Aerie 1525 Another interesting building in Ossining. It looks like a church but the lettering on the front says “FOE. Ossining Aerie 1525” and it has the date 1897. I did some checking but I could find anything other than that it’s owned by the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE), which I had never heard ...
  • Bali III: Temples Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple In an earlier post (Bali II: Around Ubud) I mentioned that I was disappointed because I knew I had taken pictures of some quite spectacular temples in Bali, but was able to find neither the negatives nor the prints. I later added a note that while going through some moving ...
  • National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen These were taken in May 2011 with a Panasonic LX3. I also took some pictures at the museum and I’d forgotten about them until recently. What I remember most about the visit was the the kids and the teachers had moved to another room and I ran to catch up. Unfortunately I ...
  • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Mausoleums. I used to go to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery a lot – see posts below: Sculpture in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Stained glass at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Even though it’s very close to our house in Briarcliff Manor (maybe about ten minutes away) I haven’t been lately. It’s a great place in winter when options for dog ...
  • Bali II: Around Ubud My wife was working at a conference in Bali, Indonesia. I’d never been, had heard great things about Bali and felt in need of a vacation so I thought I’d go along. Eirah was working really hard, often into the early hours of the morning so a typical day went something like this. ...
  • Florence – The Spedale degli Innocenti An earlier post documented my association with the beautiful city of Florence, Italy. It also mentioned that another post (this one) would provide some interiors of our office at the Spedale degli Innocenti. Here they are: Glazed blue terracotta roundel by Andrea della Robbia. Andrea della Robbia, Annunciazione Cloister Views over the roofs.
  • Florence – Piazza Santissima Annunziata Piazza with the Loggia dei Servi di Maria (now the Loggiato dei Serviti Hotel) in the background. I worked in Geneva, Switzerland for eight years and during that time I had regional responsibilities covering to various degrees offices in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, as well as some former Soviet Union countries in the Caucasus and Central ...
  • Throwback Thursday – Javea, Spain The view north. Taken during a vacation in Spain. We’d rented this amazing house on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was in Javea between Valencia and Alicante. We flew to Valencia, rented a car an drove down to the house. We ended up on a gravel road that seemed to lead ...
  • Croton Dam Revisited I’ve posted pictures of the Croton Dam before but the earlier pictures were in black and white and taken from a different position so I thought I’d post this one too. I also happen to prefer this one to the others. I decided to take Harley for a walk along the Old Croton Aqueduct trail ...
  • Stone Barns According to Wikipedia: Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture is a non-profit farm and educational center with a partner restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, located in Pocantico Hills, New York. The Center was created on 80 acres (320,000 m2) formerly belonging to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills by David Rockefeller and his daughter, ...
  • RIP Bob Mawson Our friend Robert Mawson passed away on November 22. RIP Bob we’ll miss you. The text below is liberally paraphrased from his obituary. Born in County Durham in the northeast of England in August 1943 he became a boy soldier in the British Army to escape work in the coalmine. He was stationed in Menden, Germany ...
  • St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Beacon, NY – Interior One of the priests told me that this quite beautiful stained glass window was done by Tiffany. Some additional digging around on the internet confirmed that the stained glass was indeed done by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s firm and the British glaziers Bell & Almond. Interior view. Unfortunately this exceeded the dynamic range of the camera ...
  • St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Beacon, NY – Exterior I came across this lovely church while driving through Beacon and stopped to take a closer look. According to Wikipedia: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is located in Beacon, New York, United States. The church complex of four buildings and a cemetery takes up a 12-acre (4.9 ha) parcel between Wolcott (NY 9D), Rector, Phillips and Union ...
  • Madame Brett Homestead, Beacon, NY According to the Hudson Valley National Heritage Area website: In 1709, Roger and Catheryna Brett, with their children and slaves, emigrated from New York to Dutchess County and hired a Long Island architect to build this Dutch-style house. Over the next seven generations, until 1954, the home remained in the family. Today, the Madam Brett Homestead ...
  • Van Wyck Homestead, Fishkill, NY Rear view from garden. The Hudson Valley Heritage Area website describes it as follows: This Dutch Colonial house was built by farmer Cornelius Van Wyck in multiple phases, beginning with a simple one- to three-room dwelling in 1732 and ending with an elaborate addition sometime before 1757. When Fishkill was chosen as the site of a supply ...
  • Abandoned Cemetery, Beacon, NY Once the graveyard of the Reformed Church of Beacon this has been long abandoned. I’ve seen a number of abandoned graveyards before: completely overgrown and with tilted and broken gravestones, but I’ve never seen one quite like this. To me what makes this one different are the abandoned vaults, from which the remains ...
  • Reformed Church, Beacon, NY According to Wikipedia: The Reformed Church of Beacon, originally the Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill Landing, is a congregation of the Reformed Church in America. It claims to be the oldest church in Beacon, New York, United States. It is located on NY 9D about 0.5 miles (1 km) south of Beacon’s municipal complex and downtown ...
  • Liberty Street, Chelsea, Dutchess County, NY View down Liberty Street. The post office – formerly a one room schoolhouse built in 1875. According to “Hidden Treasures of the Hudson Valley” by Anthony P. Musso: A one-room brick schoolhouse with a square frame bell tower was built on Liberty Street in 1875. An 1858 map of Chelsea indicates that an earlier school ...
  • Dakar, Senegal 2003 Seascape. I went to Dakar on a business-related trip in October, 2003. I was accompanied by a colleague who had never been to a developing country before. We arrived around 1:00 a.m. and after waiting a while our luggage came out – or at least mine did. Luggage kept coming out and gradually ...
  • Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving! Two enormous inflatable turkeys seen in front of a house opposite Law Park in Briaricliff Manor, NY. Taken a couple of days before Thanksgiving, 2014. This was before the snow storm. They are now presumably under several inches of snow.
  • Main Street, Beacon, NY Tabernacle Church of Christ (I think) I’ve been to Beacon a few times, but have usually limited myself to the walks down by the river. This time I decided to take a walk along Main Street. It’s a long main street – much longer than the other Hudson River towns I’ve been to. It features ...
  • San Francisco, 2003 In 2003 we went to visit my wife’s family in San Francisco. My brother-in-law Roy drove us up to San Francisco. We took the inland route going there and the extremely scenic coastal road on the way back. I remember that I had a bad cold/flu and spent most of the time ...
  • Tioronda School, Beacon, NY When I turned around to take a look at the Craig House (designed as it turned out by the same architect as this building) I turned down a street heading towards Fishkill Creek. Part of the way down I came across this abandoned building. I thought at first that it was a church, ...
  • Cold Spring Cemetery Cold Spring is one of my favorite places, but I had previously not come across the Spring Cemetery. It’s off a road that I don’t normally use and far enough away from the downtown area that I hadn’t walked there. I’m fond of cemeteries. Not because I have a fascination with death, ...
  • Howland Cultural Center A very attractive building. According to Wikipedia the Howland Cultural Center: …formerly known as Howland Library, is located on Main Street (New York State Route 52 Business) in Beacon, New York, United States. It is an ornate brick building designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the 1870s. In 1973 it was listed on the National Register ...
  • Railway Tracks, Scarborough Station Lines, patterns, textures and shadows. Panasonic Lumix, ZS3
  • Maryknoll, Ossining We went with some friends to the Ossining car show, which was held at Maryknoll in Ossining. After we’d looked at the vintage cars we decided to take a look inside the Seminary Building (above). Sony Nex 5N with 18-55mm kit lens. Medallion. Stained Glass Window. Bell and Oriental Pavillion. Madonna and Child in a niche.
  • A Walk around Tarrytown Tarrytown Music Hall. These were taken in September, 2011 in Tarrytown, NY where I was trying out the first camera in my budding vintage camera collection. The focus of the collection at that point was on rangefinder cameras, and this one was a relic of the former Soviet Union: A FED 2 (slightly modified copy ...
  • Mexico 2007 Turtles Taken during vacation in Cancun, Mexico sometime in March 2007. Statues: Isla Mujeres Metal Madonna Chichen Itza Boy on a Hammock Tulum
  • Statue on the Water Taken on the grounds of our hotel (the Arial Sands – closed since 2008, but supposedly slated for a major redevelopment) during vacation in Bermuda in 2005.
  • Saratoga Battle Site I’m something of a US Revolutionary War buff. I’ve had a particular interest in the battle of Saratoga, partly because it provides numerous examples of why the British could never have won this war (e.g. difficult communications; long supply lines; ready access by the US to militias etc.) but also because it was to ...
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina Flowers in vases. These were taken during a trip in 2004. I’d just come back from somewhere else and was tired and didn’t want to travel again, but had not alternative. I was working and the combination of the work and tiredness meant that I didn’t get out very much to take pictures. ...
  • Hermance Switzerland Hermance Town Hall – directly across from the church – where the civil ceremony took place. My younger daughter was married January 9, 2010 in the picturesque lake town of Hermance right on the border between France and Switzerland and not far from Geneva. The festivities were spread over two days – with the civil ceremony ...
  • Mummy at the Depot We’d been for a walk at the Old West Point Foundry Preserve and on the way back home I stopped for refreshments at The Depot in Cold Spring. It was in full Hallowe’en garb. As I was leaving I spotted this life-size (if that’s the right word) mummy with a small skeleton on the ...
  • Taking a break? A group of people sitting outside on a nice sunny day soaking up the rays and enjoying a great Hudson River view. I liked the lines of curves of the walls, part of the remains of Rockwood Hall. Were they walkers like myself or perhaps employees of the retirement home in background on ...
  • Another Stone Chamber I’ve posted before about these strange stone chambers in Putnam County. Here’s another one. I really don’t know how I missed this one. It’s on the left side of Route 301 (coming from Cold Spring) about half a mile from the other one on route 301 mentioned in the earlier post. I must ...
  • Chuang Yen Monastery – Exteriors I’d been to this monastery a number of times before. It’s such an unlikely sight in Putnam County, NY that we often take visiting friends there. Since we had some friends over for the weekend we thought we’d go again. I’d already taken numerous broad view pictures of the monastery so this time I ...
  • Chuang Yen Monastery – Details This is the second of two posts arising from a recent visit to the Chuang Yen Monastery. The first post concentrated on some parts of the monastery complex that I had not visited before. This one focuses on some interior detail. I was really fascinated by the thousands of tiny Buddhas (see ...
  • 9/11 Memorial at Croton Landing revisited Reaching Lady Statue. I’ve been to Croton Landing many times. I’ve even taken some pictures of the 9/11 memorial. However, this was some time ago. Since the last time I was there a new item has been added to the memorial: a statue. Apparently it’s called “Reaching Lady” and it was created ...
  • Stained glass at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery For some reason I haven’t been taking many pictures lately so I’ve fallen back on looking over my old pictures, deleting a lot and seeing if I can improve some of them (I usually can) through re-processing. Here are are few taken in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – with Panasonic cameras: the first two with ...
  • Time Warner Building I took this during a recent trip into the city. It wasn’t until I was editing it that I noticed that it was September 11 and I had taken a picture with two towers and an aircraft flying between them – of course the aircraft in my picture was a long, long way behind ...
  • Small cave at Little Stony Point Exterior I’d read that there was a small cave at Little Stony Point (not to be confused with the more famous Stony Point on the other side of the Hudson – where the Revolutionary War battle took place), but had apparently walked by it with out noticing it. This time I spotted it. Interior
  • Graymoor. The home of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement Altar of the Atonement. “…surmounted by a 16-foot-high crucifixion scene. Flanking the altar are Stations of the Cross leading down to the St. Anthony Shrine”. Driving north on Route 9, just before the turnoff for Route 403 you’ll see the entrance to Graymoor on the right. Also known as “The Holy Mountain” it’s ...
  • A walk up Nimham Mountain View from Nimham Mountain The description on the wonderful “Hike the Hudson Valley” site says: “Fire tower, easy stroll, beautiful 360-degree views” and later: “It took us about 30 minutes to reach the top, walking at toddler speed (you could probably do it in 10 or 15 at normal-person speed).” So I thought this would be ...
  • Dover Stone Church, Dover Plains, NY Entrance to the site. The Dover Stone Church Visitor’s Guide provides the following description: Entrance: Large metamorphic rocks converge to form the entrance in the shape of a church’s cathedral window. The gothic appearance of the entrance gave rise to the name “Stone Church”. “The Pulpit”: Inside the cavern is a rock ledge, affectionately given this name ...
  • Mount Gulian I was looking for somewhere to walk the dog in Beacon, NY and missed my turning. As I was trying to find it I saw a sign to Mount Gulian, which I’d vaguely heard of, and decided to see what it was. You go through a housing development and then suddenly there’s this ...
  • Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY Yesterday we went to the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY. We were going to do the garden tour, but decided to take a look at the house first. Afterwards we were hot, tired and hungry so we just took a quick look at the garden – we’ll go back another day. ...
  • Hubbard Lodge Going north on Route 9 from Peekskill towards Fishkill you pass the intersection with Route 301. A little further there’s a sign to “Hubbard Lodge”. I’ve often seen it and the other day decided to see what was there. Drive a short distance down the road and you come to a chalet ...
  • Skyline Another picture taken by my 13 year old granddaughter (with some post-processing and black and white conversion from me). I guess it’s New York since she only went to New York and Los Angeles – and it doesn’t look like LA to me. The date on the file indicates that it was taken ...
  • Fishkill Rural Cemetery According to its website: Before the formation of community cemeteries, a country churchyard was the only public burial ground available. Sometimes an obscure corner of the family farm held the remains of family members. Gradually, the churchyards were being filled up. Public interest was aroused by a number of Fishkill citizens getting together to seek a ...
  • A short walk around Fishkill The White House Restaurant/Bar (mostly Bar nowadays by the look of it) in Fishkill. I’d been meaning to take a look around Fishkill for some time, but somehow hadn’t gotten around to it. We have two daughters, one son-in-law, and five grandchildren staying with us at the moment. They wanted to go to Splashdown ...
  • Pile of Wood on Hudson Came across this on the Hudson River waterfront in Cold Spring.
  • Tree overhanging Teatown Lake Teatown Lake Reservation is one of my favorite places: to walk the dog; hike around myself and just sit and watch the world go by. It’s quite large: 1,000 acres including the 41-acre Teatown Lake, 7-acre Shadow Lake and 9-acre Vernay Lake, streams, waterfalls, hardwood swamps, mixed forests, meadowns, hemlock forests and laurel groves. ...
  • Winding Path – Rockwood Hall The old William Rockefeller estate, Rockwood Hall is long gone. Only the foundations and a lot of spectacular trees remain. With its impressive views of the Hudson it’s a great place for walking the dog. This winding path near the foundation ruins caught my eye. Taken with a Sony NEX 5N and an ...
  • Geneva, Switzerland Lake Geneva from Quai du Mont-Blanc with the Jet d’eau in the background. We lived in (or right next to) Geneva for eight years and yet I seem to have very few pictures from that time. I suppose there are a couple of reasons for this. First I was going through one of my ...
  • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Old Dutch Church and Burial Ground. In Winter this is one of the few locations that I can reliably expect to be cleared of snow. So it’s a place of last resort for walking the dog when it’s cold and there’s snow on the ground. It’s also a large and very interesting cemetery with ...
  • French Castles – Loire Valley, 2002 Chambord. We had a very pleasant holiday in Loire Valley in 2002. We had been visiting our younger daughter in Geneva, Switzerland and took a train up to Paris and then another train to Tours. After picking up our car rental we drove down to the Chateau de Rochecotte, which we were using as a ...
  • More from around the lake Waterlogged canoe Some more from one of my walks around the lake. Trees and Rock Garden Canoes at Moon Beach Tree and Ivy The Watcher
  • Grand Central 2010-2011 Lexington Avenue Entrance These are some of the earliest photos taken with my Panasonic Lumix LX3 – mostly from 2010 but a couple from 2011. Still Life Phones Steps detail Waiting for the Train
  • Sylvan Glen I first went here in May 2010. It’s a fascinating place with huge blocks of stone; stone walls, metal cables strewn around all over; rusting pieces of machinery etc. I wasn’t happy with the pictures I got with my then carry around camera: a Pansonic Lumix ZS3. So I thought I’d go ...
  • Sandcastle I came across this on Moon Beach.
  • Churchyard – First Presbyterian Church, Mahopac NY We’ve had a number of gloomy, rainy days recently and today was no exception. I needed to get out, however briefly so after shopping for groceries I had a ride around to see what I could find. Two earlier posts: Abandoned House on Route 6N and Three Red Barns also came from this ...
  • Three Red Barns Or are they sheds? I’ll call them barns because ‘Three Red Barns’ sounds so much better than ‘Three Red Sheds’. These are on Archer Road in Mahopac just past the intersection with Route 6n.
  • Chinese Garden – Lasdon Park and Arboretum Top of one of the arch/gateways. We went with some friends to an antique show held on the grounds of the Lasdon Park and Arboretum. While the ladies when around the antiques show I went for a walk with my friend Ken. I’d heard that there was a Chinese Garden somewhere and I hoped ...
  • Planting Time We’re members of the local garden club and every year those who run it ask for volunteers to help plant at ‘Two bridges park’ near the beginning of Lake Shore Road and my wife volunteered. This year the girl scouts turned up in force to help with the planting. The two pictures below show some ...
  • Orange Mill Historic District: Algonquin Park Newburgh No it’s not somewhere a hobbit might live. It’s the former main powder mill building. According to Wikipedia: The Orange Mill Historic District…takes its name from the old gunpowder mill complex, built by Asa Taylor in 1816 and operated by the Laflin & Rand Powder Company after 1869. It is located along the unnamed Orange ...
  • Wasteland off the lake Tumbledown shed. You can’t see this from the road around the lake, but if you look for a somewhat overgrown track near North Beach and follow it down a little you come across this interesting, but dilapidated area. If you follow the track (which seems to be used a lot by ATVs), it eventually goes ...
  • Pound Ridge Nursery Bright, Shiny and Colorful Garden Ornaments. Last weekend we had lunch with some friends at the Inn at Pound Ridge. Afterwards we stopped at the Pound Ridge Nursery, which is right next to the Inn. They had some nice things at the nursery, but they were rather expensive – in keeping with the “tony” ...
  • On the Dock Docks looking south. A week ago we spend a lazy day at home – sitting on the dock reading, talking, eating drinking and generally relaxing. All pictures taken on or from out dock. Lunch on the dock. Close up – wine bottle. Close up – stopper. Neighbours on their floating dock. Roses in a pot. More roses. Park Beach. Across the ...
  • On the Newburgh Waterfront The River Rose. As we continued our ride back home from the Gomez Mill House my wife started to get hungry. She’s a very regular eater and if it goes past her normal time to eat she starts to get cranky. So we had to urgently find somewhere to eat. We ended up ...
  • Some black and whites from the Gomez Mill House A door in the wall. An earlier post described our recent visit to the Gomez Mill House. Here are a few black and whites from the same trip Old machinery. I’m not sure what this is – maybe a printing press? Old cabinet. It was in the same area as the machinery above so I ...
  • Gomez Mill House According to its web site “The Oldest Jewish Dwelling in North America”: In 1714, Early American Jewish leader, Luis Moses Gomez, built a fieldstone blockhouse to conduct trade and maintain provisions on his 6500 acre property in the Mid-Hudson region as an extension of his successful enterprises in Colonial New York. From these roots and through ...
  • On the lake View from North Beach looking south. A few more pictures taken while walking the dog around the lake. Canoes at North Beach New wooden bridge. Part of a project involving the new bridge, some gravel paths and a seating area with picnic table. Nicely done by the Eagle Scouts.
  • Dam and Cascade Near the entrance to our lake is a small park, which the residents have started to call “Two bridges park” because of the two wooden bridges over small streams which pass through it. The garden club (including my wife) plants flowers there every year. In winter one of the fir trees is in ...
  • Small Ruin at Sunny Ridge Preserve Just to show that my interest in ruins goes back a while these pictures were taken with my Panasonic Lumix LX3 in November 2010 while walking in the Sunny Ridge Preserve in New Castle, Westchester. They’re just off the trail and I have no idea what they once were. Perhaps a farm house?
  • Arden Point – Garrison Hudson River looking north from Arden Point Nice, pretty easy walk starting right next to Garrison railway station. The full walk is actually two loops. That’s supposed to take two hours. We did the first loop, but it was hot and very humid so neither of us wanted to go any further. ...
  • A little piece of Europe in the Hudson Valley: Huguenot Street – New Paltz Bevier House. Built by Louis Bevier, the patentee, in 1698. Elting homestead from 1740. This house has an interesting sub-cellar. “The Huguenot Street Historic District is located near downtown New Paltz, New York, approximately 90 miles (140 km) north of New York City. The seven stone houses and several accompanying structures in the ...
  • Rockefeller Trails – Pocantico River Trail Rusting Fire Hydrant. Someone’s left an old woolen mitten on it. I was down in Westchester County again and decided on another visit to the Rockefeller Preserve – this time walking along the Pocantico River Trail, one of the longer trails in the preserve. As the name implies it follows the Pocantico River and ...
  • A few black and whites from the West Point Foundry Preserve A little while ago I did a post on the Old West Point Foundry Preserve. The color pictures were all of the old administration building, the only largely intact structure in the preserve. However, there are other things to see and here a few black and whites from the same excursion. Reconstruction of a gun testing ...
  • Along the Three Lakes/Appalachian Trail We went walking on the Old Rail Bed Trail the other day.  I was actually looking for the Three Lakes/Appalachian Trail loop but apparently I didn’t go far enough. If you go past the parking area I used for about another mile you find another parking area with access to the trail I wanted. This ...
  • Roundup Texas BBQ I went to the Roundup Texas BBQ on Route 9 (just south of the intersection with 301) last night. It’s quite spartan: a small room with four or five wooden picnic tables. The food seems to be cooked and served from a couple of trailers adjoining the restaurant. To order you go up to a ...
  • Rockefeller Trails – Brook Trail I used to go to the Rockefeller preserve a lot once upon a time. Nowadays I tend to spend more time farther north. I have a lot of pictures from those days, but at that time my carry around camera was a Panasonic ZS3 (and later a ZS7). They were both excellent ...
  • Dia:Beacon After walking Jackson for an hour around the lake I decided to go to Dia. It’s really quite close – go to Cold Spring, turn north on 9D and follow it for about 10 minutes and you’re there. The entire trip takes less than 30 minutes. The location is nice, right on the Hudson River. ...
  • Halcyon Hall This magnificent edifice looms over the intersection of routes 343 and 82 in the town of Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York. It’s Halcyon Hall, the main building of what was once a 200 room luxury hotel when it was built in 1893. In 1907 the Bennett School for Girls relocated here from farther ...
  • The Old West Point Foundry The Old West Point Foundry. It was a wet day – not raining hard, but a constant drizzle. The kind that gets you wet. I almost didn’t go. It was about 3:30 by the time I was finished doing other essential things and the weather was grey and gloomy, but not yet raining. The dog ...
  • Skaneateles We went to visit my wife’s brother and his family in Rochester, NY. It’s a long ride so we decided to break for lunch somewhere along the way. The last time we visited him we passed a town called Skaneateles on the way back. It’s a very picturesque town alongside a lake. We remembered that ...
  • At the Jefferson Valley Mall Bush along a wall. Taken while walking the dog around the Jefferson Valley Mall. Seeds in the parking lot Artwork. The Jefferson Valley Mall is one of the most boring I’ve come across – at least for me. There are very few stores there that interest me. This artwork is well hidden. You go ...
  • At the Yard House I imagine that not all Englishmen like beer, but a great many of them do. I’m one of them. When we go to a restaurant I also seem to have a knack of ordering something from the menu that they don’t have. At first I thought that this was because I order “out of ...
  • Happy Birthday Eirah Today is my wife’s birthday so we decided to celebrate by having dinner at the Hudson House River Inn in Cold Spring, NY. Its website states: Built in 1832 and operated as a hotel since then, the Hudson House River Inn is truly part of Hudson River history. The Hudson House is located on the serene ...
  • Storm King Arts Center, New Windsor, NY The Storm King Arts Center proclaims: Widely celebrated as one of the world’s leading sculpture parks, Storm King Art Center has welcomed visitors from across the globe for fifty years. It is located only one hour north of New York City, in the lower Hudson Valley, where its pristine 500-acre landscape of fields, hills, and woodlands ...
  • Old Brandreth Pill Factory, Ossining NY This is the former Brandreth Pill Factory in Ossining, NY. According to Wikipedia: The former Brandreth Pill Factory is a historic industrial complex located on Water Street in Ossining, New York, United States. It consists of several brick buildings from the 19th century, in a variety of contemporary architectural styles. In 1980 it was listed on ...
  • Tompkins Corners Cemetery (a.k.a. Carmel Valley Burial Ground and Peekskill Hollow Cemetery) Putnam Valley, NY A large cemetery (about 4 acres) with over 200 gravestones. There are some interesting old gravestones in the old section and some novel statuary in the new part. The Putnam Graveyards site has this to say about this cemetery: The cemetery was incorporated May 4, 1853 as Carmel Valley Burial Ground Association (now defunct). A meeting was ...
  • Waterfall and bridge on Peekskill Hollow Creek On the corner of Peekskill Hollow Road and Bryant Pond Road. Another one I’d driven past many times and never noticed.
  • Post Family Plot The Post Family Plot is a tiny (less than on quarter of an acre) graveyard adjacent to Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department station on Peekskill Hollow Road. There are only five graves, all but one bearing the name “Post” (the other one has the name “Nichols”). The earliest (1835) is that of Amanda ...
  • Ruined stone building on the corner of Pudding Street and Richardsville Road As Pudding Street is one of the major roads going to my house I had driven by this corner on numerous occasions. I’d never noticed these ruins. This time I did. Seems to be just an old stone building and not one of the mysterious stone chambers of Putnam County.  Picturesque nonetheless.
  • Beltzhoover Teahouse on Halsey Pond A plaque at the site reads: Beltzhoover Teahouse on Halsey Pond. Largest remaining structure of “Rochroanne”, the 200 acre Belzhoover Estate built in 1905. Melchior Belzhoover was “President” of Irvington from 1904 to 1916. The Halsey family owned a portion of the property from 1927-1976. The pond area became Village land in 1980. From 1994 to ...
  • Rundle’s Mill Drive along Peekskill Hollow Road and turn onto Mill Street (by the Putnam Valley Museum). Before you get to Route 6 You’ll pass a small, red building on your left – on the corner of Mill Pond Road. It looks like a shed and it’s easy to miss, but it’s well worth stopping for ...
  • Untermyr Park, Yonkers, NY Wikipedia has this to say about Untermyr Park: Untermyer Park (also known as Untermyer Gardens, previously part of an estate known as Greystone) is a historic park of 43 acres, situated in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City. Untermyer Park is on a hillside above the Hudson River and features a ...
  • King David Cemetery, Putnam Valley, New York Looking across King David Cemetery towards the hills on the other side of Peekskill Hollow Road. King David Cemetery is at the intersection of Peekskill Hollow Road and Mill Street. With so much snow around my options for walking the dog are limited. Cemetery’s are usually interesting places to walk in and they usually ...
  • Mysterious stone chambers of Putnam County My wife and I belong to the local garden club. They have monthly meetings, usually and not surprisingly on topics related to gardening. From time to time, however, they organize presentations on other topics. This time Tom O’Reilly gave a talk on “Stone Chambers of Putnam County”. Tom O’Reilly Apparently there are a large number of these ...
  • West Bank of the Hudson Geese on a Lake (I don’t recall which one) I live on the east side of the Hudson River and seem to spend most of my time there. This time, however, I went across the Bear Mountain Bridge and turned north along Route 9w. Later I turned south on 218 (Storm King Highway) through ...
  • Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden I recently posted about the annual blessing of the animals at the Hammond Museum and Stroll Garden. Even without the dogs this is an interesting place to visit. Although small it has some pleasant gardens. As its name implies it’s a nice place to just walk around. The museum is also the venue for “..Cultural ...
  • Greenwich Point Park – Old Greenwich, Connecticut Tide pool. These are some of the first shots taken with my then new Sony Nex 5N. They were taken early on a November morning in 2011. The light was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I can only rarely make myself get up early enough to benefit from this kind of light. I usually shoot ...
  • Oldies: Independence Day, July 4, 2005 Lovely Lady Liberty Way back in 2005 we went into the city to watch the Independence Day fireworks from a boat in New York harbour. We had dinner and drinks on the boat and then watched the fireworks display. The drinks were fine. The food was ordinary and the fireworks were, as always ...
  • Red Mills Park, Mahopac NY Red MIlls Historic Park is a small but interesting former site of two mills: a grist mill and a ‘carding mill’. I’d never heard of one of these, but Wikipedia describes carding as: “… a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibers to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing This ...
  • Rockwood Hall – July 6, 2011 – early evening Right on the Hudson River, Rockwood Hall is the site of a mansion once owned by William Rockefeller. Unfortunately, very little remains beyond the foundations of the house, which are quite impressive in their own right. It has great views of the river (e.g. towards the Tappan Zee Bridge) and the trails connect up to ...
  • Cape Cod? No – Ossining, NY Marina We had an impromptu lunch with some friends at “The Boathouse” by the Shattemuc Marina in Ossining. The food was good and the company better. The restaurant is situated right next to the Hudson River. Looking at the marina from the restaurant you could almost think that you were in New England somewhere. Boat in the ...
  • Sparta Cemetery Ossining NY As the sign says: “1764 – Ossining’s oldest cemetery”. It’s located between Route 9 and Revolutionary Road, close to where they intersect. The Ossining Daily Voice has a short but interesting article about Sparta cemetery. One of the most fascinating inhabitants of Sparta Cemetery is The Leatherman. Wikipedia states: The Leatherman (ca. 1839–1889) was a particular vagabond, famous ...
  • Westchester’s Ridge Hill Mall We had lunch with some friends last Saturday and they mentioned Westchester’s Ridge Hill Mall in Yonkers, NY. We’d never been there so the following day off we went. It’s quite interesting. Most Malls are enclosed areas with lots of shops. They present a nice, protected area, but at times become a little claustrophobic. The Ridge ...
  • Ice I’m actually getting a bit sick of snow and ice, as well as taking pictures of it. As I write this we’ve just had about a foot of snow. The snow appears to have stopped but now we’re getting sleet and freezing rain. There’s so much snow and ice around, however that it’s difficult ...
  • Scarborough Park 12:30 to Poughkeepsie? Right next to Scarborough Station on Metro North’s Hudson Line is a small park: Scarborough Park. The Village of Briarcliff Manor website says: Plan a picnic supper at this park! Incredible sunsets, and the sights and sounds of the majestic Hudson River, await you at this six-acre, 97 year-old park. Bring your fishing poles ...
  • Shack on Route 6N I’d driven past this several times. This time I decided to stop and take a closer look. I have no idea what it is/was. The sign “628 1010. Call Larry Zacks for appointment” is intriguing. I liked the textures of the wood though, and the crazy angles. Looks like it’s going to fall over at ...
  • Adams Corners Cemetery According to the Putnam Valley Historic Cemeteries Site: In quite early times (c. 1794) tradition states that Richard Curry came up to Peekskill Hollow from White Plains. He traveled by horse wtih his wife, bringing all his worldly goods with him, and settled below Adams Corners. While sitting one summer day with his young child between ...
  • Cairn on Peekskill Hollow Creek I was driving along Peekskill Hollow Road a few days ago – as I had many times in the year or so that we’ve lived out here. Most of the time you can’t really see Peekskill Hollow Creek because the leaves on the trees block the view. In winter though you see more. ...
  • Putnam Valley Grange At the interesection of Peekskill Hollow Road and Mill Street is a small, but very interesting looking builiding. It’s the Putnam Valley Grange and according to its website: On December 4, 1867 in a small Washington, D.C. building that housed the office of William Saunders, Superintendent of Propagating Gardens in the Department of Agriculture, the Order ...
  • Patriots Park Tarrytown, NY This is one of the first pictures I took with my Panasonic LX3 back in 2010 – in Patriots Park in Tarrytown, NY. I was fascinated by the stone structures built to channel the water (apparently called Andre brook) through the park. I liked the textures of the stone and the curving lines of the ...
  • Motorcyclepedia Part 2 I recently posted about Motorcyclepedia, a motorcycle museum in Newburgh, NY. On looking at the post again I realized that there weren’t actually many pictures of motorcycles. So here are a few more:
  • Motorcyclepedia Its website describes Motorcyclepedia as follows: MOTORCYCLEPEDIA MUSEUM: a motorcycle enthusiast’s paradise, where you’ll find: * 85,000 square feet of museum space * Over 450 Motorcycles * Motorcycles from 1897-Present * Military, Police and Harley Davidson galleries * Rare vintage bikes such as a circa 1897 DeDion * THREE Incredible Motordromes! * Fun for the whole family! * Much, much, more! Come and see for ...
  • Washington’s Headquarters – or at least one of them, this one in Newburgh Apparently Washington had a number of HQs. This one is in Newburgh, NY. Wikipedia has this (among other things) to say about it: Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is a historic site in Newburgh, New York, USA. It consists of the Hasbrouck House, the longest-serving headquarters of George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, and three ...
  • Danbury Fair Mall I took the dog for a walk around Danbury Fair Mall while my wife was shopping. It’s a bit more interesting than your average mall. It’s located right next to Danbury Airbport so you have planes landing and taking off. It’s also right next to some wet lands, which provide some visual ...
  • RX100 in Cold Spring As I get older I’ve been gradually ‘downsizing’ my equipment. I switched from a DSLR to a Sony Nex 5N (via a Panasonic LX3, which I love but which in terms of quality is not as good as the Nex and it’s also just a little too big to use as a ‘carry everywhere’ camera). ...
  • St. Augustine’s Church, Ossining, NY St. Augustine’s is an interesting church with an amazing view out over the Hudson. It also has some interesting stations of the cross, which I neglected to photograph. The church website has an interesting page on the history of the church. The view St. Augustine? Crucifix with church in the background Flagpole. Hudson River background Rear of the church.
  • Bit Chilly out there! Ice on the Hudson – Scarborough Station I haven’t been out much lately. The weather was bad: snowy; then rainy; then really cold. Also I’ve had my first cold in about five years so didn’t feel much like leaving the house. I went into the city today and left in a bit of ...
  • Foggy scenes through a train window Tappan Zee Bridge I was returning from New York city on the train to Cold Spring on an extremely foggy day. I loved the shapes emerging from the from the fog so I took a few pictures. They have a lot of problems: missed focus; motion blur; reflections etc. This was quite “experimental” for ...
  • Woodstock NY, April 2004 The Wild Rose Inn (where we stayed). We went up to Woodstock, NY around Easter 2004. It’s a picturesque little town with some interesting restaurants. At that time we were considering buying a house on the Hudson so we went to a nearby town (Saugerties) to look at some properties. We only ...
  • Winter 2013 – First significant snow storm We had about eight inches and then a few days later about another three or four. Moon Beach Across the lake from our patio Statue in the garden Another view from Moon Beach
  • Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, NY Taken in February 2012. This was not long after I got the Nex 5n and as I recall this was the first occasion where I used it with a legacy lens – in this case a Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM. I was unfamiliar with how the focus peaking worked and could have done ...
  • The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls View across Fishkill Creek to SWIFT, the restaurant at the Roundhouse. The two large windows are at the restaurant. My wife is back from her European (Switzerland and the United Kingdom) excursion. We went for lunch at SWiFT in the Roundhouse at Beacon Falls. It’s a very nice location and the food was good. The bar ...
  • Mount Beacon Another long walk – this time again off 9d in Beacon. Went with the dog up to the top of Mount Beacon, of which Wikipedia says: …the highest peak of the Hudson Highlands, located behind the City of Beacon, New York, in the Town of Fishkill. Its two summits rise above the Hudson River behind the ...
  • Former Stern/Cornish Mansion: Northgate My wife is away in Europe visiting kids and grandkids. So I’ve been going for longer walks (around two hours rather than the usual one hour) and venturing farther afield. This time (the dog, Jackson and myself) went for a walk in the woods just off route 9d north of Cold Spring. This is what ...
  • Patterson, NY churches and cemeteries The town of Patterson, NY has an interesting site on the history of the town. There are pages on the churches of Patterson; and on the Maple Ave. Cemetery; the combined church cemeteries and the war memorial., which are the subjects of these pictures. Sibbell Ludington’s grave. The site has a biography for Sibbell Ludington. The first ...
  • Nikon N90s I love this camera. Everything about it feels right: the weight, the way it fits into my hand, the controls are where I want them to be. Thom Hogan has a nice review of it on his site The funny thing is that I didn’t even buy this camera. In some cases I see listings for ...
  • Campsite A couple of weeks ago while walking the dog around Fahnestock State Park I came across this campsite.  At the time there were still quite a few people camping.  I went back again a couple of days ago and apart from one brave soul the site was deserted. The picture above isn’t really in the camp ...
  • Philipstown, NY Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown. It’s one of my favorite places, appearing in a number of posts on this blog. These buildings are just outside the village and I’ve often driven by them on the way to Cold Spring – each time saying to myself that I should stop ...
  • Little Stony Point Not to be confused with the more famous Stony Point Battlefield State Park, which is on the west side of the Hudson just north of Haverstraw this site: Little Stony Point is on the east side of the Hudson on route 9d just north of Cold Spring. You approach the site via a bridge over the ...
  • Strange creatures along Secor road Crocodile If you take the Taconic State Parkway north you’ll eventually, after passing Yorktown Heights and Jefferson Valley come to an exit called Bryant Pond Road. Turn right at the end of the exit ramp. You’d think this would be Bryant Pond Road but it isn’t. It’s actually Secor Road. Pass the mobil ...
  • Another day in the city I went into the city again the other day.  As always there were picture taking opportunities like this women attempting to get a soda from the soft drinks machine at Scarborough station. The last time I tried to do this it took my money and refused to give me the diet coke I had ...
  • First Snow of 2013 We just had our first snow of 2013. This was the kind of snow I like. It stuck to trees and grass, but didn’t stick to hard surfaces. Less than 1/2 inch total. It looks nice but doesn’t inconvenience me much. I certainly won’t have to shovel. I imagine ...
  • Around Canopus Lake We’re lucky to live right on the border of Clarence Fahnestock State Park.  In fact, with a little effort, it’s possible to walk into the park. I’m not that fond of the trails near the house though so I usually drive to another part of the park. In another post I mentioned that a neighbour ...
  • On Pelton Pond Other posts have documented my neighbour’s gift of a Minolta SrT 201 and Minolta MD Rokkor-x 50mm f1.7  and my walk along Canopus Lake with the lens on a Sony Nex 5n.  These black and white pictures were taken around Pelton pond with the same lens and camera. Pelton pond is an interesting spot.   The ...
  • Grand Central details I traveled through Grand Central Terminal virtually every day for thirteen years on my way to work.  I had noticed the above panel near Hudson News and had even tried to take pictures of it – mostly without success.  I decided to try again.   As I continued on my way out (I was on ...
  • Muscoot Farm – Fall 2013 An earlier post detailed a trip to Muscoot Farm this Summer (2013).  We went back around Hallowe’en with our granddaughter Divya.   She had a great time. Sometimes it’s hard getting up. The piglets (see earlier post) have grown. A different kind of spiderman. Inside the pig shed. Sheep Hallowe’en figures. Humpty Dumpty sat on a ……..???????
  • Bear Mountain Inn and the legend of Hessian Lake The Inn My wife had arranged for a visit to the spa at the Bear Mountain Inn in Bear Mountain State Park. I drove her there and then while she had her treatment I took the dog for a walk around Hessian Lake. I’d been to other parts of the park before (other trails, the trailside ...
  • Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa I was looking for somewhere to have lunch/brunch one Sunday. Most of the time we limit ourselves to restaurants on our side (the east side) of the Hudson river. This time I decided to look a little (but not too much) farther afield. After browsing around on the internet I came across this place on ...
  • A walk around Cortlandt Town Center My wife went shopping at the Cortlandt Town Center. This is a kind of outside shopping mall i.e. Lots of stores, restaurants, even a movie theater – but not enclosed like a regular mall. I didn’t particularly want to go shopping so I took the dog for a walk around the periphery. ...
  • Muscoot Farm – Summer 2013 According to their website Muscoot Farm: …was originally a “Gentleman’s Farm” founded by Ferdinand T. Hopkins in 1880 and operated as a dairy farm until Westchester County acquired the property in the late 1960s. Today, Muscoot Farm is a Westchester County Park that strives to preserve and interpret its agrarian past. Visitors may stroll through the ...
  • India 2006 In June 2006 I went on a business trip to New Delhi, India.  I’d been there before returning from a family vacation in the Philippines.  My wife had to go to India on business so we tagged along.  It was very hot indeed.  The kids got sick and all they wanted to do was to ...
  • Meerkats Meerkat on watch We took our granddaughter to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut. Obviously you’d expect to find fish at an aquarium, but I didn’t expect to find meerkats. They had a very nice display of Meerkats including a small plastic bubble projecting up into their habitat. We couldn’t persuade our granddaughter to go into ...
  • Barton Orchards My younger daughter, her husband and my granddaughter (they’re in the hayride picture below) are visiting from Geneva. Searching around for things for them to do my wife came across Barton Orchards. Only 20 minutes away from us in Poughquag, Dutchess County, NY this is a great place for both kids and adults. You can ...
  • New York 9/11 memorial After Trinity Church, lunch and the Federal Hall National Memorial my last stop before going off to meet another friend for drinks was the 9/11 memorial. I had not been to this area since the 9/11 attacks and was keen to see the memorial. I was a little disappointed. After 12 years I had ...
  • Federal Hall National Memorial After Trinity Church and lunch I went to the Federal Hall National Memorial. Their site says the following: Here on Wall Street, George Washington took the oath of office as our first President, and this site was home to the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices. The current structure, a Customs House, later served ...
  • Trinity Church I was having lunch with an old friend and former colleague. He lives in Brooklyn so we agreed to meet in the lower part of Manhattan. Despite living in New York for over thirty years, I hadn’t been to this area for many years, maybe even decades. So I thought I’d get ...
  • On the Beach We don’t normally have a beach at the bottom of our property. The level of our lake is lowered every winter, usually by about three feet I believe. Apparently this is done to control the growth of aquatic weeds in the shallow water – the freezing winter temperatures freeze the roots and kill the weeds. It ...
  • Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy and Anguilla 2009 In 2009 we had a great holiday in the Caribbean. We stayed in St. Martin: a very interesting island. Although it’s only 87 square kilometers it’s half Dutch and half French. The airport is in the Dutch part and the cruise ships also dock here. If you like to party it ...
  • Cold Spring in Colour Some more color pictures from one of my favorite locations: Cold Spring, NY. All pictures were taken with a Sony Nex 5N with a Minolta 50mm F2 ML and appropriate adapter. Blue Door Colorful facade of “Le Bouchon” French restaurant Pastels House Facade with flowers Not particularly colorful, but I couldn’t resist…
  • Odds and Ends A few pictures from various walks/drives around the area. Old barn door, Peekskill Hollow Road Inside the Foundry Museum, Cold Spring Building for rent, Putnam Valley St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Putnam Valley Entrance to Putnam Valley Library
  • Vintage Tractor show at Tilly Foster Farm I love history and I’m fascinated by old things: old buildings; old cars; old aircraft; old machinery etc. So when I saw an ad for the vintage tractor show at the Tilly Foster Farm I had to go. When I was young my father used to take me to traction engine rallies. I can’t ...
  • Indian Brook Falls Indian Brook Falls is very close to Constitution Marsh. In fact you use the same parking area. I’d been driving past here on route 9d for years and never knew that it was here. That’s probably because it’s not at all well marked. I don’t believe there’s a sign on route 9d. Even when you ...
  • Constitution Marsh Constitution Marsh with West Point in the background When we went to the big band concert at Boscobel I picked up a copy of “Hudson Valley & Catskills” at the gift shop. The book described Constitution Marsh as follows: A National Audobon Society haven for nature lovers who enjoy birding along the river and spotting rare wildflowers ...
  • Big Band Show at Boscobel The Mansion (taken in 2011) One gorgeous Sunday evening we went to to a big band concert at Boscobel. For those who don’t know it Boscobel is a Federal style mansion just outside Cold Spring. The house used to be in the Bronx. It was about to be demolished when preservationists took over and moved the ...
  • Oregon Corners Part 2: The Church of the North American Martyrs Facade An earlier post covered the Spruce Hill Inn at Oregon Corners. Just north of the Spruce Hill Inn on Oscawana Lake Road is one of the more interesting churches I’ve seen: The Church of the North American Martyrs. It’s a Catholic church but looks like a native american Long House. It’s made of wood and ...
  • Oregon Corners Part 1: The Spruce Hill Inn Spruce Hill Inn – Facade I’d been stuck inside for a couple of days because of bad weather and was getting bored. So one Sunday I decided I had to get out and I went to the closest thing that Putnam Valley has to a town centre: Oregon corners. Apparently they’re not used to ...
  • Orthodox Churchyard In February 2013 I posted a couple of pictures of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God Russian Orthodox Church in Mahopac. As I was leaving I noticed an interesting looking graveyard back in the woods behind the church. It has a look, which is quite different from the other graveyards in Westchester and ...
  • Myannmar 2007 Distant view of Shwedagon Pagoda from our hotel In 2007 I went with a colleague on a business trip to Yangon (Rangoon), Myannmar (Burma). Since I was working I didn’t get a chance to see very much. Also at that time Myannmar was a difficult country to move around it. We weren’t allowed to leave Yangon. ...
  • North Salem, NY The Housemaster site has this to say about North Salem: North Salem is somewhat of an equestrian’s dreamland. The town’s farming history paved the way for plenty of open spaces and a rural setting, attractions that draw residents who enjoy the serenity and strive to maintain North Salem’s country qualities. With old churches and barns converted ...
  • More scans of old images: Egypt Giza: Camel and Pyramids During the late 1970s to early 1980s I spent quite a bit of time in Egypt on business. Here are a couple of pictures from that period. I don’t recall exactly what camera I used, but it would have been either a Minolta Hi-Matic 7sii or a Canon AE-1. Feluccas on ...
  • Niagara Falls Chief Clinton Rickard who founded the Indian Defense League in 1926 Although I’ve lived in New York for over thirty years I had never been to Niagara Falls. We visited my brother-in-law in Rochester, NY last week and since Niagara Falls is only about 90 miles from Rochester we decided to go. I must ...
  • Roaring Brook Lake Regatta Our first “Roaring Brook Lake Regatta” took place  July 20. When we lived on Lake Geneva in Switzerland every year they had something called the “Bol d’Or” where several hundred sailboats of all shapes and sizes raced from one end of the lake to the other and back. It was really quite spectacular. I suppose ...
  • A few more from around the lake Sailboats on Roaring Brook Lake A variety of pictures from around the lake taken while walking the dog; sitting on the dock; participating in garden club meetings etc. Day lilies along Lake Shore Road Chair, table and urn by the lake Butterfly on lavendar Sundial Colorful birch tree Fence with roses along Lake Shore Road
  • Gilead Cemetery Carmel, NY A plaque on one of the entrance pillars reads: “Gilead Cemetery. Placed on the New York State Register of Historic Places October 14, 1988 and on the National Register of Historic Places December 1, 1988. This bronze plaque is dedicated by the town of Carmel and the Historical Society, October 14, 1998”. Ken Warnecke of ...
  • Military Museum of Southern New England – Danbury An earlier post dealt with the Danbury Railway Museum.  Not too far away in Danbury is another interesting museum: the Military Museum of Southern New England. According to their web site: The Military Museum of Southern New England opened in 1995 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of our nation’s military history. The original ...
  • Stonecrop Gardens Conservatory and pond garden According to the Stonecrop Gardens website: Stonecrop Gardens is located in Cold Spring, New York and was originally the home of Anne and Frank Cabot. Stonecrop became a public garden in 1992 under the direction of Caroline Burgess. At its windswept elevation of 1,100 feet in the Hudson Highlands Stonecrop enjoys a Zone 5 ...
  • Danbury Railway Museum Danbury Railway Museum
  • Sad Photo I think that this is probably the saddest picture I’ve ever taken. I still have difficulty looking at it. Around Easter 2012 I was walking in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  I think it was the movement of the spinner that caught my attention.  Then I saw the brightly coloured Easter eggs and the happy, smiling Spongebob. ...
  • Niese’s Maple Farm The Niese’s Farm web site says: The Niese family has boiled maple sap for seven generations. We are the oldest family maple producers in southern New York, from single buckets of syrup in 1892, to miles of sap lines today, we’ve kept our quality high and service unbeatable. “Since early childhood I’ve worked the entire maple sap ...
  • Carmel, NY I provided some pictures of Carmel in an earlier post: In and around Carmel, NY. It’s such a picturesque place I took some more: I don’t know why all of the flags are out. In preparation for July 4th? Some other event of which I’m unaware? American Legion Post 270 with the Putnam County Office building to ...
  • Peekskill Hollow Road Peekskill Hollow Road runs from Oscawana Lake Road in Putnam Valley over to Route 301 near Carmel, NY – a distance of about 11 miles. It’s quite a picturesque road, which passes through some of the once separate hamlets, which now make up Putnam Valley e.g. Tompkins Corners, Adams Corners etc. There are a number ...
  • Ossining From time to time I wander around the neighbouring towns taking pictures. This time it was Ossining. It’s perhaps best known as the location of Sing Sing prison. In fact the town was originally called Sing Sing but changed its name to try to avoid the association with the prison. I was surprised to find ...
  • Los Angeles 2007 An earlier post mentioned that after our second trip to Hawaii we returned through Los Angeles to meet up with my wife’s family and our younger daughter. Getty Museum. A number of my daughters’ friends were also in LA so we celebrated her birthday at the Getty Museum. It has a lovely location high on the ...
  • Hawaii part 2 – Big Island Statue at Kona International Airport In an earlier post I mentioned that we would be coming back to Hawaii.  How could I be so certain?  In that post I also mentioned that our flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles had been cancelled.  The airline (unfortunately I can no longer remember the name) paid for a taxi into Honolulu; ...
  • Hawaii part 1 – Maui and Oahu Player in a ‘sun ceremony’ – part of the hotel Luau. In 2005 we went on vacation to Hawaii – specifically to Maui. This was the first time I’d been there. What a wonderful place! I really felt comfortable there. Of course parts of it are very “touristy” and other parts are just like the rest ...
  • Angkor View of Ankor Wat Sometime around September 2007 I was invited to a meeting in Cambodia. I recall that I’d been travelling a lot and had just returned from somewhere distant. I wasn’t even sure if I was the right person to attend this meeting. So I didn’t really want to go. ...
  • On the Appalachian Trail Before anyone gets the wrong impression I’m not trying to hike the full (2,200 mile) length of the Appalachian Trail – from Georgia to Maine.  However, the trail passes by quite close (an eight minute car ride) to where we live . Since I’m always on the lookout for new places to walk the dog ...
  • Hudson Line Ride Sitting on the train going into the city can be quite boring. I didn’t feel like reading and just gazing out of the window didn’t seem to be much of an option. Then it occurred to me that I’d never had much luck taking pictures from the train. What could I do ...
  • House of Dark Shadows Spooky looking place.  It was actually used  as the set for the 1970 movie House of Dark Shadows, and the 1971 movie Night of Dark Shadows.  It’s Lyndhurst Mansion overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown, NY.   This is the front facade looking onto the park.  The other side of the house looks down on the Hudson. Wikipedia ...
  • Baxter Cemetery abandoned in the woods The old abandonned Baxter cemetery. 48 graves, the earliest dating to 1820. It’s less than 10 minutes walk from the house – in the woods between Lake Shore Road and the Taconic Parkway. It’s not so easy to find. At first there’s a bit of a path, but eventually you end ...
  • Reds Ribbon in the snow We’ve been renovating our house and one of the areas affected was the basement. In the new scheme some of the walls are red. One day while walking our dog Jackson it occurred to me that I might need some pictures with read accents to go on the basement walls. ...
  • New York Public Library I went into the city one day to meet up with some friends from Canada. They have two children and they were going to see a show and some the the NYC sights. One of the places on the list was the main New York Public Library at 42nd and 5th. So I walked over ...
  • Around the lake – some black and whites As is often the case I took these while walking the dog one day. I didn’t have too many winter pictures so I thought I’d take a few before all of the snow and ice disappeared. The first one is of ‘Children’s Beach’, one of several beaches around the lake. In summer ...
  • In and around Carmel, NY Wikipedia has this to say about Carmel: Carmel is a town in Putnam County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 34,305. The town of Carmel is on the south border of Putnam County. There are no incorporated villages in the town, although the hamlets of Carmel and Mahopac each ...
  • Croton Dam According to Wikipedia: The New Croton Dam, part of the New York City water supply system, stretches across the Croton River near Croton-on-Hudson, New York, about 22 miles (35 km) north of New York City. Construction began in 1892 and was completed in 1906. Designed by Alphonse Fteley (1837–1903), this masonry dam is 266 feet (81 ...
  • A couple of eating establishments in and around Briarcliff Manor I often carry around the Sony Nex 5N. In this case we were having lunch in a nearby Japanese restaurant (Yamafuji in Briarcliff Manor). The very colourful display in the window caught my attention as did the contrast with the rather plain, almost zen (not that I know much about zen) like wall and lantern ...
  • Croton Landing Park The OssiningCrotononHudsonPatch website describes the Croton Landing Park as follows: Croton Landing lies just past the yacht club on the Hudson River, and is home to a short walking trail, waterfront and a natural riverfront habitat full of native plants and animals. Educational material and environmentally-themed art also can be found. Large, flat paths are good ...
  • New Hamburg, NY St. Nicholas-on-the-Hudson church in New Hamburg, NY.  Formerly called Zion Memorial Chapel it is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Episcopal church in a picturesque location overlooking the Hudson River. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987. To me the church seemed to have a somewhat “maritime” look to ...
  • Past and present – old and new Carvel’s Early in October I posted the black and white version of this picture of an old Carvel ice cream shop site. What struck me at the time was how desolate and abandoned it seemed. However, the single picture doesn’t really do it justice so thought I’d add a few more. At the ...
  • From the Philippines I don’t know who took these photos. They’re certainly from the Philipinnes. I certainly didn’t take them but I don’t recall how I got them. I imagine they were sent to us. However, I was browsing through some old pictures and among a lot taken in the Philippines I came across a ...
  • Weekly picks 10-14-2012 – Around Roaring Brook Lake Last week was rather busy. Work (mostly electrical) continued at the house so I wasn’t able to get out much. In any case it was a rather rainy gloomy week. I did manage to get in a few walks around the lake with the dog. Eirah’s a member of the Roaring ...
  • China These are a bit of a mystery. I know that I took these pictures. I remember taking them. However, at the time they were taken I had definitely moved to digital i.e. I hadn’t used film for a while. So why do I have negatives. The only thing I can think of ...
  • Back to Digital – On the Hudson Back to digital again. This time with the Sony Alpha 500. We had a very pleasant day on the Hudson River – on the “Commander”. Embarked at Peekskill and then went north, under the Bear Mountain Bridge, past West Point and up as far as Cold Spring. In all it took about ...

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