Morning Coffee,...

This morning the sky is bright blue, sun is shining brightly......

I take my coffee out on the deck,...

Midnight is content to just relax ...

I am hiring some work done, clearing out undergrowth so that I can see down the hill into the woods. Often deer walk through that area. I want to be able to see them better.

The area is really beginning to open up nicely. I will keep a fringe of trees at the bottom to ensure a bit of privacy from the farm fields and road below.

"What's that?" Middy hears some clucking down in the woods,.... hmmmmm? She's checking it out! I recognize it as the sound of a hen turkey clucking to gather her brood of chicks as they make their way along. Eventually I see some movement down there but too far away for a good picture.

So we go back to relaxing and enjoying our morning on the deck,...

All is right here on the hill....

St. Regis River,...

Sunday I attended a family birthday party for my friend's uncle who had turned 80. We drove west through Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths to route 458 and then the last few miles on that road that runs near the St.Regis River. It was a dreary day, either raining or overcast all day long, the misty weather adding mood to the views of the river.

The party was held at a campground in the village of St.Regis Falls. A new footbridge has been built across the river, affording a wonderful "Adirondack View" of down the river...and back upriver toward the falls for which the village is named.
The balancing rock in the middle of the river is another example of large boulders left behind by glacial melting.

Work to be done,....

Excavation for the full basement for this house created a pile of rocks nearby. Eventually many of the rocks were trucked away and only a few remain. Over many years I've had several false starts at creating a rock garden on that spot. My thought is to try to make something nice from a mess that was left behind. This summer I am tackling that job again. Here is the "before" picture!

I have a few things from earlier attempts that have survived amid the weeds. This Stargazer Lily is one of the determined flowers that won't give up waiting for me to make the rest of the rock garden attractive.

Stay tuned, in a few weeks I hope to have a nice "after" picture to post for you. But until then, -- there is work to be done!

Basin Bluegrass Festival 2008!…

Thursday morning I headed out with my camper, invited a friend to go along and we traveled east into Vermont to a weekend of bluegrass music. The 14th Annual Basin Bluegrass Festival, in Brandon, VT.… “Friends Gather Here” the souvenier t-shirt says,.. And it is the truth.





This little girl is getting an early start with her talent! It will be fun to watch her grow up and become a strong bass player.

There were rows and rows of campers and tents. "Field Picking" went on all night long.

Guest bands were from all over the east and also from Canada. Here is Dave Nichols and Spare Change from Malone, NY.
Cabin Fever from Latham, NY,...
Atkinson Family Band, also from state of NY. Blue Horizon from Nova Scotia. Blue Horizon signing the last of their cds. They sold out!

This was my first time at the Basin,... next year I'll arrive earlier and stay later! Guess that sums it up as a great time!

The Pitchoff Walls...

Cataclysmic events eons ago created the Adirondacks. Eventually the receding glaciers wore them down to the mountains we know today. This roadside tablet is at the eastern end of the Cascade Lakes which I featured in yesterday's post. Unfortunately, only the headline is visible in this camera shot. The tablet explains the geologic forces that created the sheer cliffs in this area.

This shot shows the narrow road between Keene and Lake Placid, a popular scenic route for bike tours. A rider is just approaching on the right hand side of the photo. In the center of this photo is Cascade Mt. and rising to the right just out of the picture is Pitchoff Mt.

The southern face of Pitchoff Mt. which faces the Cascade Lakes is known as The Pitchoff Walls.

These sharp cliffs are a popular spot for rock climbing. Can you spot the climber?
Not a sport for me, -- who can barely look out of a third floor window!

Today I leave for three days camping in Vermont,... I'll catch up with new "views" in the Adirondacks after the weekend!...

Cascade Lakes...

In the pass between Cascade Mt. and Pitchoff Mt. are the Cascade Lakes, and the narrow road, rt. 73, from Keene to Lake Placid. Longer ago than anyone can remember there was one lake where there is now two. A torrential rain and resulting landslide created the small bridge of land between the lakes as they are today. For a few years a hotel and stagecoach stop stood on that spot. When the road was improved in the 1930s the dynamite blasting damaged the old hotel so that it had to be torn down. Now there is a day-use area there.
A little brook now flows between the two lakes at the site of the landslide years ago.
Sheer cliffs rise on both sides of the lakes. The lakes are very deep. Because they are protected by the mountains on both sides they freeze smoothly to make wonderful skating in the wintertime.
No motorized boats are permitted on these lakes which creates a peaceful spot for canoes and kayaks.A young couple was just preparing to launch their kayak and were making a second trip to their car for paddles and lunches. The lake looked like it was going to give them a wonderful day!

Perseverance ! ...

On route 9N between Elizabethtown and Keene is an area commonly called “the height of ground.” Streams rising in this area fall away to the west and flow into Keene Valley, and to the east into the Pleasant Valley. Decades ago only a handful of houses were in this higher elevation. The following picture was taken yesterday from the spot where a house once stood. Wildflowers cover the ground there now. Behind the old house was once a beaver dam and pond….now only a memory.
Common Pinks...After many times of rebuilding their dam after highway crews or local landowners would break it open the beaver have relocated to a spot on the eastern end of the high area.

Now they have a beautiful dam and pond to call home far away from the existing houses. In the heat of mid-day only a few bull frogs, crickets and blue jays could be heard.
The beaver give us a lesson in perseverance…