A Few Wildflowers

A "saved" collection of scores of wildflower photographs gets opened up, now and then, just for fun.

(Click to enlarge. Above: "Cornflower" Below: Purple Loosestrife, Milkweeds and a Waterlily at Baily Lake.)





More, from time to time.

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Saturday morning

It's 64.6 degrees F. and cloudy, this morning, and there's a swath of "Green" moving eastward across the weather map.

I've found no mention in this morning's news about last evening's power outage, although it must have effected hundreds of homes.

It was may have seemed equally dark in Boston, where the RedSox lost to Oakland 15 - 3. The Yankees, at the same time, beat the Chicago White Sox 6 - 5, bringing them to only 1.5 GB.



This detail of the AccuWeather Forecast may indicate some delays during activity during morning Softball Games on Firemen's Field.....



...........'tho things will dry off, later today, after an afternoon shower. Parade Time looks fine!

The Kids and the Crowds

Friday evening. A final ride up Route 12 from Sangerfield, and it's S-M-O-O-T-H all the way! We do a left-hand "zig" onto Park Place to check out the afternoon's paving; "zag" onto Madison Street and back out onto Sanger Avenue ---- just little bumps! Wonderful!

And then............


(Click to enlarge.)



.... with just as much excitement as every year for at least the last thirty-seven , the Kiddie Parade lead the crowd onto Firemen's Field at the opening of the Midway.

But at a few minutes past 7:00 P.M., just as I was preparing to post this addition to the blog, something totally unexpected happened: not only my computer but the entire village - EXCEPT for Firemen's Field and the Midway - went completely BLACK! (That they have their own power supply at Firemen's Field is a wonderful thing, otherwise there might have been some very nervous people swinging atop the Ferris Wheel or on other rides!) Foodking, CVS, Nice 'n Easy closed; stoplights in front of the Fire House and at the Junction of Routes 12 and 20 went dark. The explanation given was that a transformer in Bridgewater had exploded and first hopes for a return of electrical power sounded dire.

Attempts were made to read by candle-light; romantic thoughts of sitting on back porches and counting fireflies were dashed by swarms of hungry mosquitoes who got there first, and some people sat restlessly in humid darkness and listened to portable radios, hoping for baseball scores, or phoned friends and neighbors exclaiming over their lack of ingenuity and warning each other "Now don't open the refrigerator or freezer door: everything will keep a day or two!"

Well, it didn't have to. About two hours later, with blinkings of lights on every single piece of digital equipment in the house, the power came back on; fans whirred, refrigerator doors opened, internet access was restored, and the bit of drama ended.

How spoiled we are!

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Friday Afternoon Sweep

On the Highway - the only places that work was in progress at 4:00 were at the corner of Madison Street and Sanger Avenue and at Park Place and Sanger Avenue where paving operations were still taking place. Traffic slowed in both directions, but not for more than five minutes or so.

If anyone knows what's going on when, Mr. Jack Bennet sure does! We spoke with him at lunchtime at Roc's Dairy Creme and he said that the sidewalk crew "should be here on Tuesday" and was going to "start at the Presbyterian Church and go right through town!" The week after that, it'll be driveways.

In the center of the village, the Midway's ready - Just waiting for the people!





KIDDIE PARADE AT 6:30 forms at the Schoolhouse Apartments.

MIDWAY OPENS AT 6:30

Music by "Phat Alice" from 8:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.

SATURDAY MORNING: "Pop Warner Football Bottle Drive"

Softball Tournament starts at 8:00

MIDWAY OPENS AT NOON.

FIREMEN'S PARADE AT 6:30 P.M.

Music by DNA from 6:00 - 9:00 P.M.



FIREWORKS at DUSK courtesy of Zielinski's Equipment Rentals

Music by "Stage Road" from 9:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M.


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Friday Morning Tour

First stop: Morgan's Hardware to find the rest of the Smiles!
Tom obliged! Helen, of course, always smiles at everyone, and
Richie Brennan did likewise!

















Over at the Library, all eyes and ears were on Amanda Briggs as she read to children at "Story Hour."




While, out in the Book Room, Travis and Paul manned the Desk....














and half-a-dozen happy vacationers toured the internet world.



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FIELD DAYS BEGIN!

58 degrees at 6:00, with nice blue sky!
Last Evening's WKTV weather forecast read like this:

Friday Afternoon: Mostly sunny, hot and humid. High near 90.

Friday night: Mostly clear, muggy and areas of fog. Low in the mid 60s

Saturday: Mostly sunny, hazy, hot, and humid. High: 90, Low:" 69

Sunday: Hazy, hot and humid. High: 92, Low: 69

In other words: IT'S GOING TO BE HOT!

The Boston RedSox lost 5 - 4 to Oakland in extra innings, last night. The New York Yankees will take on the Chicago White Sox, tonight, at Yankee Stadium.

An article in today's Utica O-D is Good News to all of those in opposition to the Power Line Project.

Also in the "smile-maker" department: Mrs. Davis phoned from her car, yesterday afternoon, saying that she was at Chuckery Corners and that the most-waited-for Savicki sign had appeared, reading: OUR OWN SWEET CORN! (She brought some to us and it was just as crispy-sweet as we'd remembered.) Savicki's trick is that they start corn plants in a greenhouse and then move them to the fields. Labor-intensive - but worth it - because once the word's out, not an ear goes unsold.

The Morning Tour took us past New York Pizza and gave us the answer: the new facade is being painted the same colors as those on the Barton Medical Center and Merri-Rose Florist buildings. (And they, of course, were designed to sit alongside the 1930-ish building that houses H. &. R. Block, T.Karram's office and "Michael's Fine Food & Spirits.") Far from "Victorian," but not a totally unpleasant choice.

Heading Southward on Route 12, there were several crews at work: the men installing the brick pavers were sweeping and washing those areas along west Main Street - possibly to apply a sealer. Along Sanger Avenue (where traffic and bright sunlight made it difficult - and, probably, dangerous - to take pictures) the sidewalk preparation on the East side was continuing - and it does look nice! - and Power Line was installing yet more lamp post bases. On the Western side of Sanger Avenue, the sidewalk area was getting some attention, as well and, out near the Car Wash, the paving crew was applying the final layer of blacktop to the Northbound Lane, bringing it to exactly the same level as the surface from the Car Wash South.



Just for the fun of it, we drove Westward on Route 20 as far as S. Brothertown Road and were rewarded with this view: the Windmills stood out in the bright sun as if above a lake of fog in the valley!





Coming back into the village, we spotted Doris Stephan coming back from her early-morning walk and instantly felt guilty and lazy for riding!



Around the corner and onto Madison Street - something different! Mr. Woodman has had some trees removed and the difference is startling - and nice!


On the Babbott Field Basketball Court, Mr. David Koon, his son and his grandson and grandaughter are out, early, beating the heat.





On Babbott Avenue South, the bright sun shone on Pat's Trumpet Vine and - at the house next to Foodking - Poppies sparkled like rubies.












(We'll be going uptown, later, to find more "Smiles!" at Morgan's Hardware and at "story-hour" at the Library.)

Later on.....

There is a great deal of activity right in the center of the village: narrow grooves are being cut along all of those mysterious dotted lines and PowerLine crews are installing sensors that will control the traffic signal.





Buying a Rain Gauge at Morgan's Hardware was a cinch, but not a "snap!" Ron absolutely refused to smile and two male costomers dove behind displays.










Donna Morgan Green, being attached to the telephone cord next to the cash register and having no handy escape route, HAD to smile .....








........... and I cornered customer Laurie McMullen and got a great grin.

Tomorrow: Tommy and Helen! They won't give me any arguments, I'm sure!

Other Smile-makers: Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gale who have a new grandaughter. Her name is Elena Maria and she is a gift from their daughter Carolyn and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Darin D'Ascanio of Philadelphia!

Mr. Stanley Dziekonski brings smiles wherever he goes and he brought even more to "Whiskey Hollow" when he arrived with some perfectly ripe Georgia peaches, tomatoes that tasted fresh from the garden and a quart of freshly-picked blueberries: all from Savicki's! Thanks, Stan!

The words "Blueberries" and "Stan" also remind us that Mr. Sambora has probably begun visiting his "private" blueberry patch and, even, picked berries to have at hand for the Waterville Rotary Club's famous Blueberry Pancakes that are always a hit at the Bouckville Antique Show in August!

Thursday morning - Garbage Day

(Run cursor over text to find hyperlinks, then just click! Use "Back Arrow" to return to this site.)

68.5 degrees F. We've had enough rain, now - it can stop! (We definitely need to go shopping at Morgan's, today, and buy a real rain gauge!) Although the National Weather Service still warns of flooding throughout this entire area, there are early-morning patches of blue sky and the AccuWeather 15 day forecast predicts fine weather for Firemen's Field Days.

The Deansboro-Waterville Lions Club Annual Golf Tournament is scheduled to take place on Saturday at the Sulphur Springs Golf Course. No one has said that the rain has necessitated a postponement, but it would not be surprising: many area links have developed an unecessary number of ponds and lakes.

Going into the second half of the Major League Baseball season, the RedSox will play Oakland at the Fenway tonight at 7:05. The game will be carried by ESPN and will be watched, no doubt, by Mr. Leonard Hayes - a man brave enough to wear his RedSox cap to Waterville! (Happy Birthday!)

The Yankees have another day off, but will take on the White Sox tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium.

"Round Town Tour"

By 7 o'clock all of those patches of blue sky had been obscured by low-hanging gray and there was a steady drizzle.







Helen Olmstead's yellow slicker was a bright spot on Stafford Avenue.



Back on Sanger Avenue, there was more activity than we'd expected, and - now that we think we know so much about all phases of highway reconstruction activity - our highly uneducated guess would be that there will be a great deal of sidewalk pouring taking place next week!





Alex was controlling traffic at one end of a sidewalk-prep stretch on the East side of Sanger Avenue.











Turf was being peeled up for new sidewalk sections at the Eastern end of the Park. (And we noticed that the roots of the ornamental crabapple trees were NOT being disturbed as much as many had feared.)


At the junction of Routes 12 & 20, in Sangerfield, the right-hand strip of the South bound lane - originally intended as a "Right Turn Only" lane - is being blacktopped.

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It's not a Secret any more!

Everyone must know by now that tomorrow is CHARLOTTE PARK'S 75th BIRTHDAY!!!
Happy Day, Charlotte! And Best Birthday Wishes, too, to our "young" friend, Dale Meszler!

Making the Most of a Rainy Day

And then it really did begin to rain - hard. TIOGA, Powerline and Gary Hudson all left, and I decided to go grocerying. For the benefit of those who no longer live in Waterville but enjoy these daily visits, come along!

Everyone talks about going to Foodking; seeing so-and-so in Foodking; hearing such-and-such in Foodking, and making excuses to spouses and children just WHY it took an hour or more to get a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk!

It's simple!


Where else can you get your groceries and so many smiles! There are many more employees than the ones I saw this morning, but here are a few cheerful faces you may recognize. (Click photos to enlarge.)







Rick Garrett












Marge and Colleen














Jim and Doug












Jean and "Peewee"






And then there are all the smiling customers, too!


Adele and Helen,


and Mrs. Bushee and her friend Linda,

I'd have stayed and talked alot more, but had an early lunch date at "Michael's."





Marty's always there on Wednesdays;














and Dick Brown, too.








Elfie, Anne and Shirley were there, helping Helga celebrate her Birthday!


Faith and Shari are in charge out front, but.......


Chef Michael's in control in the kitchen!

Thursday evening specialties --- "Tex-Mex," with music from 7 - 10 by "Big D. and the Pickle."

Wednesday morning ride-around

Just a few sprinkles at 7:00. No sign of any of the road paving crew, but Sidewalk Prep was under way out at Olmstead's Garage and in front of the Hotel.









One "Powerline" crew was installing a lamp post base in front of the Cole residence, on Sanger Avenue, and another appeared to be marking the location of a base across from CVS.





Hotel owner Gary Hudson - who has spent the past several days painting the wooden trim on the front of the hotel but found TIOGA at work there, this morning - had moved his lift around to the Buell Avenue side of the building and, despite some rain, was just "taking off" for work.

A good reason to ride along South Babbott Avenue!

Wet Wednesday

64.8 degrees F. at 5:30. The Accuweather map is very green, and the National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch.

This will probably slow down paving activities not only on Sanger Avenue but also at the Library -- where some of the winding Garden sidewalk was poured and more forms set in place, yesterday --


-- and work progressed on the installation of some new pieces of Children's Playground Equipment on Babbott Field.

One of the most necessary pre-Field Days "fixes" has already been accomplished: the "scenic" - or alternate - route to Firemen's Field has been considerably improved and gives ball players and spectators better access to the baseball diamond for the Saturday and Sunday morning games!

Flash!

According to "well-informed sources," at 6:45 on Wednesday evening, TIOGA crew paving was still in progress on Park Place, Madison Street and along the Southbound lane of Sanger Avenue - which had a brand-new double-yellow stripe down the middle! Tomorrow's weather forecast is for nothing less than a Very Wet Wednesday! Umbrellas at the ready, everyone!

Afternoon Sweep

Something new! For the first time, we can see just how the sidewalk is going to come down from Madison Street, along the side of Monument Park and where it will cross Tower Street. A lamp post base has already been installed, and the sidewalk base was getting tamped down.



There is a traffic slowdown at about this point, and from there, southward, we drive in the northbound lane. Things move slowly enough so that we get a good look at the Powerline crew installing more lamp bases.





And, further on, it looks as if the sidewalk base is just waiting for that paving crew to arrive.




Continuing on to Sangerfield and coming up Osborn, the Highway Department must have either found or fixed what they were looking for, for they were picking up their pylons and heading home. Which we did, too!

Morning Rounds

A wonderfully typical morning on Main Street. Mr. Pesto and "K.C." were making their morning rounds; the stores weren't open, but carpenters were already busy at the Pizzeria and, out on Firemen's Field, several more "rides" had arrived and been assembled.








At Monument Park, "Powerline" is installing lamp post bases and that's causing a little bit of a "bottleneck," but that's good! because there's still a rather nasty difference between old paving and new, so slow 'way down when entering or exiting Maadison Street!











It was smooth sailing on Sanger Avenue (and we passed the Coles, out for their morning walk) 'til somewhere near Don Olmstead's Garage and then there was a slowdown - but just a short one - waiting in a single southbound lane to pass the northbound paving team.









Originally, there was supposed to be a "Right Turn Only" lane created, here, but perhaps the D.O.T. will just be tidying up the right-hand shoulder. We've expected something to happen there, on Route 12, but we didn't expect to see this: the Sangerfield Township Highway Department digging a very large hole in the middle of everyone's favorite "alternate route" - Osborn Avenue! (Did Mr. Huggins say something about "Loomis Gang" or was it "Loomis GOLD"?) We wish them good luck at whatever it is they're doing.


To enlarge photographs, just "click".
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Tuesday

62.6 degrees F. Quite a noisy thunderstorm, after midnight, with some brief, but heavy, rain. An early-morning visitor looked in the kitchen window as if to say, "Do I smell coffee?"

The AccuWeatherforecast for today includes repeat performances during both afternoon and evening. It'll be steamy, at any rate. Consider spending some time (after 2:00) at the new Library enjoying the air conditioning!




There were no baseball games of note, yesterday, and the next performance at Glimmerglass will be on Saturday, at 8:00 P.M., when it's "The Pirates of Penzance." There may be a few Watervillians in the audience, that evening, but most of the rest are sure to be right here in town, watching the Firemen's Field Days PARADE!

The Waterville Central School Marching Band will, of course, be in the parade lineup, and someone suggested, yesterday, that time (65 - 70 seconds) be found - before, during or after the parade - for the band to perform the National Anthem for the benefit of all of us who wanted so much to see and hear them play it in Cleveland, last week.

And a question has been posed: "How far is 'the BLOG' traveling?" Katie Peck says a friend of hers in Georgia reads it; people in England read it. If YOU are in a location some great distance from "the Huddle," would you please e-mail me - homeinthehuddle@aol.com - and we'll publish the list. Thank you!

Afternoon Sweep

Hot and hazy coming over Hanover Hill, looking and feeling as if the AccuWeather forecast will be right....




...and steamy in Waterville, where traffic backs up badly at the Tyler Building.





The cause of the back-up is that TIOGA has put a new layer of blacktop on the Northbound lane all the way from the Car Wash to the point of Monument Park and, with five or six truckloads of asphalt mix waiting at CVS, it looked as if they were about to start paving the Southbound lane.

If you'll be coming into town before 6:00 P.M., prepare for a good long wait, somewhere. In my rearview mirror - parked in front of Stewart's - it looked as if traffic was stopped all the way to Foodking and even beyond.


(Click to enlarge, and you'll see Gary Hudson painting window trim at the hotel!)

But if you're coming into town on Stafford Avenue, from the North, don't worry about traffic for a minute: just slow down and smile at the sight of Father Tom's TOMATO PLANTS on the porch of the Rectory at St. Bernard's Church!



Have a good evening!

It's a Big Week!

58.3 degrees and blue sky at 5:30.The AccuWeather Forecast: mostly clear, this morning, but with the temperature rising to 86 later on, "strong thunderstorms" are predicted for both afternoon and evening.

The WKTV extended forecast for Firemen's Field Days -- Friday: Trending drier. High in the mid 80's. Saturday and Sunday: Sun and clouds. Hot! Highs 85-90.



Flatbed trucks carrying the Merry Mixer and the Ferris Wheel have already arrived at Firemen's Field!

The 2006 BOILERMAKER is history! And making it that were nearly 13,000 runners including several dozen from the Waterville, Deansboro, Oriskany Falls area! You can search for your favorite runner's time by going to boilermaker.com and entering their names in the "search" block. Congratulations to all of you who ran, walked or even crawled across the finish lines!!

The New York Yankees lost an afternoon game to Tampa Bay, 5 - 6, and the RedSox lost to the Chicago Whitesox, 5 - 6, in an afternoon game that went 19 innings and ran a near-record six hours and nineteen minutes! (No game today.)

At the World Cup - Jul 9 - Final score after penalty kicks: France 4, Italy 6.

At Wimbledon, Federer claimed his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3.

At Glimmerglass Opera, the Summer Festival Season opened Friday night with a performance of the Gilbert & Sullivan favorite, "Pirates of Penzance" followed on Saturday by Rossini's "Barber of Seville." Upcoming performances include "Greater Good - or the Passion of Boule de Suif" and "Jenûfa."

By 6:30, this morning, a flatbed of brick pavers was parked in front of "Michael's" waiting, presumably, for cargo to be offloaded to the stockpile in the old Agway Gas Station lot. Down between "Roc's" and the Car Wash, flag girls, a long row of pylons dividing the road and a large truck of black-top mix are ready for a day of paving.

Sunday afternoon ride

Up over West Hill, where the view Eastward across a field of rye and over the valley to East Hill was spectacular, and then to Knoxboro where there's a fairly new mural on a fine old stone building right in the center of "town."


Daylilies are at their peak, everywhere.




Going up "Crow Hill," a mule and some geese wonder what we're doing there.




At the top, acres of cabbages - something we rarely see around Waterville, any more. And then the southward view, towards Hamilton.




We thought there might be some photogenic antiquers in Bouckville, but the only crowd was at Troops Scoops.












The greatest number of people that we saw all afternoon was at Chittening Pond!

And then ......

There was a large gathering of Boy Scouts behind the Fire House, this morning, and I stopped to find out what they were doing. "Going camping," we learned, but having no camera at hand, asked Mrs. Zenon if she would take a picture: she did. And Kristen Strohmeyer added the cut line! (Thank You, both!)

(Click to Enlarge.)

"They're Off!" 18 scouts, from Troop 108, under the leadership of Mr. Strohmeyer and Mr. Stewart, leaving for Cedarlands Scout Reservation near Long Lake on Sunday morning.

Even before we could set out on our "Ride in the Country," Dave Wicks phoned to alert us to a very extraordinary event that was about to occur at the Sangerfield Antiques Exchange.

Back in mid-April, Paranormal Investigator Russell Roberts, from Barneveldt, and two other members of the group "Paranormal Dimensions of the Adirondack Foothills," had spent an evening at the Exchange hunting for ghosts. The late Hilda Barton once told the writer of a murder that had taken place in the bar room, there, in the mid-19th century: a Mr. Locke (who lived where the Bishtons live, now) had either shot or been shot by another man. Whichever had suffered the mortal wound had bled profusely and, around 1970 and even later, according to Mr. Monty Warner, the bloodstain was still visible on the bar room floor! It was suspected that his ghost might still haunt the building! And, as recently as a year or so ago, a gentleman browsing antiques on the second floor of the Exchange began to climb the stairs to the third floor but beat hasty retreat to the front door when he came face to face with someone who "looked like Ben Franklin and wasn't very friendly!"

Today, Mr. Roberts brought what he and his colleagues feel is photographic proof of the Exchange's resident "spirits" to show to the Wicks.



The photographs were taken in the dark by Mr. Paul Chapman in places where Mr. Roberts, holding a hand-held thermal scanner, could detect a distinctly lower temperature than in other locations. (He explained that the spirit draws energy from the surrounding area , thus creating a chill.) At the same time, using an Electronic Voice Phenomena recorder which records sounds at a lower decibel level than the human ear can discern, group member Brian Lipkin was able to hear a man's voice calling out, "Help me! help me, Mother!"

Here are two of the images that Mr. Roberts showed us: regular size, and enlarged portions.






In the upper photograph, two ghostly figures stand side by side. In the second photgraph, taken of a mirror, the features of a man's bearded face appear quite clearly.

Go to the Exchange and see the photos for yourself! And, if you think your house is haunted or if you're interested in learning more about or even joining the "Paranormal Dimensions of the Adirondacks" team, you may write to Mr. Roberts at Post Office Box #268, Barneveldt, N.Y. 13304.

Boilermaker Sunday

They'll be getting up, now: the nearly 13,000 Boilermaker runners, looking at the sky - blue with some puffy clouds - and checking the temperature - 59 degrees in Waterville at 5:30.

Start of the 15K Utica Boilermaker Road Race, 2005 O-D photo

AccuWeather Forecast calls for a mostly cloudy morning with the temperature at 8:00 being 64 degrees and rising to 75 degrees by 10:00 A.M. Scattered showers or thunderstorms possible this afternoon and evening.

In MLB, Boston's in first place with a 9 - 6 win over the Chicago White Sox and Yankees hold on to second with a 5 - 1 win over Tampa Bay.

Amelie Mauresmo magnificently captured the ladies' singles title by defeating Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, yesterday, at Wimbledon.
At 2:00 this afternoon, on the Centre Court, it will be the Gentlemen's Singles Finals with Roger Federer (SUI)[1] v. Rafael Nadal (ESP)[2]

There are more pictures of the Marching Band's Tour up on the WCS website.

We'll be off for another Ride in the Country, today. Please check back later!

In the meantime, if you went on The Loomis Gang tour, yesterday, and wish you could find something new to read about our favorite outlaws, try this! It's long out-of-print, but made available to you by the Waterville Public Library.