Saturday, October 14, 2006

Saturday

34.5 degrees at 7:00; NOT RAINING!!


The resident weather observer notes that it feels " calm, brisk and invigorating." The sky: "clear."

That's GOOD NEWS!!!






Not so good..........

WCS Varsity Football: Mohawk -14; Waterville - 0.


....and, "Why NOW?"


Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday findings

The blogger, applying common sense over curiosity - for once - stayed inside, today, catering to the "Cold that's Going Around" (but that's Stalled here!) instead of Cruising Waterville - for fear of not being able to Cruise, tomorrow.

Reports have arrived, however: several larger trees have been planted next to the highway down in Sangerfield; streets in Waterville have been swept twice! The village, according to all, really does look better than it has for years!!

Jean B. Davis, of Sanger Avenue, has been kind enough to send these pictures to share with you for your edification and enjoyment! (Thank you, Jean!)







Freezy Friday!

Quick! Get the Garbage out!



No wonder we didn't want to get out of our warm beds:

28 degrees and clear!



The forecast for tomorrow is much better than feared: it won't be sunny and glorious, but neither will it be a "wash-out" nor will we be getting what Buffalo got, yesterday!





Later:

I just received an E-mail from Gordon Taylor, author of "Fever and Thirst," the scholarly biography of Dr. Asahel Grant whose boyhood home is the old white farmhouse half-way down Grant Hill north of Hanover (There's an historical marker - you can't miss it.) telling me to check out the website: I did! You should, too! (Especially look to see what was in Dr. Grant's Medicine Chest!) Ask for the book at the Waterville or Deansboro Libraries.

And in yesterday's "snail mail" was a most beautiful "Thank You" card on rich, rusty-hued paper with Autumn leaves and woodsy icons. I love it! The return address is "Elkton, Maryland" -- I wish I knew who'd sent it, but I don't! Thank You, whoever you are!

I'm waiting for Tim Francisco, of ProActive Physical Therapy & Pretzel Works to send me pictures of his most recent climb in the High Peaks. I've heard that he and his buddies really did bag "Wolfjaw," "Lower Wolfjaw ," "Armstrong" and "Gothics" - all in one glorious day, last weekend! Email the Writer

The WCS Girls' Varsity Soccer team is at Cooperstown, this afternoon at 4:30; and Boys' Varsity Football plays Mohawk Central here at Brothertown Stadium at 7:00.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Thursday add-on


Finally! Crosswalks and STOP lines at the junction of Madison Street and Sanger Avenue.
Not all of the cross walks have their intermediary stripes, but at least some
solid lines are there to serve the immediate need.



North Country Landscapers have delivered trees to Sanger Avenue,
ready for planting tomorrow, perhaps.

Asked why the new trees will be in groups of, say, six maples, six oaks, six locust, etc. - Mr. Paul Evans of the D.O.T. said that it would give a more "formal appearance" and that they were hurrying to get everything in the ground in time for the Saturday Dedication Ceremony.


Mr. Hudson continues to make improvements to the old Hotel,


and Morgans' Hardware, we think, offers an outstanding opportunity for curb-side shopping!




If maples have been a little disappointing, this Fall, the bright red Winged Euonymous (Winged spindle tree) is doing exactly as it's supposed to!



And on Madison Street, the caramel-colored maples are perfect accessories to the Lucas residence.


Early today, Katie Peck sent me a nice note and a snippet from this poem.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.


Thanks, Katie!

Early Thursday

Last night's WCS Soccer Scores:
GIRLS
Sauquoit 0
Waterville 0

BOYS
Waterville 5
Canastota 0
- and have another game scheduled for this evening at 7:00 at Sherburne-Earlville.

It's a balmy 57 degrees, out, but here's a "first" for the season: go to the Weather Channel and check out "Stormwatch!"



It rained a little bit, overnight, but the worst part of this morning is that at 6:30 it's still DARK! (Remember those summer mornings when I'd write that "TIOGA began paving operations at 6:00!")

I had a nice note from David Desany, who grew up down here in "the Hollow." He's lived in Florida for about ten years, now, and besides reading online news from MSNBC, keeps daily track of doings here in Waterville - especially the weather! - on the blog!
Thanks loads for writing, Dave!

First Order of theDay: RECYCLABLES! (Tomorrow's Garbage, Saturday is the Brothertown Music Boosters Bottle Drive and on Sunday from 2:00 - 4:00 you can go to the Post Office for help acquiring a PASSPORT.)

Second Order of the Day - at least for the blogger: go uptown and take pictures of bright white crosswalks and the front of the Hotel, where Mr. Hudson is building a porch (or veranda?)

We spent yesterday most pleasurably, wallowing in History! When most genealogists come to town looking for their "roots," they expect the historians to do all the digging for them for them while they stand back and watch, but not so in this instance: Ms. Linda Harer and her parents, all from Seattle, Washington, flew 'cross-country late Monday night, drove immediately Northward, and at around 9:00, yesterday morning, began sharing story-after-story about life in Waterville during the "golden years" as had been passed down to them by descendants of Horace P. Bigelow - whose home they toured at #146 Stafford Avenue - and all the Terry's, Putnams, Mayers and Osborns.



Joining the quintet was Ms. Lois Newsom whose late father, E. Deland Battles, M.D., had known the Bigelows and played croquet on the back lawn of #146. What was once the Bigelow Barn is now Ms. Newsom's beautifully renovated - and not at all barnlike - home. Ms. Harer scampered around the center of town taking pictures of all the buildings they'd never seen but had heard about for years, and the story-swapping continued at Michael's where it was proven that: if Mr. R.F. Brown knows where all the gravestones in our cemeteries are located, Ms. Newsom knows where all of the most surprising skeletons of scandals are buried!

(Must have lunch with her again!)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Wednesdy morning

Almost 55 degrees; balmy.



Thank You, MWCS - Your flowers and fruit juice did the trick,
and I'm MUCH improved!

News bit from yesterday afternoon: word that the stripers - not strippers! -had been in town and that more bold white "STOP" lines and crosswalks were in place. (Photos to follow.)

Waterville - Deansboro LIBRARY BOARD of TRUSTEES MEETING
Tonight at 7:00 P.M. at the
WATERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY.




Front Page Headlines from today's issue of The Waterville Times:

  • "Pataki Bill Blocks the Power Line."
  • "Passport Day Set" - the Waterville Post Office will be open from noon to 2 P.M. Sunday, October 15, to assist people in applying for passports.
  • "One Hundred Years" - Photos and story re: the Deansboro Fire Department's anniversary celebration.
  • "Clock Adds to New Downtown" - Photo and story re: the Rotary Centennial Clock.
  • "Run Marks 11 Years" - the Maine Event starts at 10: A.M. Saturday at the Brookfield Town Park.
  • "Duct Tape a Teacher" - a clever WCS High School Student Council scheme to raise funds for the Chronic Leukemia/Lymphoma Foundation.
  • "Scrapbook, Save a Life." A Fundraiser, organized by Jacque Roys, to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

And on Pages 8 & 9, a double-page spread with a

Map and Schedule

of Saturday
"Cruise into Waterville"
Events.


Watch for our new Pear Trees on Main Street to start to look like this!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

More of Judy's Pictures




Photographs by Judy Zirkle -Waterville, New York

Tuesday morning

NOW you can put the garbage out!!


It's 47 degrees; still too dark to tell whether it's clear or cloudy - just gray.




But it's SATURDAY's weather that everyone's wondering about! There's the PARADE, Barbecue, Various Vendors, Things to See along Main Street --- and, at first, the forecast was for rain and/or some SNOW. But now it's looking better! (At least according to the Weather Channel!)



But even with sunny skies in view, the organization or vendor who will offer Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows or Mulled Cider and Doughnuts to Saturday crowds might be smiling most cheerfully!

Those readers who live at some distance from Waterville are no doubt less concerned with the forecast here than we, and would just like to see more pictures of the countryside. Thanks to photographer Judy Zirkle - and Dick Zirkle, who drove - we have a good supply and I'll be adding them to the blog during the day.


ENJOY!




(Remember to Click to Enlarge)


And also, today, please take note of WKTV's coverage of the Michelle Hutchings disappearance.

The blogger, not wanting to miss out on anything, is now enduring her own fair share of "The Cold that's Going Around!" and will not be doing a great deal of Going Around, herself. If you think there's something ELSE that I'm missing, however .........

Monday, October 09, 2006

Monday afternoon

Photograph by Kristin Strohmeyer

The Reverend Ann Stillman with The Right Reverend Gladstone B. "Skip" Adams III, Bishop of Central New York, at her ordination at St. Paul's Cathedral in Syracuse last Saturday.


Because an earlier story about Rev. Stillman's ordination did not tell readers about her earlier life, I telephoned and asked her if I could write just a few words about her first career and the fact that since 1978 she had taught English and Public Speaking at the New Hartford High School, retiring two years ago at the age of 73. Obviously, she said "Yes!" and she will also be the first to admonish the rest of us that, "It's never too late!"



Quite early this morning, Mr. Cleary, on Sanger Avenue, hung Italy's colors at his front door - in honor, of course, of Christopher Columbus. And at nearly the same time, further to the South on Sanger, a blue flag with a yellow cross --- the Swedish flag --- appeared next to the Lews' front door. Just a little reminder that in some parts of the world -- near Stockholm, Sweden, for instance, where Mr. Lew's father was born, and even here in Waterville -- there are those who are of the firm opinion that it was not Mr. Columbus who "discovered" America but, in fact, a Swedish Viking by the name of Leif Erickson who was the first to step on the Northern shores of this continent, and not just by a day or two, but by as much as 500 years.

It's Monday, again!

It's the Columbus Day Holiday - even for the Waterville D.P.W. - so there will be NO GARBAGE COLLECTION TODAY! The Library's Closed, too, but we're going to collect another sunny Fall Day that's starting out at 47 degrees.!



GARBAGE COLLECTION - Tomorrow
RECYCLABLES - Thursday
GARBAGE - Friday

I have only two things to report from yesterday's very brief Ride in the Country:
1. Hinmans on Rt. 5 west of Kirkland is still CLOSED - we hope that's not permanent, but it looks as if it may be.
2. Don't try top shop at North Star Orchards on Rt. 233 on the weekend!!

My, how we miss ALLEN ACRES!!!

I don't know if it's a holiday for the TIOGA and North Country Landscaping crews, 'tho a brief notice in the O-D suggests that they'll be on the job. Nannette told me, last week, that she thought she'd only be here for two or three more days. She's going to miss Waterville, and we'll miss her!

There are some nice newsy bits in this morning's O-D about yesterday's Celebration in Deansboro of theBarton Hose Company's 100th Anniversary.

And we'll be eager to see this week's issue of the Waterville TIMES, which reaches "newstands" tomorrow, to learn even more about exactly which organizations will be doing what, when and where, on Saturday. We know that there's a parade at 12-noon; a Chicken Barbecue at noon; the dedication of the Waterville Rotary Club Centennial Clock (next to the Bank building on Main Street) at 2:00 with vendors along E. Main Street all day, from 10:00 'til 4:00.

More when it's light and also when I can find out from someone "in authority" who can tell us why ALL eleven of the new street trees on East Main Street are Lindens. (Lindens are nice trees, but so aren't "Accolade" Elms and "Flame maples," originally on the East Main Street list.)

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Sunday morning!

It's 33.3 degrees; nippy right now, but it looks as if this is going to be another 100% perfectly fine Fall day!






On East Main Street .....



...... and on West Bacan Street.


I understand that some members of the Waterville Garden Club were working on Main Street, yesterday morning, adding some new chrysanthemums to the planters.




And now the Yankees are gone.

No baseball games, today - and that's just as well:

sunny days like these are meant to be enjoyed OUTDOORS!



I'm not sure that we're going to go for a Ride in the Country, today: the blogger is trying to organize some of the hundreds of photographs (like this) taken in the last year-and-a-half into a SMALL display for the Municipal Hall!


Rosemary may wish that she still had that Blacktop!

Once the Street Lamps are in place and lit and the rest of the Street Trees planted, THEN I'll take a hundred or so more for a really big exhibit that, I think, will be even more exciting than we realize, now.


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