More Pictures From Lake Ontario

First day, just minutes after pulling in.

Finn enjoying the first day.

The first Lake Ontario Sunset I had seen in over ten years. 

The view before the rains of Irene hit.

Wide-angle shot of the upstairs.

After being cooped up inside all day, Finn enjoys the water after Irene abates.

The day after Irene.

Dee and Bill visit. We had not seen them in 27 years.

We convinced Dee and Bill to stay for dinner and sunset.

Finn is not sure what to do with the goats at Old MacDonald's Farm, a petting  zoo near Sacket's Harbor.

Jennifer loved the guinea hens.

Whence the expression, "happy as a pig."

That is a big cow.

One advantage of a telephoto lens - you can get in close and see stuff people don't think you are seeing....

...like Cara being visibly pissed off at Mike.

A little later she was overjoyed to fly a tiny kite.

Ken arrived and things got real exciting.

Finn found some way to have fun every day.

We have some weird rule that we have to take pictures of each other running, it seems.

Finn's light painting with a glowing stick.

Somehow a tiny island developed just a few feet from the water line. Finn and I build what I came to call  Mont. Saint. Michel.

Detail of that famous drip method that all kids seem to know.

Ken's castle

Detail of Ken's castle.

Castle with moat.

Mont Saint. Michel in the sun.

Detail of tunnel in Jenn's castle.

Jenn's castle.

Assorted Sunsets

Lake Ontario offers some spectacular sunsets, especially from the eastern shore facing west. I grew up visiting the Henderson Bay area, where we'd occasionally see the sun drop off behind the archipelago of islands that rim that bay. When I went to school in Oswego, I saw them sink below the water of the open lake.

Trite as the art is, this is why sunset pictures are dear to me. They take me back to many an evening where I watched this seemingly mundane event with my siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. At the same time that they give me this nostalgic feeling of comfort, they make me feel insignificant, which gives me perspective.

After some 30 years since my parents afforded us one and two-week stays, I was able to do the same for my family this year. We rented a lovely and well-appointed cottage south of Stony Point. Finally I was able to see more than a few sunsets from my dorm room in the winter time. Here are some of the better ones from my week of vacation in Jefferson Park, NY.

Light Painting, Long Exposures

I spent a week at Lake Ontario in Jefferson Park, NY. It gets pretty dark up there at night, so you can see more stars than we can in even a small town like Beacon. Light pollution blocks out stuff. But a long exposure up north in a darker area captures a few more stars.

With such a dark backdrop we could also do light painting with various light sources such as burning wood, sparklers, or small light sources like flashlights. Here's a sample of our work:

Directness

I came across this article while tripping around the web at lunch, today. I love one of the concluding paragraphs for it speaks of language needing to be utilitarian, in some respect. It speaks to my love of direct, elegant writing, if not blunt writing:

At 20 I congratulated myself on my awareness of the subjectivity of aesthetic judgments, the arbitrariness of critical proclamations, the folly of received wisdom. I pored over the Deconstructionists and the French feminists and advocated, in complete seriousness, the overthrow of language. (Also, the patriarchy.) Then I went to law school and was forced to confront serious practical and ethical questions — Brown v. Board of Education, for instance, and Roe v. Wade — that managed not to be resolved by the insights of Derrida. Now, having entered and abandoned the practice of law and spent roughly a decade straddling legal publishing and the blogosphere, I’m increasingly drawn to directness, which precludes neither nuance nor irony. (For details, see the essays of Mark Twain, who believed that “plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.”)

Beacon Roundhouse

The Roundhouse At Beacon Falls is just one part of a large development project started this year to revitalize Beacon's East Main Street Area. So far they have cleaned up a lot of the area near the falls and the Main Street bridge, and the bridge has been replaced or fixed.

Just a few weeks ago, the Roundhouse opened up for customers. I stopped there and got some pictures this morning.

Here is a quick video of the area. I apologize if you can hear the guy yapping on his cell phone.

Beacon Farmer's Market

The Beacon Farmer's Market is held ever Sunday - even in the winter - at the train station parking lot. In foul weather, it is held indoors at the Beacon Sloop Club, same location. We stopped there yesterday on the way home from grocery shopping to complement those purchases with some fresh fruit and corn.

Migliorelli Farm is from Tivoli, about 30 miles north of here. We got peaches and corn from their stand, which is hardly a sampling of all their produce.

 Tierra Farms has all manner of dried fruit and nuts.

We get stuff from Pickle Licious from time time. Today we got Kalamata olives and pickled mushrooms.

There's also fresh bread...

...and iced coffee and ground coffee from Tas Kafe, which is in Beacon.

This gentleman was selling SerenDipiTea.

 A florist!

I had never heard of vegan ice cream until this day.

Jennifer got two boxes of ravioli from Bongo and Capacci (website not found!).

Occasionally there is someone selling handmade jewelry, such as It's A Wrap.

Another interesting vendor for whom I could find no web info.

Did you know we made wine here in Dutchess County? Millbrook Winery is in Millbrook (of all places), a beautiful small town with such residents as Ric Ocasek, Paulina Porizkova, Liam, Neeson, Timothy Leary (OK, he's dead, but I finally get to say "Timothy Leary's dead!"), Daryl Hall, Faith Hill, Sigourney Weaver, Rufus Wainright, and Mary Tyler Moore. The Cars recorded their latest album there in 2010. Golden Earring named their album, also recorded there, after the town.

Gotta love 'exquisite tarts' from Dutch Desserts.

Walnut Grove Farms.

Didn't catch where these folks were from, but their sandwiches smelled great.

Common Ground Farm is a community farming project run out of Beacon and Fishkill.

They have a cool bus!