Skaneateles Mailboat Tour

Last week, on probably the best day of the whole Summer (thus far), my two traveling buddies (BFF's) and I took a bus tour from our town to one of the most pristine of the Finger Lakes - Skaneateles Lake. Here we are on the bus headed for Skaneateles.

Joanie

Me - in case you can't see picture caption: I just wanted ONE chin, so I cropped the others off.

                                                      

Patty

                                                                                                   
The town of Skaneateles is 78 miles from Rochester and is about an hour and a half bus ride.   The weather was blindingly sunny, not a cloud in the sky and quite warm (90 ish). But the bus was air cooled and the lake breezes and boat ride also provided cooling breezes. The lake is as clear as glass. It's an extremely healthy lake, according to the guide. 300 plus feet deep. You can practically "feel" the eons of time it took for water, erosion, temperature fluctuations, climate, ice ages, etc. to dig this beautiful lake out of the huge rock formations that are its boundaries.

Our cruise was on a Mailboat which delivers and collects the mail for the lake residents. It's easier to deliver mail by boat than to attempt to drive or walk around the lake, scaling the cliffs and dirt roads on terra firma  and miles of wooden stairs the residents have built to get from mountain side to where their cottages are situated at lake level.

It's also quite an adventure for both the mail delivery personnel and the lake residents. The residents hang their mailboxes off their boat docks and reaching out toward the water. The boat captain actually stops that craft about two feet from the end of the dock. He never crashed into one single dock while I was with him. A young "gopher" mail boy with large orange bags of mail wiggles way up onto the bow and then leans waaaay over to hand the mail to the resident standing at the end of their dock. Most of the time, this is residents. Children love to do this and everyone's pet does as well. Reason being that the mail "gopher" has a treat of a tootsie roll for the kiddies and a dog biscuit for the pups - plus mail. And sometimes, the residents have mail to post, handing that over to the "gopher" to process.

A few of the lake residents ready to meet the mail boat

 

One of the stops for mail delivery was at a day camp. The camp counselors came to the dock to collect the mail. A few tiny campers also sneaked in to this picture. Sorry I wasn't able to get a picture of this - but the beautiful young counselors standing along the dock at camp did the can-can just like the Radio City Rockettes as a mailboat greeting. Here they are after their grueling routine.




Sailing Lessons

The Mailboat

The interior of the boat was lined both sides with tables and four chairs at each one. Lined along both sides with windows. The did serve iced tea, soda pop and water plus small snacks.  The mail cruise took approximately 3 hours. These are some of the wonderful lake houses.



Some of the beautiful residences along the lakefront.

 

My Favorite


This next one, which looks a lot like the White House has a very interesting history and if you're interested, I've provided a link.

http://kihm6.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/roosevelt-hall/


Now off the lunch at the   http://www.selectregistry.com/members/sherwood-inn.asp  and then a bit of shopping at the wonderful shops and boutiques of downtown Skaneateles. There were 3 lunch choices. Me and the two "comari" all had the same thing: First course: green salad. Second Course: Chicken French, which was totally delicious. A thin paillard of sautéed chicken in a lemon and wine sauce over a bed of wild rice and shoestring vegetables. Third Course: a decadent chocolate cake with frosting and whipped cream.

And to top it all off - a bit of "retail therapy"

This is a two story antique shop. All of it was as crowded as this picture. I did purchase a little tchotchke.


While waiting for our bus to take us back home, we sat in this beautiful beachfront park.

 

Altogether, a beautiful day, enjoyed by one and all. It was a http://www.coveredwagontours.net/  Covered Wagon Tours. They took care of everything, throughway tolls, gratuities, lunch, they did the driving and parking. I can't wait for the next one.

Today is Monday

Today I looked through my yarn stash and discovered that I had no #5 yarn (chunky) yarn. That's a little heavier than #4 (worsted/double knitting), which I have lots of.

I made a little trip over to the only yarn store we have remaining in my area. All others, sadly, have gone out of business. This yarn store that I planned to browse around in had a sign on the door - "CLOSED MONDAYS". sad, sad, sad.

To elevate my spirits a bit I went to the gelato store and got a double scoop and sat on a bench overlooking the canal and ate my mango-coconut gelato while watching pigeons, house sparrows and ducks all looking for a handout.

I felt a bit desperate for the yarn because I'm soon going on a bus tour and I want to knit during the ride. I am wanting to make some hats like these to put in my etsy shop. I think it's perfect timing for thinking about hats. School will be starting in a month. College co-eds will be descending on campuses and winter won't be far behind.

Because the yarn shop was closed, I made a trip to the local sewing and craft store. They do have a yarn department. They did happen to have the weight of yarn I need to make this pattern - plus - it was on sale!!! I bought enough to make three hats. Here's the colors.

 

 

 

          

Roses Can be Compared to a Hershey's Chocolate Bar for a Deer

Oh, deer, oh, deer. Am I setting myself up for lots of frustration? After I published last week's blog post, I thought I'd better check on Google about what deer like to eat from our gardens and discovered that one of their favorites is roses. I am very reluctant to give up on my plan to have a rose garden but I don't want to get into a heated battle with the deer who live in my neighborhood. Plus, they like to eat when I'm fast asleep. Noshing all night long in all the gardens in my neighborhood.

Google tells me that deer can be dissuaded from chomping on your roses if you plant something around the roses that smells distasteful to deer. One plant that deer don't like the smell of is lavender. I love lavender plants. So, that's my updated and new plan - a rose garden completely surrounded by lavender.

This is where I'm at now. The vegetable garden has been tilled and divested of all vegetable seeds but, unfortunately, not of weed seeds. My take on this is: when you till a garden, you're actually planting weeds. Turning over that soil and burying weeds seeds deep down in the bed, only to have them flourish again in a couple weeks. So this is what the bed looks like now. You can see where I have made one section for roses. And a center circle where a beautiful birdbath will be situated. The garden will have one of these sections in each of the four corners. From the center circle will be four cedar chip paths - dividing each of the four sections. A "birds eye view" will look like a cross.

The reason my new section in the foreground doesn't have weeds is because I made it a "newspaper" or "lasagna" garden. You ask: what is a "newspaper" or "lasagna" garden? I got you a little YouTube video to explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCyum7tPMP0

I have made many "newspaper" gardens. They are the "bomb".

I am moving top soil, that I had dumped in my driveway, to my backyard, by wheelbarrow and dumping the wheelbarrow full of topsoil plus cow manure that I mixed in, onto the thick layer of newspaper that I layed down over the weeds to smother them and turn them into compost. That is the "newspaper" method. It's a "little bit by little bit" process.

I may be able to plant roses and lavender in the fall. If not, then next spring.

Here's a couple more things that are going on in my garden. Bees buzzing around the purple cone flowers. There's one in mid air on the top left and a great big bumble bee on the head of the big flower in the foreground.

And on the patio, in a pot, supposedly a grape tomato (doesn't look like one). This green tomato has been hanging around for about a month. I wonder if it's ever gonna to turn red. Perhaps I need to make "fried green tomatoes".

Birthing of a Rose Garden

Once upon a time, we had a vegetable garden plot in our backyard. We enjoyed it immensely and so did the deer, rabbits and groundhogs. So we fenced it in and we still enjoyed it. It gave us lettuces, tomatoes, string beans, zucchini, basil, parsley, peppers, garlic and eggplants.
 

 

 

 

It's a lot of work keeping weeded and bug-free. And there's not enough people here anymore to eat all those veggies. We've moved the little herb garden to the patio steps and put a tomato plant in a kettle on the patio. Note that the whole tomato affair is swathed with netting otherwise the deer will get to the tomatoes before I do. And they like them green too.

Patio gardening is super convenient. Just steps away from the meal prep area. The deer have not bothered with the herb garden. I think they don't like all the smells (basil, rosemary, thyme).

The space where the vegetable garden lived happily for many years will now be a rose garden. I am in the process of preparing it. Putting more top soil mixed with compost over a thick layer of newspapers (a newspaper garden), laying out garden paths which will be a thick layer of the mulch our town provides for free after they've mulched up the town's fallen trees and tree limbs.

The garden measures 8 feet by 16 feet. I'm marking out a circle in the middle and then 4 paths coming out from the circle, like a cross. In the circle, I think there will be a beautiful birdbath which I don't have yet.

I'll keep you up to date on the rose garden's progress from time to time. I think it's going to give me lots of pleasure. I hope deer don't like to eat roses. I better "google" that.

Fairie Garden

Ever since I attended the annual Greece Performing Arts Society garden tour on June 14th, I have been obsessed with making a little fairie garden of my own. I saw so many of them on that tour and I was totally inspired. I blogged about the tour. You can see it here if you missed it.
http://sammysgrammysneedlin.blogspot.com/2014/06/garden-tour.html

So, I thought about it and thought about it, dreamt about it, planned it out, looked in second hand stores for a suitable container. Didn't find one that tickled my fancy. I even thought about using my big, old roaster. The navy blue enamel one with the white dots but couldn't bear to punch holes in it for water drainage.

I did, however, have an old plastic wheelbarrow that belonged to one of my granddaughters. It really should have gone to the landfill long ago. But I'm glad I saved it. I gave it a bath and repaired the one and only wheel it had so it would bear the weight of the garden soil. Then went to work making a fairie garden. That means everything has to be tiny. I knew I had a fairie house in my Christmas decorations. I also had seashells which I could make a garden path from. (You could also use pebbles)

I dumped garden soil into the wheelbarrow. Scooped up moss that grows in shady places in my own "big girl" garden. The moss is going to be the fairie grass. I set the house in a corner of the little garden. Planted a "hens 'n chicks" in front of it. Took another succulent that looked like little trees to me and planted them on either side of the house.

From the house,  I layed out a meandering path of shells through the garden. From two tiny twigs and some twine, I fashioned a clothesline and hung teeny tiny little clothes from miniature clothespins on the line to dry in the sunshine. It was no end of fun to make those miniscule clothes. A tiny pair of farmers jeans, two dresses and a nightie. Don't miss the little birdbath in front of the "hens 'n chicks" plant. I made that from an "orphan" miniature tea set saucer glued to a golf tee.

I made a reflecting pond in the garden from a tiny mirror.

And after a visit to my "all time favorite shop" (Crafts Bits 'n Pieces), I had a wee mailbox and bird house for the garden.

I think it has all it can hold. I will have to quit, though I don't really want to. I have so many other ideas for fairie gardens. If you live near me and you'd like one, let me know so we can build you one together.

Since You Went Away

My infatuation with vintage extends even to movies. "Since You Went Away" is a glamorized peek behind the scenes of what it was like in the 1940"s for the wives, children, parents, and other loved ones when their men went off to war.

This movie was shown at the Dryden Theater at the George Eastman House where important films are restored and archived. This particular film was a silver nitrate film, which, I understand, is very volatile. This evening there were 3 special projectionists in the booth to protect this rare treasure.

I discovered that this particular film was the personal 16mm copy that belonged to David O. Selznick, donated to the museum by his son.

All of these juicy tidbits and many more were announced in the introduction given by "someone in the know". This is usually the case for these screenings at the Dryden Theater. They're usually historical and in need of some explanation of the time period, story line, actors, etc.

The person who did this intro was a woman whose name I didn't get but I noticed her as soon as I walked in. She was stunningly tall and completely dressed in 1940's fashion, down to the black seams in her stockings and little black velvet hat, veiled, tilted askew on her brow. Her suit was crimson, shoes and hat were black and..................chartreuse gloves ! (which she kept on all evening). I sneaked this picture of her because I was totally fascinated with her 1940's vibe and had no idea that she would play an important role in tonight's presentation.

I was sitting in the balcony and she, on the main floor. I thought she was dressed in this manner as an homage to the film. I was wrong: she was actually the mistress of ceremonies ! The theater looks strangely empty because I went an hour early because I wanted my special seat and didn't want to chance someone else taking it. First row balcony.

In the beginning, my main reason for wanting to see this film is: I am a Shirley Temple freak. Two events gave great support to this enthusiasm. One - the recent celebration of the 70 year anniversary of D Day (the end of the war) and Two - Shirley Temple's recent passing.

I thought I had seen all her films but I had never seen this one. It remains relatively obscure to contemporary audiences.

Other blather shared by 1940's lady: Shirley Temple was called out of retirement to play her role of the pre-teen, youngest daughter of the female lead (Claudette Colbert). Elder sister a senior in high school) was played by Jennifer Jones who just recently sued her DH for divorce because she was in love with David O. Selznick (the movie producer), who also was married but obsessed with JJ. JJ's ex, Robert Walker played her love interest in the movie (a young G.I.). This made for torturous love scenes. They had 2 children and DOS was also married to a daughter of Samuel Goldman. Two homes ruined.

Many leading actresses were offered the main female role but turned it down because playing someone's mother was perceived as a not so good career move.

Hattie McDaniels (just finished her role of Mammy in GWTW) played the now unemployed housekeeper (they couldn't afford her anymore because of the "off to the war" head of household's missing income). However, she moved back in with the family because without an income she couldn't afford her own living expenses. She now worked there for free plus room and board. Making the girls very happy, because, like with Scarlett in GWTW, she was their Mammy. Spoiled them, corrected them lovingly, made their meals, did their laundry, tucked them in at night, etc.

This movie was made in 1944 - exactly 70 years ago - the cultural, moral, patriotic, etc., changes in the tone of this country's attitudes, manners, standards............... = astronomical.

Things that were buried deep in my memory that the movie brought back: victory gardens, taking in a "roomer" to supplement income, women went to work at the jobs men vacated, innocence, longer childhoods, housekeepers..........................

Garden Tour

On Saturday, last, I attended, with two friends, the annual Greece Performing Arts Society garden tour. Greece is a suburb of Rochester. Their performing arts society, includes gardening, music, drama, painting, sculpture, etc.

Here in western New York, summer doesn't start until the end of May. It closely follows a Springtime of, roughly, one week. Rochester Summers are usually "hot and heavy". They visit us from June to mid-September, getting cooler at night in September. We usually have a beautiful Indian Summer from September's end to about mid-October. Then...........brrrrrrrrrrrrr.......... Therefore, Summer is usually packed with events. Like the old saying goes "make hay while the sun shines".

The GPAS is always on the second Saturday of June, rain or shine. This time it was a bit chilly. We wore light jackets. In every garden, we were offered cold drinks but turned them down because we were so cold. Before the show was over, we did stop for coffee to warm up. That tasted soooo good.

There were seven gardens to visit. The owner/gardener is in every garden so you can ask questions and get the inside story on their garden. This year I noticed that many of the gardens had a little "fairy garden" tucked away in the landscape somewhere. I also noticed many beautiful colored glass bridbaths. Some gardens had several. The gardens represented the gardeners esthetic. "Staging" was the order of the day. Some were perfect, every blade of grass the exact same length, all beds edged in professional curbing, some had a vintage vibe, some had a riot of garden sculpture, some had fabulous sheds, some had trickling ponds. It's almost too much to digest. You just have to dream of it and take notes in your guide book.

                                                         Fairy Garden

                        "Staging" seed packets, robins eggs nest, quilt, picket fence chair

                                                                     Garden Shed

 

 

 

Multi Level Pond

We (three) look forward to this annually. It's our traditional "girlfriend" thing. I usually take tons of pictures. I'm always looking for ideas for my own garden. I am definitely going to make a "fairy garden".

 

Recycled Glass Garden Sculpture

These homes always have some sort of patio and from those, volunteers served cold drinks and light snacks (cheese and crackers, pretzels, tea sandwiches, etc,) Another feature of the patios is: they all have live music. And in each garden an artist is sitting at her easel, painting a garden scene.

A part of the tour is a visit the town's Historical Center. Here they have a huge tent set up with a "rolling restaurant", perennials for sale, home canned vegetables, and crafts.  I did buy a couple perennial plants. A tiny hosta for $2 and hen n' chickens for $1.50.  We all had a hot dog from the rolling restaurant.

This is the highlight of my Summer. What's yours?