Friday Hunt, 2016.2-5

It is Friday, and Teresa is back with her fun meme, Friday Hunt. The clues this week are here, and I am happy to comply with these unique items. So I am ready :)

Starts with 'D'. I am going with my main form of ambulation, my trusty 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. With its Braun conversion, it allows travel for mysel and my wheelchair. So my entry is my steed, the top pic being taken on Wednesday in Ansonia. Here, it looks as innocuous as any Dodge Minivan. However, I am also adding the ramp sequence as it deploys (i.e.: opens). The pics were taken in 2010 - but the process remains as is...

Week's Favorite. Here is the new playground at the Ansonia Nature and Recreation. After the old playground had to be demolished in April due to its structural degradation (built in 1993), a number of volunteer efforts helped to begin the construction of a new playground. The main benefactor was the Seymour CT based Basement Systems, whose CEO and employees financed the project and volunteered their time and paid for the materials along with the efforts of the local United Way's corporate volunteer council - and completed on Sunday. There are grant applications to add the ADA features of ramps and such. We covered the story in our Valley-Voice newsletter yesterday...

Summer or Winter. Given that the heat dome that has plagued the midwest is shifting east toward New England today, I chose Winter, this view taken out the front door on 27 January 2011. I now feel cooler...

Friday Hunt, 2016-10

Every Friday at 19:00 hours CST, we are treated to Teresa's very fun photo meme, Friday Hunt. Here, we are given our subjects to find where we can. I think I have found a unique set of subjects, and I found representatives for each. So, for the week of March 4th we have...

Starts with J

7 January 2011

12 January 2011

27 January 2011. Our driveway from wheelchair height...

Well, January starts with ‘J’, and I am choosing views from January, 2011. With snow, and more of the same. The winter of 2010-2011 began with more than 12 in/30 cm of snow on four occasions: December 26, 2012, January 7 , 12 and 27, 2011. And to make the snowy saga even more interesting, a big-ish ice storm was to occur on Feb. 3, so we spent $275 to have two guys shovel the roof so that the ice would help to collapse the roof. That’s my ‘J’ story :)

Week's Favorite

Pasquale Battaglia remembered, Ansonia City Hall

Connecticut US Senator Blumenthal was at an event in Ansonia last week to preset awards the survivors of WWII veteran Pasquale Battaglia, who died last year at the age of 99.

The life-long Ansonia resident was honored during a ceremony in aldermanic chambers at City Hall. The photo is a beautiful montage of war era photos of Battaglia, a patriot and great guy…there more pics on Page 2 of our new Valley-Voice CT newsletter...

A cuppa…

Well, there are a few cups on this restaurant table. The place is the now closed The Original Antonios in downtown Ansonia. The owners have relocated to anew space about 15 miles away, but here is the obligatory desert view from October, the tiramisu and the bag of donuts - fresh fried dough with cups of caramel, chocolate and raspberry to dip the still warm donuts in. With a cuppa of cappuccino in the background - a perfect cappuccino with only steamed milk and a hint of cinnamon. No whipped cream for me here!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Melting Gnomes

Well, not exactly melting, but facing apart anyway. As the season of Winter is beginning its fading away this year (yay), the sun gets shorter as do the shadows. So for this week's edition of Shadow Shot Sunday 2, I am using a photo taken by the always lovely Patti a few years ago of her gnomes in Winter They seem to be cracking and breaking apart but are as winsome as ever, and their shadows in better shape...

Wordless Wednesday - Snowy Sunset

Last Friday it snowed, but the snow ended and the sun arrived just before sunset. And the bold sunset added a remarkable set of shadows to the mulberry tree in our front yard. I am not a fan of winter but this is a stylish look at the season...See NC Sue for more WW

SOOC - Snowy Friday

This week's post for Straight Out of the Camera-SOOC was taken yesterday during the snowstorm yesterday. This burst of snow was taken mid-morning out the living room window by Patti; the snow total when it ended in the early afternoon was 9in / 23cm. Snow is pretty to look at if not to travel in...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Snowy Aftermath

It is Winter in the Southern New England, and snow is always a possibility. For Shadow Shot Sunday 2, I look at our latest snowfall the morning after, and of course the sunny aftermath leads to shadows. With my new droid phone, I took each, the one on the left on Jan. 23, the one on the right this morning. There are shadows, and perhaps you can see the difference in snow quality - two weeks ago it was a light and fluffy quality that left a smooth and unbroken carpet out the back door. Yesterday's was of a heavy snow with a high water content - it stuck to the branches and fell heavily onto the patio, having an crater-like look. Either way, the phone takes okay pice, there is a differing quality of snow and shadows abound. A trifecta for any SSS!

Friday Hunt 2016-6

I am back for Teresa's fun meme Friday Hunt. I like the eclectc themes, and today I am looking at archived and current pics to meet the theme. So here it is: 

Starts with F: For me, this goes to my second wheelchair driver vehicle, a 1998 Ford E-150 Club Wagon. I took delivery on May 28, 1998 and donated it to a non-profit in May 2010 with over 158,000 miles (and would have easily run another 100,000, but I needed an upgrade to a more manageable van). It was a beast and ate plenty of gasoline, but what price independence? I took many a pic of this over the years and present them today!

Week’s Favorite: Patti captured today on today’s snowy afternoon. As a wheelchair user, the cold of snow and winer keeps me indoor on days like this. Yet, the birds do offer a reminder that the warmth of Spring is not really all that far away so no more complaining is allowed! The structure in the back is not a barn - just a suburban storage shed with a gambrel roof…

Negative Space: Forgetting the snow, I don’t know if this shot of the moon basking in clouds over our home is a look into the abyss - but I’ll take it as a metaphor into the emptiness of space. Or something like that…it was an interesting shot taken on last November 25. Thanks again Teresa!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Snowy Back Yard

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 returns a week after our first snow this Winter of 2015-2016. We are in southern Connecticut near Long Island Sound, we get an average snowfall of 30 in / 76 cm per season, so the 9 inches we received last week is not that much. Inconvenient for sure but attractive when the sun hits the fresh powdery precip, shadows are magnificent. As in our back yard (above) and patio (L), snow allows for nice shadows indeed...

Friday Hunt 2016-5

I am back to a new favorite meme, Teresa's Friday Hunt. I looked around for this weeks's hunt and have found an eclectic mix that fits the themes which are: Starts with E, Week's Favorite and Sky. Without further ado...

Starts with E, which is for Eggs. Here is the assemblage for a frittata, of which eggs are an essential ingredient.  Another 'E' of interest is the 'EB' stamped on the eggs for Egg.Land's Best, our favored brand...

Favorite: This was on Sunday after the snow fell. The ever lovely Patti used a Snoopy Christmas ornament that shows the canny canine shoveling snow with bird friend Woodstock riding along. This is a fun look at the season...

Sky: This is actually a picture taken in June, 2003 by myself. It is always interesting trying to capture views in a wheelchair and sometimes the best laid plans can easily go awry in these unique situations. Nevertheless, New Haven Harbor (CT) from the East Shore offers a great looking sky above. Thanks Teresa!

Wordless Wednesday - The difference a day makes

We had the 'pleasure' if you will, of a snowy Saturday. Happily, although we live a mere 85 miles (137 km) north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, we received a mere 10 in (20 cm) of snow, much less than they did. Happily :) The top view was Saturday afternoon, the bottom view Sunday Morning. The sunny morn nicely offset the snowy Saturday...See NC Sue for more WW!

SOOC - A Wintry Oasis in the Urban Jungle

The usually fast pace of Lower Manhattan in New York City seems a bit slower when the financial workday ends and a bit of snow falls. So for Straight Out of the Camera - SOOC, I offer another un-edited phone pic from our NYC resident son Cameron. Few people, taxis and speed are about and the peaceful light snowfall add a serenity we rarely see on the urban landscape...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Night in the Big City

For this week's Shadow Shot Sunday 2, I am using a couple of pics taken by Cameron, our son living in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and working in The City (to which to the outer NYC Boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and NY call), Manhattan. He snapped a couple of nighttime phone shots at some park in The City and the results are great, the wrought iron fencing and leafless branches falling nicely on the accumulated snow. For a city with a normally frenetic pace, it seems peaceful and quiet. A world away from what we may be used to...