Frozen pond

Actually it is not frozen, considering it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit a few days ago... but perhaps it will soon be frozen.

Last photo of 2011... Happy New Year!

Christmas snow

Finally some snow, but unfortunately a week late for Christmas.

Where is the snow?

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, but is sure does't look like it.  By now we should have a pretty good cover of snow, but so far this season we have only had a light dusting, and that disappeared almost instantly.

The weather watchers are telling us that we are on track to have a new weather record... the least amount of snow in the month of December.

So much for a white Christmas.

About 300 miles

I recently published a photo of the drained canal.  This is just another photo, from a different perspective, taken on another gloomy day.

This is very near to my work location, at approximately mile 300 of the 363 mile long Erie Canal.

Santa Claus

Perhaps I should say, second in a series?  Here he is from last year.

A number of years ago we were in Germany and bought these hand painted pewter figures.  They are a favorite Christmas decoration of mine.

This was shot with my Canon DSLR, but with a lens adapted from my old Pentax Spotmatic that I bought when in high school.  It is a Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm f1.4, a wonderful sharp lens.  Of course it is manual focus on the DSLR but still produces very nice photos even though it is over 40 years old.

Treetops

I love to look up into the treetops.  On a day like this there is deep blue sky and the shape of the trees just makes for an interesting view... a sight that is often overlooked by many.

The Wild Center

A fairly new instutuion in Tupper Lake New York, The Wild Center/Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks, is an interesting place to spend an afternoon.  Very nice exhibits and a lot of opportunity to interact in a beautiful natural setting.  Highly recommended.

Paper birch branch

Endangered

So here are some interesting statistics:

• The population of the United States is 309 million people.^1.

• The number of cellular mobiler phones is currently 294.4 million.^2.

So who is using phone booths these days?  I guess superman still needs someplace to change into his super clothing?

^1. The United States Census Bureau, United States Census 2000.
^2. The World Bank Group "Data Catalog" The World Bank.

Drained

Each year in November the Erie Canal is drained to just a trickle, at least this section.  This is done to enable inspection of the walls and making repairs.

The canal originally opened in 1825 and connected the East cost with the Great Lakes, opening up the interior of the content.  It was in reality the first American super highway.

In the spring the canal will return to a normal depth of 12 feet and, although bypassed by modern commercial traffic, it will again provide a waterway for recreational boating in the warm months.