Another reflection

Almost looks like a Photoshop trick, but no, it is not.

Leaving work the sky had this great pink and blue light. Walking over to the pond I was able to capture not only the sky, but the mirror image on the surface of the water.

A minute later and it was gone.

Timing is everything, and being lucky is sublime.

Frosty rocker

So this is how it often works...

I am on my way to work, trying to be observant. I see something unusual, in good light, or unusual... or just something unexpected... but I drive by.

Iv'e got to get to work.

Then something in me clicks, I slow the car down, and simultaneously let out a low sigh!

I turn around... and drive back.

So why is there a frosty bright red rocking chair on the curb in the middle of a pile of leaves? I have no idea.

Fog settles in Tryon

In the valley distant is modern day Ellison Park. This morning a thick fog covered the hollow below, creating a dreamy drive through the park.

This lawn, now a county golf course, was once a thriving town occupied long before there was a Rochester. In fact 200 years ago this was the major trade center between Queenston in Canada to the west, and Oswego to the east.

The "Lost City of Tryon" was comprised of a five-story warehouse, flour mill, customs house, a tavern, a distillery, a shoe factory and a number of houses. But once the Erie Canal was built the regional focus quickly moved to Rochester and the Port of Charlotte.

It is hard to believe that here on today's silted and slow moving Irondequoit Creek, large schooners once docked, enabling trade and commerce for the region.

Beauty or ugliness?

Both can attract your attention.

And they can sometimes be hidden in the other.

So I try to take the time to find the beauty in the ugliness. And ignore the ugliness in the beauty.

Big doors

These are the lower gates of lock 33 on the Erie Canal. They are within easy walking distance from my place of work. In fact, if the south wall of the canal was to break, my car and likely me would be under water. There was a canal break a number of years ago a bit farther to the east, and cars and offices and homes were flooded. Fortunately that does not happen often.

These gates are the doors that allow boats and barges to enter and leave the lock. Gates are located on each end of the lock. Once the doors are closed on both ends, the water level can be raised or lowered solely by gravity.

The locks were also symbolic doors when the original canal was built in 1821. It created a doorway to the Great Lakes, and by extension, opened the continent allowing relatively fast, inexpensive and convenient travel. It is the canal that made Rochester a city, along with many other towns in its path.

Birds

The leaves have abandoned these trees, but the birds certainly have not.

In fact there are hundreds of them. Perhaps it is a family reunion? Maybe they are grouping together in preparation to their migration south?

At any rate as they say, "birds of a feather, flock together."

The Calumet

Calumet is the what the French called the American Indian peace pipe. So it is ironic that this building, called "The Calumet", once housed the Buffalo chapter of the Klu Klux Klan. It is equally astonishing that the KKK even had a following in this northern upstate city.

The Calumet is a distinctive art nouveau designed glazed terra cotta building constructed in 1906. It presently houses an upscale restaurant, and was recently purchased and will be restored by a law firm for their offices on the upper floors.

Eastern sunset

Everyone knows that the sun sets in the west, but if the sky is right, and the clouds are right, you can see the sunset in the east. This is of course because the sun on the western horizion is throwing its warm late day colors onto the clouds in the east. And this can result in some magic.