Reading Pagoda

Unless someone has been to Reading, Pa., they probably don't associate it with Far Eastern architecture. And yet there it is, a full-size pagoda on a hill overlooking the city. The story of this fantastical creation is interesting. A man who owned quarries on the hillside came to regret how his industry was scarring the view of the hillside from the city. He decided to build something on the property that would delight the eyes. I have no idea how the idea of a pagoda came to his mind, though :)

Browns & Greens

From two very different climates:

Browns along the Pennsylvania Turnpike last month, on our return trip from Dayton (same trip as the Cloud post ... I was entertaining myself taking pictures out of the window).

Greens in Arches National Park last May, a desert wonderland. I took the pictures because, in each case, different shades of one particular color caught my eye. I'm also trying to pair pictures up, and I'll have a few more sets for you all here shortly :)

Forget the Turkey ...

We got a deer!

Justin is officially a Pennsylvanian now that he's had a run-in with a deer. This happened Wednesday night, on our way to his parents in Ohio. We were only a couple of miles from the McConnellsburg exit, which is close to where my parents live. Fortunately, his car is big and sturdy - we hit the deer on the Turnpike in holiday traffic, and it easily could have been far worse. He's out some headlights, and the quarter panel is pushed back just enough that the passenger door cannot open. So I get funny looks for crawling out the driver's side :)

I've had enough adventure. I'm planning on having a nice relaxing rest of the week!

Handiwork

I live in an area famous for its large Amish population. My uncle, knowing this, wondered why I hadn't posted on this theme yet. Two reasons: One, most Amish find that being photographed is a violation of the Biblical restriction against graven images, and two, because tourists pester them constantly and I feel guilty adding to an already serious annoyance. We were in the southern part of the county, in the car, when I took this picture. The Amishman was not inconvenienced by this shot, and remains unidentifiable, so I feel relatively guilt-free over this photo.
Because farmland is scarce, many of the younger generation of Amish have gone into woodworking. Most still work with their hands, using traditional methods and hydraulic tools. Some even work for regular "English" construction crews. ("English" is the term used locally to mean non-Amish folks.) Many congregations allow the use of modern technology, such as cellular phones, computers, calculators, and other electronic equipment, as long as the item is a tool needed to do a job. Such items are always prohibited in the home, and cannot be used outside the context of work. Needless to say, how the Amish deal with the modern world is fascinating.

For more information on the Amish and photographs, go here. For general information, here is a good start.

Hint of Fall

Although I took this picture in August, already a leaf had turned red and fallen into a pond in Caledonia State Park. I liked the leaf in the water, a floating punch of color. But then my camera autofocused on the surface of the water instead of the leaf underneath, and a new picture formed, all by chance. The watercolor effect superimposed on the reflections of leaves still on the tree attracted me, and here is the end result:

A Change of Pace

Since I have been bombarding you all with mountain vistas, I thought I would take a break and look at something very closely :)


I think this is jimsonweed. It is a noxious plant but the blooms are quite pretty. I shot this in macro mode. The lens was more or less inside the flower, accounting for the shadowy edges and backlit center.

Cormoriffic!

I was looking over my past posts, and I realized that I've posted very little about one of my favorite subjects: birds! These are three cormorants on a log at Middle Creek. A fourth cormorant showed up later, after Dad took his big camera back from me. I wasn't too eager to let it go, let me tell you. Dad would have to tell you how far away these guys were. My little S2 couldn't pull them in as well, so I'm posting the three, closer up.

I'll Take Six, Please

Developers are constructing a new subdivision around three sides of our complex. Therefore, we get to see some of the details of construction up close. One day, I was amused to see a "six-pack" of fire hydrants.

April 29: Spring Beauty, Squirrel Corn, Wild Geranium, and Rue Anemone

I am nearly at the end of April and I still have a lot of flowers to put on display, so you get an end-of-the-month four pack of blooms. These four are common springtime wildflowers in Pennsylvania and in Tennessee. I have pictures of each from both places. Spring Beauty is above; Squirrel Corn is below.


Wild Geranium above; Rue Anemone below. This particular anemone appears to have a double flower. Most anemone blooms don't have the extra layer of petals.

April 28: Cut-Leaf Toothwort

A fine Pennsylvania wildflower with a funny name :)

April 24: Trout Lily

Here's another familiar flower that I remember from the time spent on my grandparent's farm. I remember that the leaves of the lilies sometimes nearly covered the banks of the creek.

Look Who's Come Out to Play

Does anyone know what kind of snakes these are, and what they're up to?


They were small, hardly a foot long from tip to tail. Their patterns looked different from a distance. Then I zoomed in on the picture, and it may just be that one snake has a darker version of the same pattern. They stayed near each other, sometimes entwined, for the few minutes we were watching. I need help from an experienced woodsman (that's you or HTP Video, Salty Dawg!) :)

War Paint

In reality, these markings indicate a change in the direction of the trail. But in my imagination, this tree is prepared for whatever battle may come its way.

This is an imperfect effect. I know you're not supposed to attempt flowy waterfall pictures without a tripod, but I did it anyway. I tried to fix the focus problems in Photoshop, and that was imperfect, too. But it was still fun to play around with the effect and the software!

Hallowed Ground

The landscape here is intentionally meant to look as it did over 140 years ago, in 1863. The Civil War and military buffs out there can probably guess by now that I am at Gettysburg National Battlefield. The Park Service,after combing contemporary photographs and written accounts, has replanted acres of historical orchards, removed trees from many areas, replaced them in others, and installed miles of historically accurate fencing. Their purpose is to present a landscape as close to that of July 1863 as possible. Then the public can see physical obstacles that soldiers faced (distance, streams, fencelines, woodlands) and why certain points on the ground took on strategic importance (like Little Round Top vs. Big Round Top).


I've been to Gettysburg several times before. The difference this time is that, at least on one day, I saw it on foot. Justin and I followed a route that took us four hours and allowed us to cover nearly nine miles. We walked to almost all of the well-known portions of the battlefield south of the town. The pace meant that numerous details that would be missed in a car, like the weathered shutters on the Trostle House, made themselves obvious on foot.

The Park Services's current attempt to restore the historical landscape does not reach to the many monuments on the field. Most are historical objects themselves, erected in the first few decades after the battle. At no time in Gettysburg can you forget that you are walking on hallowed ground.

Remembrance

Some monuments at Gettysburg dominate their surroundings. The Pennsylvania monument is probably the grandest of these. And its no wonder, as the battle was fought within its borders and many of its sons were lost. Here, however, the monument's light stone begins to blend into the sky.

Other monuments are smaller, commemorating one life or the position of one regiment. This one, located in Devil's Den, takes on the colors and shapes of the surrounding rocks.


And some, like this one in the National Cemetery, seem to be keeping silent watch.

Cat Meets Bird (not quite)

This is Ansel, the Christmas cat. He's actually behaved pretty well, only removing two ornaments so far. Yesterday, Ansel had the chance to see a really cool bird, one much bigger than the ones he normally gets to watch. But he was sleeping upstairs and missed all the excitement.

Even though Ansel was asleep, one of my boys got to see the pheasant. I didn't realize it was outside, until Justin leapt up saying "what the heck is that?!?" He (the pheasant, not Justin) was about five feet away from the patio doors, using his head to dig into the mulch under the bushes.

Saturday Afternoon History Lesson

We ran out this afternoon to Chiquies Rock, a county park just down the road. Here you can see a lot of history crossing the Susquehanna. The bridge in the distance carries Rt. 462 across the river. While its the prettier bridge, you can't see a thing as you cross it. The nearer bridge is the newer, helping Rt. 30 on its way across the nation. While its not as architecturally interesting, the view from it is far superior. In the middle, you can barely make out abutments that no longer hold any type of structure. As I understand it, prior to the Civil War, these supports held up the world's longest covered bridge, over one mile long. The bridge was burnt by locals during the war to prevent enemy troops from crossing the river. After that, several railroads used the same foundation, but now, no mode of transporation uses the old rock foundations.
Here you can see some of the farmland and small town-type landscapes of eastern Pennsylvania. You can actually spot where I live, just in front of the blue water tower in the upper middle part of the photograph. Even after writing a thesis about preserved farmland, I never expected to live right in the middle of some very dense patches of preserved farmland. While I don't know if it is preserved or not, a farm right down the road provides us with very interesting smells most days!

Back in Pennsylvania

I knew for sure I was back home when I saw a billboard advertising a jewelery store. The ad showed an intricate and obviously expensive diamond necklace, with the following text: "And his new shotgun cost how much?"

What am I?

So far, the options appear to be a Yorkian, a Yorkite, or my personal favorite, a Yorker. Regardless, today was my first day as a working Yorker. The job is very similar to what I did in Knoxville, just a little more specialized. The folks are real nice and friendly. So that's very good, and I'm extremely lucky to have good friends here who are taking excellent care of me till I find a place of my own. This will be my first blog with no pictures to accompany it, but with so many cool old buildings near where I work, I'm sure I'll have some up before very long. I already have a shot in mind!

Hummingbirds and Home

One staple of visiting Mom's house in the right season is hummingbird-watching. This particularly bossy individual staked out a feeder right outside the kitchen window and chased any other hummers that dared to approach. The little female spent a long time grooming and contorting herself, allowing me to take pictures through the window. This picture is probably the best of the session.