Yesterday evening, I went to the Grand Island Fire Company’s open house. The first thing that I noticed was the moon. It was low and huge in the sky. Isn’t it spectacular? Actually, it’s not quite full in this picture. The full moon will be tonight. It is supposed to be a rare spectacle, called […]

Today’s blog post is a collection of pictures that I’ve taken in the past week or so. It includes late-blooming flowers, bees, spiders, and more. The sources of the photographs include gardens that I continue to work on and gardens that I have visited. The growing season here in Western New York is coming to

Once upon a time, there was a poor couple, who had a son, a daughter, and a cat. The children’s names were Hansel and Gretel and their parents’ names were “Mom” and “Dad.” They lived in a small, broken-down shack. The couple worked very hard to provide food to their family. The children went to school

On October 12th, 2006, the Buffalo area was hit by a very dramatic snowstorm. At about noon, wet, heavy snow began falling. After a few hours, the snowfall had become quite substantial. Because it was still early autumn, the leaves were still on the trees. In fact, most of them were green. Before long, limbs

Note: This is part two of my story about the farmers’ market at Kelly’s Country Store, held this past weekend. On the grounds of Kelly’s Country Store is an old one-room schoolhouse, which was, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a functional school. I had, until Sunday, never been inside the school. On Sunday, I had

Kelly’s Country Store is a family-owned business in Grand Island, New York. It opened in 1962 and it has become a destination for many visitors to Grand Island. They sell a large selection of candies from old fashioned jars, as well as many varieties of chocolates. The candies include licorice, peach stones, root beer barrels,

Today’s post is about the adventures that I had in learning to drive a car. Although I love traveling on foot, I realize that, at times, that method of transportation is too slow to be practical. Also, in the winter, I am sometimes risking hypothermia just to get in a good walk. A few years

This is the emerald ash borer.  The emerald ash borer’s home is in eastern Asia. It is native to northern China, Korea, eastern Russia, and Japan. In its natural habitat, the emerald ash borer is not a threat. Asian ash trees are resistant to the insect. In addition, because, in eastern Asia, there are numerous

Note: Yesterday evening, author Timothy Bohen was the featured speaker at the monthly meeting of the Grand Island Historical Society. His presentation was about Buffalo’s Old First Ward. He told the story of this Buffalo neighborhood, beginning in the 1830s. Tim said that his desire to learn more about the history of his family motivated