The View from Here

 We had thunder snow late yesterday afternoon but even after that it kept snowing. 

Here is what it looks like this morning with temperatures at 25º.

It is beautiful but not what I'd expect to be raving about on April 22nd.

Happy Earth Day 2021.

Bonfire

Spring. 

Snow on the ground. 

Bonfire time?

 

This pile was much larger made up of garden refuse that doesn't compost, and tree trimmings including some of our old lilacs that broke in the snow storm.  We arrived an hour after the burn began. The coals were hot and ready.

The bonfire was to happen in the fall but the pile was too wet to start then. After sitting with a tarp over it through the winter, it was nice and dry.  But everything around was tinder dry so fire restrictions through March and early April prevented the burning.  Only with the snow on the ground did fire restrictions lift.

Bonfire means s'mores!

Both granddaughters partook as did I.

Walk in the woods

 Our township owns a forest that is crisscrossed with trails.  We set out to find it one day this week and thought we had when we walked on this trail

It followed the course of this brook (not creek in NH).

There were lots of interesting rock formations,

vernal pools,

and trees.

The trail we realized was either a road or a former railroad bed.  The grade was gradual like rail lines though no signs of old rail timbers.  It soon ended at the road we had turned off of so we weren't in the town forest as we thought.

We did spot signs of spring - skunk cabbage.

And don't these two (above and below) look like alligators?

We consulted the map and did some more driving and found the forest.  Decided to save any walks for another time.  My header photo is a trillium about to bloom on the hillside in the town forest.  We will return soon to see more wildflowers. as you can see the woods are full of them.

Letchworth State Park

 On our trip to visit family in Buffalo last weekend, we drove to Letchworth State Park on Saturday. This is a long skinny park (17 miles long) in northwestern NY State. It follows the Genesee River which flows north to Lake Ontario.  The park preserves the gorge created by the river.  It's renowned as the Grand Canyon of the East according to the state park site (link here).

[Funny thing is that there's a canyon near Wellsboro, PA that also calls itself the Grand Canyon of the East. We visited there in the summer of 2015 and I wrote this blog post about the park.]

Our first view of the canyon and river was at a dam. We thought the river was flowing left to right because the water was only visible on  the left,

and it looked dry on the right.  Well, north was to our left so it was flowing the other way.  We just couldn't see the river channel below us.

At another overlook we saw the river below.

It was reminiscent of the Grand Canyon.

Several picnic grounds had these stone topped tables.  Aren't they neat?

We took a short walk along the gorge.

And got a better view of the river.

Including a view of these falls. 

We descended to get closer look and were met with the misty spray of the falls in our faces.