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.

Spring on Hold

We went from this on Thursday - leaves opening, grass greening, temperatures moderating to

this on Friday - a nor'easter that brought snow starting as rain and changing to snow as the temperature dropped so that we woke to snow covering everything except the roads.  The snow kept falling most of the day but with temperatures just at freezing and the ground and surfaces with some warmth from the day before the snow tried to melt. 

I cut off my daffodil blooms to save them from the weighty snow. 

No loss of electricity with the wet heavy snow but a tree between us and our neighbor to the north came down in her backyard.  It was one trunk of a multiple trunk hemlock tree.  It's her tree.  It's fortunate that it just missed her house and her glass enclosed porch on the side of the house.  I never heard the sound and wouldn't have noticed if the floor installer who was here hadn't mentioned it.  (We got new kitchen flooring.)

In other news this notice was posted in the community email thread:

BEAR SIGHTING - BEWARE

April 14th approximately 11 pm the neighborhood black bear came to visit Clark Camp rd. He is maybe 200 lbs. Definitely not the biggest bear I’ve seen in the yard but large enough to do some damage. He seemed very relaxed even though I had a light in his face. I’ve been feeding a cat the last couple months and now he will need to find food elsewhere. If anyone owns this cat I would like to know before I catch it and bring it to the humane society. He appears to be as tall as me based on his reach on hind legs. 5’5” maybe a little taller. Beware the bear is out.

I printed that with some deletions but the cat is not as tall as the writer.  It's the bear.  Pronouns mix things up!

There was a reason we were told to take down our bird feeders.  I'm glad I did.  The road mentioned is about 2 miles from us, well within the bear's range.

Beware!

 This appeared in the newsletter I used to edit when we lived at Vantage House.  I don't know if the writer experienced this or this is relating someone else's story.  Seems to me I have heard this before.  Worth sharing again for those who do pick up the phone not knowing who is calling (something we no longer do).

Don’t Fall for This Scam

I just got a call from a 304-area code. Thinking it was someone I know in West Virginia, I answered. It was a man claiming to be from customer service (didn’t say what company only “customer service”). The first thing he asked was Can you hear me?”

I remembered something I saw on Facebook saying people are calling and asking if you can hear them, then using the recording of your “Yes” reply as a way to sign you up for all kinds of stuff.

So, I replied, “I hear you,” to which he again asked, “So you can hear me?”

Me: I hear you.

Him: I just need a yes or no.

Me: I hear you.

He hangs up. Without that story I would have answered “yes” the first time he asked.

Spring Signs

 We returned from a nice visit to family in Buffalo.  We got there last Thursday and the temperatures were in the 80s.  We were not dressed for such weather.  Spring had definitely arrived there.

Upon our return noticed these signs of spring here.

Now of course come Thursday evening this could all be covered with snow!  We have a winter storm watch in our forecast!

Thanks for all your comments on the wooden snow shovel.  Still haven't decided what to do with it,  Dan wants to give it away.  He asked today if I wanted to put it on the side of the road as we set out the parts to a cedar Adirondack chair. They'd been left in the barn (of course) but after closer examination this afternoon we realized it's a woodworking project that was never completed and looks like parts are missing or have not been cut out.  We'll see how long before it disappears as other items have.