I have a desire to get back outside and take tons of photos.  I haven’t been able to do that very often lately, due to driving so much.  These are the types of photos I have been taking lately.  Building photos.  Photos to send to people to obtain help to redo one of our stairwells at work.  Don’t get me wrong, I love these old architectural details.

Marble with wood. Too bad the tiled floor is covered with that gross tile.

Nice and thick marble and wood

Detail underneath the stairs

Very tall walls with window wells that have been filled in.

Long wooden banisters

Close-up

Ceiling to . . .

Floor Metal Molding

Detail of molding. Wouldn’t this look good in different colors?

The stairwells used to be open with marble stairs, in fact, they still are in the back staircase, and I’ll have to take photos of that sometime. Ohhh, I know, I’m sooo exciting.

I also take pix of oak molding in the 2nd floor exhibit area – covered up by years of paint:

The latest article I wrote and photo from the Onondaga Historical Association’s archives, appearing in the Dec/Jan Central New York Business Exchange magazine:

Unfortunately the Sears building now stands empty on Salina Street in Syracuse.

I’m in the mood for some intense Arizona beauty and sunshine:

and some Arizona ruggedness:

Wow, I cannot believe it’s the last day in November and I have ignored my blog this month. A lot has happened, but pretty much I haven’t photographed anything but work and Thanksgiving, so here you go, some Thanksgiving photos:

My Mom loves artichoke french, so I have to make it for her, and for me.

My Mom’s Christmas Cactus is actually a Thanksgiving Cactus

Along with the dressing, squash is one of my favorite Thanksgiving day foods

The horn of plenty my Aunt made for my Mom by hand (she also made me one).

I love these Thanksgiving plates

The stuffed Plainville Farm Turkey – looks yummy!

My Mom likes to burn beeswax candles during dinner

Now on to December!

Okay, it isn’t just me.  Half-Moon cookies rock, Black and Whites, not so much.  Check out Sean Kirst’s blog about Half-Moon cookies.  And Happy Halloweenie!

Saturday we went to visit the cemetery where my Dad and his parents are “resting.” We like to keep their tombstones very clean – so clean that they sparkle in the sunshine. Unfortunately the people that mow don’t know about the concept of mulching, but instead let the grass go flying all over all of the stones. Which is causing intense problems for many of the stones there. And which is why we clean our family’s stones quite often. Anyway, we totally *love* the view from where my Dad and his parents are lying.

This is looking up at where we grew up – at the top of the trees in the middle where the little jag is, is where we grew up. And we could see for literally miles from up there, out to the deep glacially cut valleys and steep hills.

West of where we lived, looking north, at the glacial hills and valleys. We simply love this land, because it is deep part of us.

There’s many other views we could have captured, but we were really hungry and craving some Bill’s Fish Fry (yes, I know, bad for the body), which was my Dad’s favorite fish dinner.

The view from where we sat inside Bill’s. This view has changed over the years, and I wish we had digital cameras when we were kids so we could do the comparison of past with present. My little bebe is sitting to the left. It needs a bath, and will be getting one today.

I love helping other people with their research at OHA, because sometimes I come across my own family, and I make a mental note to stay after work on a Sat or Sun to look through the information.  This past week I was looking for something, and came across some nice photos of my great-great grandmother’s sister’s husband and child.

Cabinet photo of Byron Longstreet, son of Dr. James Oliver Longstreet and Emily Victoria Seaver
Photo courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association

I love carte de visite and cabinet photographs.  I have a large, unidentified daguerreotype that was handed down through my family to me.  I thought perhaps it may be these two, and now I can do a side-by-side comparison and see if this may be possible.

Cabinet photo of Dr. James Oliver Longstreet.
Photo courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association.

Imagine my surprise when I looked through these photographs and saw names I recognized!

Dr. James Oliver Longstreet
Photo courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association.

Dr. James Oliver Longstreet is also the son of my Great-Grandmother’s aunt. The LONGSTREET surname is a famous one in Onondaga County, and someday (after hours) I’ll do the research into it (there are broken links when clicking on Longstreet due to Ancestry taking over Rootsweb).  So much to do, so little time!  Oh, and I have other stories to tell.  It will take time to gather the info!

It’s getting to that time of year (yuck!) when it will be getting dark as I’m driving home.  The other night I stayed later at work and did have to eventually drive home in the dark.  One of the perks is seeing beautiful sunsets, and even though this doesn’t make the whole sky glow, I still like it!

Notes from class “History and Identification of Paper, Print, and Photographic Processes,” taught by Gary E. Albright at the Rochester Regional Library Council.

Planitotype: 1880-1930, neutral image color, slate gray, can change tone with gold which increased stability, no fading, paper support fades making photo look darker, image can transfer from facing image (one-to-one transfer), expensive.
A true photograph, one layer structure with no binder, no baryta layer. Image lies in top layer of paper, paper fibers are clearly visible, has a matte surface.

Courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association from the Syracuse Camera Club folder.

The unbacked planitotypes I have “handled” are thin and fragile.

On Labor Day we went to Sonnenberg Gardens. I love my blog because I was able to look up the last time I went to Sonnenberg Gardens, and it was over two years ago. That’s just wrong. I usually go at least once a year, if not more.

It’s always fun to start with the trial gardens. I didn’t get the names of anything, just photos:

These are so cool – some kind of ornamental kale:

The beds in front of the conservatory are beautiful, as always:

We went into the Cactus House and saw tons of cactii, but I won’t bore you with all of the photos, just this little one with red fruit:

We moved on into the Orchid House, and I will bore you with a post of the flowers later:

This year, among other things, I focused in on all of the statuary that we saw:

They had a special Hydrangea House display by Wayside Gardens:

I love hydrangeas:

A beautiful lily in the Japanese Garden:

Some beautiful lichen on a rock:

I don’t remember this statue being cleaned up last time I was at Sonnenberg:

This is what is above the statue:

I also don’t remember this one being cleaned up:

I love symmetry:

We used to be able to walk under this one:

The Ice House. Have I mentioned I love my wide-angle lens?

This same photo taken with a regular camera:

The Carriage House:

I love being able to capture the Italian Gardens without having to stitch photos together:

Elevator in the really dark foyer which is as wide as this door – ack!

Ohhh, ahhh, more beautiful statuary:

More cool symmetry:

And just when I was getting ready to take an awesome photo of the entire house, my battery decided it was done, so this was taken with a regular camera: