New York: Day 2

New York, Day 2:

I really like how the house faces East. The morning sun is just amazing, how it makes everything glow. This is looking out the kitchen window at the flag on the garage.

The forecast is sunny all day, but bitterly cold. Right now it's 16 out. Everyday after this it looks like we will be getting a lake-effect snow storm. So I guess I'd better go out and retrieve my camera before it gets buried. I did mount it in the clearing last night, peering across it into the entrance to the deep woods. I'll post any results later today. I'm walking back to show Dad the new trail I blazed just before sundown. I'm excited.

But right now we are going to an art museum in Utica, so I'll see how that goes.

Utica is the closest thing to a major city up in this neck of the woods. It was a major industrial center at the turn of the century, at one time everything Onieda county residents ate, wore, bought and used was manufactured here. Factories galore. Now most of these are abandoned. But there is much to see in this city if you like history. Visit the Saranac Brewery, Onieda County Historical Society, any number of small curio museums and one fairly large art museum, the Munson-William-Proctor Art Institute, home to minor paintings by world famous artists. (The four paintings by Thomas Cole entitled The Voyage of Life were my Mom's favorite as a kid and they were housed there, but they've since been moved to the National Art Gallery in DC) 

Currently there is an exhibit on Tiffany glass there. Photography isn't allowed in the museum but I can link to the exhibit's website (ask me later). The center pieces of this exhibit are seven stained glass windows depicting archangels, representing the seven great Byzantine churches in what is now Turkey. Interestingly , one church is named Philadelphia and another is called Smyrna. They were found in a deplorable state inside dirty barns scattered through the region and took decades to clean and preserve. Altogether they are made of over 1,400 pieces of handmade glass. They are being shown in public for the first time. Did I mention how much I love old churches? 

Okay so I quietly snuck a pic with the iPod camera...

So next we went to the Onieda County Historical Society, to check out the exhibits there. Dad said there was a lot of Civil War artifacts on display the last time he went. But it seems they had to put them back in storage to make room for the enormous electric train set.

By now it's noon, so we head back to the house and I get to show Dad the new trail I blazed yesterday. We took the GPS with us and a printed satellite view...it turns out I found a way through a part of the forest we had never seen. Nice! It even reconnects with the end of the existing trail.

Oh, one last thing. I FINALLY started concept art for the books! It only took me 2 years of procrastinating... I will scan the two sketches I made so far tomorrow.