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Friday, September 09, 2011

At the mouth of the Susquehanna






Since tropical storm Lee and the Susquehanna have wreaked havoc in New York and Pennsylvania and forced  more than a hundred thousand out of their homes, I am taking a walk-in-pictures (a small walk--I live hard by the mouth of the Susquehanna where it flows out of Lake Otsego) to the bridge over the river and Lakefront Park.  The mighty Susquehanna, so broad where I crisscross it on my way south, is usually a tiny river in Cooperstown--not much more like a wide, shallow creek.  In these photographs you will see the view from the bridge and the park--Susquehanna River, Lake Otsego, Lion Mountain, and bits of the park with ironweed and obedience plant and others planted last year to help control flooding.



























16 comments:

  1. Despite the flooding, these are quite beautiful. And I love the names of the plants, particularly "obedience plant." What images that calls forth in my mind!

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  2. The funny thing about "obedience plant" or physostegia or false dragonhead (it's the white-flowering one in the pictures) is that it is obedient in some ways (if you do lot of flower arranging, you know that it will obey and stay after you bend it into place) but it is know for being a garden thug.

    Yes, it was prettier after Lee than after Irene, at least at my house!

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  3. the bumbles don't seem the least bit worried. *sigh*
    yes, very pretty...beautiful.

    Here, i'm worried about my friend's "pet" farm animals...she was very concerned yesterday, about having enough ground for them all as the river rose higher and higher.
    Blue sky and sunshine today will hopefully mean her river recedes, soon.

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  4. We can hope they know more than we do!

    The Susquehanna has crested and is going down now, though I heard yesterday that water was 6-7 ft. deep in a lot of houses in Binghampton. Parts of Oneonta and other nearby towns are flooded, so I hear. I don't get t.v., so I don't have that much detail in what I know.

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  5. My assumption is that houses there are not slab constructed (?) - but flooded basements are no fun whatsoever...

    What a beautiful place. Rain or no rain!

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  6. No, but these old houses have all kind of weird situations. My 1808 center-hall federal has a full cellar under part (with a gigantic stone fireplace) and then something that looks sort of like the place that lepers stayed in "Ben Hur" only more dark and creepy--if you were looking for zombies, a good place to go.

    Yes, Cooperstown is pretty. Now let's talk about the NYS + village taxes!

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  7. Gorgeous, I love the reflections. If one did not read the words about flooding, it all looks fairly benign. But what's with all the flags?

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  8. My theory is that they are for 9-11, and that there's one for each person who died in the World Trade Center... But I'm not sure that's right, as I've been too busy to read the local paper.

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  9. But there's not a hat in sight, Susanna. What's a landscape without a hat?

    Wear one to work on Monday...

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  10. Your city has been flagged, Susanna has been hatted. All is well with the world!

    I wondered about the flags too. 9/11 you think?
    Our Pearl Harbor, for sure.

    But... the world is still as beautiful as it was. Clearly so, for your camera does not lie.

    These really are wonderful photos. Will have to visit one day, Marly.

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  11. "City" is rather generous, Paul.

    I'm not sure. What else could it be? Labor Day leftovers?

    I did think that the landscape looked wonderfully washed and clear... Of course, it also looks broken up, but not in the heart of the village!

    Come visit after I get the upstairs college dump quarried! Lynn could do plein air here--sort of a Hudson River Valley feel.

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  12. Mmmm, I like the sound of your 'Zombie Cellar', though please don't make me sleep in there whenever Peter and I come-a-calling!

    I'd like to sit and draw in that park.

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  13. When the power was out and I had to go down to the cellar in the dark (dogggie kennel being down there), my neck prickled.

    You would definitely like the landscape around here--the New York river valleys have long been alluring to artists. But don't come right away! I have to slog away at the middens of my college students... Actually, after being at your house, I feel that I need a team of house restorers!

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  14. No danger of visiting any time soon. Deadlines deadlines deadlines! You and I are bookends when it comes to the tyranny of the deadline.

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  15. Don't know whether to say that's good or that's bad! Yes, we are awash in deadlines, and so the other things that must be done don't get done...

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Alas, I must once again remind large numbers of Chinese salesmen and other worldwide peddlers that if they fall into the Gulf of Spam, they will be eaten by roaming Balrogs. The rest of you, lovers of grace, poetry, and horses (nod to Yeats--you do not have to be fond of horses), feel free to leave fascinating missives and curious arguments.