Trip to State College and Ithaca, NY

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited with Heather and Andrew for Heather's birthday.  This beautiful setting was on the morning of her birthday, in their backyard.  We had such a great time with them.  The night before we went to see a play at the community theater, titled: "Epic Proportions", a very funny comedy.   

Andrew and Sawyer having a "special" moment

After leaving Heather and Andrew, we traveled about 3 1/2 hours north to Ithaca, New York.  Howard was fortunate enough to be able to attend a conference on "Biological Information: New Perspectives".

Howard and I were fortunate to share a picnic dinner with this gentleman, Werner Gitt and his daughter, Roma,  from Germany.  He was one of the speaker's at the meeting Howard went to held on Cornell University's campus.  Delightful people.

A scene near one of the athletic fields.  I just thought it interesting with the ivy growing all over.

Another view of the ivy climbing up the side of a structure near the athlectic field.

This shrub was growing out of this huge rock (this was located in the arboretum near campus) 

This explains why the shrub is growing out of the rock.

While Howard attended meetings, I got to explore --this is a view in the arboretum that I kept returning to daily.  It was a beautiful place.

Arboretum

This little fellow was so CUTE!  And he allowed me to get several pictures of him.  He even came back the next day, hoping I would take his picture again!

Taughannock Falls, Ithaca, NY

Absolutely amazing and beautiful!  Such wonderment!

Pictures absolutely CANNOT portray the majesty of this.

The name means "in the trees" in the algonquin language.  It is 215 feet high, the tallest free-falling waterfall in the northeastern U.S.

Howard standing at the top of a cliff with the falls in the bacground.

The next day, after taking Howard's picture, I returned to the falls -- I found a trail that would take me to the bottom of the falls.  It was about a 3/4 mile hike, on a beautiful trail.

I crossed this bridge in order to get as close to the falls as I could.  However, due to the heavy mist the falls created, I couldn't get near as close as I wanted to.

I'm going to share some pictures of our garden -- we are trying a "container" garden this year. I've planted lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries, and tomatoes in containers. I had to find a place in this rocky, hilly yard to plant 2 kinds of watermelon, squash and carrots, and so far they are beginning to make their appearance. Oh, and I planted 2 blackberry bushes in the front yard, as you walk up to the house. We'll see how well things do in this hard clay-like, rocky soil. We've been able to pick a few strawberries already and they are quite tasty. Looking forward to picking the other produce as they mature.

Here my squash is just beginning to pop up. Love that squash!

The tops of carrots just beginning to make their presence known.

The little beginning of a watermelon plant. Yum! I love watermelon. I sure hope these make some good ones.

And here we have a cucumber plant. It has really grown over the last week.

We are trying container gardening, and here some lettuce seems to be thriving.