The weather could not have been better for the spectators this morning, and I bet the runners liked it, too, as the 34th Annual Stockade-athon 15K road race passed through our eponymous Stockade neighborhood.   With only one good eye, a fluish body and a very slow reaction time, I failed to capture as many interesting photos as I had hoped this morning.

As you can see, for example, the eventual men’s winner, Fernando Cabada Jr., was too fast for me, as I tried to quickly raise my Canon PowerShot for my first picture of the day:

…………………….. Cabada was too fast for me, too ….

Fernando Cabada Jr. of Boulder, Colo., was first and Jordan Davis of Syracuse finished second, while Laurel Burdick of Manlius won the women’s division in the 34th annual Gazette Stockade-athon 15k road race.

. . . right behind Cabada on Front St.:

. . . . .  As usual, I’m going to post a bunch of photos that interest me for the colors or faces, and hope they help us celebrate this fine Schenectady tradition. [Click on a photo for a larger version and scroll over it for a brief (often unenlightening) description.]

. . .. . .

. . …..  . .

– as usual, Lawrence was in the middle of the action today –

And, further down Front St., near Church:

. . . . 

. . and then heading south on Washington Avenue:

. . .

Finally, if you hung around at Front and Church St. until sunset today, you saw a few more streaking beauties:

. . .

p.s. You can find the results and some Stockade-athon video at the Schenectady Gazette website; and a few more photos and commentary by participant Herb Terns at the Times Union Outdoors weblog.

. . . . .  . . . 

Despite seeing it often and using it in photos, it took me 15 years to set foot on Gateway Landing — a small public dock, deck, gazebo and picnic area nestled under the Western Gateway Bridge (near Schenectady County Community College), at the point where the Binnekill stream empties into the Mohawk River.  Although located in the Town of Rotterdam, Gateway Landing is literally a stone’s throw from Schenectady’s Stockade District.  It was constructed in the fall of 1994, by the volunteers of the Schenectady Action Council, and is maintained by the Schenectady Rotary Club.  Gateway Landing is used for fishing, picnicking, and the docking of small recreational boats.

.  click for early Gateway Landing history. .

And, as I expected when heading over there on October 27, Gateway Landing was a great place to get a different perspective on the lovely-but-fading fall foliage along our Stockade & Scotia stretch of the Mohawk River. [Click on a photo for a larger version and scroll over it for a description.]

. . . . . . . .

. .. . . .

. . .

My perch at Gateway Landing also permitted a closer look than usual at the Western Gateway Bridge and the Isle of the Cayugas:

. .    . .

. . . .

. . . plus, a different perspective on the CSX rail bridge:

It should go without saying that I won’t let fifteen more years elapse before returning to Gateway Landing, which can be reached from the SCCC exit on the Rt. 5 Western Gateway Bridge (just past the Town of Rotterdam sign).

Halloween got off to a great start this afternoon, at Polachek Square, where Lawrence watched over his neighbors and Joyce and Artur Wachala gathered some of our cutest tricksters for some early fun at Arthur’s Market.  I snapped a few shots before leaving for a party at Joe Merli’s restored 1950’s Diner in Duanesburg.

Lawrence had a few pumpkins and a large pink visitor:

……………

……..

Finally, princesses, angels, comic heroes and even a race car showed up for the fun -

- HAVE A GREAT HALLOWEEN 2009 -

. . . bonus (Devin’s back with a big spotted dawgie):

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . 

. . .

The above scene greeted me as I was leaving my garage on Sunday morning, and I knew I had to feature Washington Avenue’s cherry trees in a new posting — to show an autumnal echo of their brief April beauty.  Below you’ll find a few shots of the cherry trees in front of 10 and 16 Washington Avenue and the lawn that separates the two buildings, here in the Schenectady Stockade.  Then, I juxtapose Washington Avenue’s cherry trees as they appeared in April with their tawny-golden display earlier this week.

…..

.. 

. . . .

. . .

. comparing the seasons:

- as, always, click on a photo for a larger version, scroll over it for a description -

. . .

. . .

______

. . .

- Find more Stockade cherry blossom photographs here from 2008 & here from 2009. -

This black cat seems indifferent to our autumnal cherry tree display.  It probably has Halloween on its felonious feline mind.   I’m going to end this post with one more autumn cherry tree shot, taken October 26, 2009, in front of the Mary Hill House, next to the YWCA on Washington Ave.

- seen floating above Riverside Park near Governor’s Lane –

Around 9 P.M. this evening, I spotted the giant jack-o-lantern pictured (poorly) above, while I was standing in the parking area and on the paved path at the end of Governor’s Lane, in Riverside Park.   Facing away from the River, toward Front Street, the apparition was looming beyond the brick wall that runs from Governor’s Lane toward the Pump House.

. . . here’s another view [click to enlarge]

As you can see, I have not learned how to take night photos (except for fireworks), and my hand was shaking so much that Image Stabilization could not compensate.  If you can get a better image over the next few nights, please let me know.  (I’d be happy and grateful to post it.)  Of course, I hope anyone who has clues, information, or hypotheses to help solve the mystery of the Great 2009 Riverside Halloween Pumpkin, will leave a Comment to enlighten us.

- Blue Heron floats past the Isle of the Cayugas, Saturday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2009 -

.. Yesterday was dreary and gray, with quite a bit of rain.  But, a break in the rain around 5 P.M. left the Mohawk River a beautiful surface for reflecting autumn foliage and for one “peeping” tourist to float by the south side of the Isle of the Cayugas and the Schenectady Stockade.   His visit was memorialized in this sequence of photos (beginning with the one at the top of this posting), taken from my backyard, behind 16 Washington Avenue.  [as always, click on a photo for a larger version]

. . . . .

. . .

. . .

- the blue heron takes off from its floating branch in the Mohawk near the Isle of the Cayugas -

- one branch now available for a Saturday tour of the Mohawk River -

- still worth a picture even with no blue heron in sight -

. . . 

Like my buddy Lawrence, I’ve been standing around waiting for the fall foliage to reach its peak of color here in Schenectady’s Stockade District and along our Mohawk River waterfront.  (more of Lawrence patiently waiting here).  It’s the third week of October, I’m surely more impatient than Lawrence, as I lug my camera around our ‘hood, looking for autumnal beauty.

. . .

- October 20th, but Isle of the Cayugas is still mostly green -

Of course, there already are quite a few examples of autumnal reds, yellows and oranges on trees and vines around the Stockade.  So, I decided to snap a few pictures and share them with others who feel they’ve had to wait too long for the climax of autumn’s annual show. [scroll on a picture for a description; click on it for a larger version]

. . .

- you can’t miss this tree on So. Church St. alongside the former Knights of Columbus building -

. . .

- two more So. Church St. trees in the noonday sun – October 19, 2009 -

Three views on Washington Avenue, late afternoon, Oct. 20, 2009:

. . . .

While I procrastinated a day or two in posting these photos, many of the late-changing leaves went from green to yellow along the streets of the Stockade, but we haven’t quite reached our peak.  I’m hoping to get a few shots along the Mohawk before the colorful leaves fall off the trees.

A few days ago, Rob Gavel asked neighbors on the Historic Stockade Yahoo! Group mailing list if anyone had a “a full-body image of Lawrence” that could be used in a project for the Stockade Association.  To my surprise, as I searched my online and computer photo collections, I did not have a simple full-body portrait of our beloved Lawrence the Indian.   The Stockade’s monument to Lawrence, or his traffic circle, appears in many of my photographs and webposts, but Lawrence is customarily just part of the tableau or background for one neighborhood event or another (e.g., the Valentine flamingo visit, our Christmas tree, Stockade-a-thon, or the Outdoor Art Show).

Rob’s request made me realize that I need to take a closer look at Lawrence himself.  Yesterday afternoon, I did just that, on a sunny, mid-October Saturday (and also on Friday, October 16).  Below you will find a few portraits of Lawrence the Indian, an icon of our Stockade neighborhood, along with some facts about him and his statue.  [As always, click on a photo for a larger version.]

. . . . .

. . . . 

“Lawrence” was among the Native Mohawks who encouraged the Dutch to resettle the village of Schenectady after a 1690 attack, in which French-Canadian and Indian marauders burned the stockaded village to the ground and massacred most of its inhabitants. (see the Stockade Association history page) The “I Spy” website of the Mohawk Valley Library System has this to say about the Stockade monument known as Lawrence the Indian:

At the junction of Front, Green and North Ferry Streets, is the Indian monument which marks the northeastern extremity and blockhouse of Queen’s Fort that was built by 1705, after the massacre. The statue was placed at that site in 1887 and became known as “Lawrence the Indian.” Lawrence was named after the Christian Mohawk who was a great friend to the early settlers and the most persistent of the trackers of the retreating French and Indians after the 1690 raid.

. . .

As discussed in February 2008 at my f/k/a weblog, our statue of Lawrence the Indian “was originally a carving done by wood carver Samuel Anderson Robb about 1860 for William Demuth, who was the leading cigar store Indian peddler. Demuth published a catalog of his wares and in 1872 Lawrence is listed as ‘No. 53 Indian Chief.’  In 1873, the J.L.Mott Iron Works purchased the design and listed him for $500 in their catalog of statuary. The Schenectady statue was purchased in 1887.” [See “Fargo, North Dakota: The Indian Statue,” put together by the Institute for Regional Studies at North Dakota State University.]

In addition to our Lawrence the Indian, the J.L. Mott Iron Works model “#53 Indian Chief” statuary has had quite a few identities; the names and legends include:

• Chief Hopocan in New Portage Park, at the intersection of Norton Avenue and Wooster Road, in Barberton, Ohio.
• Tecumseh at the J. Fitzhugh Thornton Memorial, Thornton Triangle park in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Hiawatha at the Forest Glen Annex to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dewitt Circle & Linden Lane, in the Washington DC suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland [not Bethesda, MD, as stated in the Queen City Survey weblog, where you can find a discussion and a photo of Hiawatha].  Two photos of our Lawrence are standing in for his clone Hiawatha at Marv Solberg’s informative and comprehensive dcMemorials.com website.
• the Kisco Indian, at the Gorham Fountain, Mt. Kisco, New York
• a Cherokee named Sequoia, in Calhoun, Georgia
• an Indian unidentified by name or tribe in Fargo, North Dakota.

. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The other versions of Mott’s “#53 Indian Chief” may look like our Lawrence, but none of them is nestled among the sights and people at the heart of the Schenectady Stockade.

p.s. Want to copy, print, post or otherwise use one of our photos?  Thank you for your interest.  Feel free to copy or print a photo for your non-commercial personal use.  If you want to post, disseminate or do more with a photo, here’s the suns along the Mohawk copyright policy, as seen on our About Page:

COPYRIGHT POLICY: The content of this website is presented under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.  That means you may share its content for noncommercial purposes, so long as you attribute it to David Giacalone and “suns along the Mohawk” and distribute any resulting adaptation of the work only under the same or similar license.  [details] No other use (beyond your limited Fair Use rights) may be made of the content of this weblog without permission from David Giacalone, the copyright holder.

. . .

I’m glad I brought my camera along to the Riverside Park kiddie playground late yesterday afternoon.  While playing with Devin and Loraine on the swings and seesaw, I noticed that a uniquely lovely and interesting sunset was developing, and decided to snap a few photos, from around the swingset and the nearby Mohawk riverbank.   Here’s a sample of the resulting images (click on each for a larger version or scroll over it for a description):

. . .

- early sunset -

………..

- middle sunset phase –

. .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

- endgame -

- sorry, Devin, it’s time to head home –

p.s. More Devin here and there .

. . .

As Leaf Peepers anxiously await the imminent peak of autumn’s foliage season, we river watchers want to point out that leaves are not the only things around here that change colors. [As always click on a photo for a larger version and scroll over it for a description.]

. .

….

…………………………..  

……………………………………….

. . .

.

- early Walkabout preparations included balloon distribution  -

. . Congratulations and thanks to all who made the 50th Stockade Walkabout a historic success — those who opened their homes, the many volunteers on the Walkabout Committee and Stockade Association, sponsors, supporters, costumed characters and docents, and the all-important ticket-purchasing public.  Beautiful early-autumn weather, a sprinkling of red-leafed trees, and a large crowd made the atmosphere festive and bright (despite a neighborly tiff over road-closure issues that might be revisited next year).

- click for the list of supporters, sponsors, volunteers from the tasteful Ticket/Guide –

Docent duties and two balky sets of camera batteries greatly limited by photographic activities today.   Unable to get to more than a handful of locations, I decided to concentrate on a few splashes of color, which will have to stand in for all the people, sights and sites that made the 2009 Walkabout such a satisfying experience.   [As always, click on an image for a larger version and scroll over it for a brief description.]

….. 

- joyful voices were heard throughout the Stockade -

…

…  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

……..

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If you were out and about early this morning near the River (perhaps moving your car), you got a free fog show along the Mohawk:

. . .

- for more fog photos from earlier this week, click here –

p.s. With depleted batteries and a weary old body, I seemed to miss a lot of shots today.  Indeed, thanks to a healthy breeze, even the balloons were uncooperative — see this example.  I was quick enough, however, to capture a car-full of smiling traffic scofflaws.

..

Yesterday’s fog along the Mohawk got me out taking photos at 7 AM, when it was a bit too foggy for optimal effect, and then an hour later, when the fog was mostly lifted.

The result was a variety of images that seem like an excellent way to spotlight the last full day of a summer that was often rainy and cool, but also offered many near-perfect, refreshing sunny days.   [As always, scroll over a photo for a brief description and click on it for a larger version.]  I’m not going to offer any commentary, since the photos seem to speak for themselves — for example, this series of a rower traversing the almost fog-free stretch of the Mohawk and Stockade between the foggier Western Gateway Bridge and the CSX rail trestle (at 8:30 AM):

. . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

. . . .

Riverside Park scenes between 7 and 7:30 AM, Sept. 21, 2009 . . . . .

. . .

. . .

.. Riverside Park – 8 to 8:30 AM, Sept. 21, 2009 . .

. . .

. . .

. .

. .  . .

……………… 

It took a John Deere backhoe under my bay window at 7 AM this morning to remind me that there are many things far more annoying than a noisy cricket behind the refrigerator.

My friends can tell you that I’ve been a bit obsessed this week about a perennial sign of summer’s end at my Stockade home: the arrival, and 24/7 chirping, of a love-starved, refuge-seeking cricket in the inaccessible (and sound-amplifying) kitchen space behind my refrigerator.  In recent years, I’ve memorialized this autumn invasion, and attempted to sublimate my frustration, in haiku poems posted at my other weblogs (collected today at dagosan’s haiku diary).  This year, despite being reminded by a few bleeding hearts that crickets bring luck, and in spite of empathy toward his plight, I’ve been feeling even less charitable than usual toward the raucous chirping of the female-seeking cricket in my kitchen (only the males can chirp).

After a night of teeth clenching that I blamed on that damnable cricket, I sat at my desk with a big mug of coffee first thing this morning, planning to follow Frasier’s example by finding a gecko to end my cricket misery.   All thoughts of cricket-hunting were immediately dispelled, however, when an intolerable racket began outside the window located just a couple feet from my desk (see the photo above).  I immediately knew the source of the audio assault — the return to Washington Ave. of the utility crew we told you about in June and July, in “my NiMo sunset” and “a different orange glow.”   More precisely, the return to the corner of Cucumber Alley and Washington Ave. — and thus directly under my bay window — of the gas-pipe-laying men and machines of National Grid.

- here are a few shots from early this summer at Cucumber Alley -

. .  . .

Yes, it does seem far-fetched that a mere two blocks of Washington Avenue here in the Stockade have required an entire season of digging and laying and ripping and pouring, but it’s true.  I cannot duplicate the sound of their “street maintenance” activities around 7 A.M. this morning, but I can show you the scene out my window and at the corner [also note the backhoe at the top of this posting; and click on each picture for a larger version, or scroll over it for a brief description]:

. . . .

- new asphalt being laid at Cucumber Alley and Washington Ave. –

The end may soon be near for this well-intentioned and overdue infrasture-improvement project.  The piles of brick removed for the project along the curb might even be restored to their original patterns before the Walkabout next weekend.  None too soon, and hallelujah.

But, I won’t set my expectations too high and will accept our fate as it unfolds along Washington Avenue.  What I want to do this evening — especially if the street repair noise is finally over at my corner — is to thank the men from National Grid for distracting me from my week-long thoughts of insecticide.  Indeed, I don’t want to jinx myself, but all that racket this morning might have persuaded my horny cricket friend to seek a setting more conducive to gryllidae courting and romance.  If I haven’t been that lucky, and my chirpy friend returns this evening, I’ll be complaining again with an Update in the morning.

update (9 AM Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009): No chirping for at least 15 hours.  Frankly, I almost miss the pesky little guy and really could use some good luck.  Something tells me he’s been playing Alley Cricket overnight looking to get lucky and he’ll soon return to my safe and warm kitchen.

afterthought (Sept. 20, 2009):  What do you do with an annoying pest? Swat it?  Put it outside? There’s a timely Sunday comic strip today from The Middletons.

A 10-pier CSX rail bridge lies just east of the Stockade and connects Schenectady (near East Front Street) with Scotia.  The CSX bridge [formerly known as the Conrail or the New York Central Bridge] doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves here at suns along the Mohawk — unless it obstructs the ice flow in the River, causing our Spring Stockade floods.  That neglect is surely due to our western sunset fixation.   On Monday night September 14, 2009, however, sunset painted the clouds over and beyond the CSX bridge in a manner that got our attention.

In the span of a few minutes, the clouds went from predominantly pink, to mostly blue highlights, to a gray theme.  Luckily, I had my camera and snapped a few photos while strolling between the Riverside Park esplanade and North Street.

The pink phase is shown above.  Here are the blue and gray phases:

. . .

Last night (Sept. 15), I returned to Riverside Park at sunset to take another look at the CSX bridge.  This shot was taken from the deadend at Washington Avenue:

. . . this one, too: