Catching up with Karen’s classmates at 50th high school reunion
We finally had some fall weather this week with a couple frosts and some cold rain and wind that brought down a few leaves. I noticed that the majority of the pretty leaves still remained on the trees as I traveled home from Saratoga yesterday. It was very colorful.
There were a few rain squalls along the way but when the sun came out the leaves were certainly showing their colors.
There was not much color beyond North River Hill but the oaks had a very good year producing nuts. Even the ones along 28 in Old Forge produced lots of nuts.
We made a stop at the rest area on the Northway (87) below Glens Falls. There was an oak tree there that had lost much of its fruit, which was covering the ground. The Deer and Squirrels in that area should be fat and happy before winter comes.
I picked a bag full of nuts to plant around Eight Acre Wood as I have several oaks already growing from nuts I planted years ago.
In the Town of Milton in Saratoga County, where we grew up, we heard that a bear and two cubs were killed by cars. As long as we lived there we never heard a report of a Bear sighting.
There weren’t many Deer either, but now they are just like rabbits in the area. We traveled there for Karen’s 50th Ballston Spa High School Class Reunion. Since we were only a year apart in school I knew many in her class and played on sports teams with many of the boys.
We spent some time looking at name tags to find out who everyone was. One of our neighbors, Jimmy Egan, who was the best man at our wedding came up to me at the Friday night get-together and asked if I knew who he was.
Despite the hat covering his balding head and his facial hair, I knew who he was. One of my first cousins who married a girl in that class didn’t recognize me, but it had been a few years since we saw each other. We had a nice visit about some of our other relatives and our adventures.It was nice to catch up on some of the local happenings as we have been away for over forty years now. The Friday night event was held at a meeting place at the Saratoga Spa State Park.
On Saturday night, the dinner get-together was held at the Ballston Spa Golf Course Club House. One of her classmates had come from California and another from Oregon so they got the longest distance traveled prize.
There was a lot of dancing and visits with other classmates, as soon as we knew who everyone was. We stayed at the Hampton on Rt 29 in Saratoga. Just down the street there was a farmers’ market which takes place twice a week.
It is held in High Rock Park where there are a couple of the mineral springs, which Saratoga was known for.
A new addition in the park is a 9/11 Memorial made by local steel workers out of parts of both the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. This memorial was dedicated on July 24 of this year.
We visited the site and met one of the members of the Saratoga Arts Council who had a lot to do with getting the site for the memorial.
We knew about the memorial because one of Karen’s classmate’s husband, Bill Dobroski, was one of the ironworkers who donated his time to help build the structure. We watched as several people came to visit the site, pay their respects, reflect and take a few pictures. If you are in Saratoga it’s only a minute off Broadway, the second left off 29 East.
Lots of birds are on the move picking the clear nights to fly and laying low in bad weather and wind. A few new ones moved into my feeding area last night and decided to stay with the showers and colder day today.
I caught a Rose-breasted Grosbeak female and had a male at the feeder all day.
I also caught a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Western Palm Warbler. The Palm was a new bird for my yard and I had to sort it out of the confusing fall warblers in my bird book. They look a lot different than when they are traveling north in the spring.
Still catching several Purple and Goldfinch, some black-capped chickadees, Hairy Woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches.
There was a Brown Tree Creeper playing around the feeders today but I didn’t catch him.
Look out, Roadside Deer, bow season starts this week, but that’s another story. See ya.
