Garden Tuesday: Scranton: An overview

Last Saturday, I took Ryan to the tailor's shop to pick up a suit for him.  This tailor's shop was actually featured on American Pickers last year, in case anyone's a fan.  The place is just adorable - and the 80-some year old proprietor is terrific.  Plus, the prices were extremely reasonable.  I actually went back and bought a blazer for Mark to wear to school, even though I didn't need it.

On the way back, not paying attention, and enjoying conversation with my boy, I blythely blew right past the very small sign for I-81, and ended up climbing a hill which I'd never before ascended in the southern end of Scranton.

These pictures were taken from a scenic overlook built in 1938 by the WPA.

Ryan played photographer.

Of course, he couldn't resist taking a picture of one of the first trees to show its fall colors, from above, naturally - an angle we don't often see.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Round and About: Scranton

 Last December, my littlest guy had to go to Scranton for a friend's Bar Mitzvah, and I actually remembered to take my camera!  Of course, it was 20 degrees out that day, so almost all of the pictures were taken through the car window.  Sorry, but it was too cold for me to be wandering about!

 This is the Scranton City Hall.  Police and Fire headquarters are here, also.  I love it; to me, it's just what a city hall should look like, almost like a castle.

This is the beginning of the University of Scranton.  They bought up a large number of buildings along this main road and renovated them, along with numerous old houses on the blocks to either side. They spent a very long time building the curved wall on the left corner of this intersection out of local granite.

 The very first time I drove down this street, I spotted this house.  At the time, it looked pretty sad; the paint was peeling, and the few shrubs which were there were out of control.  Still, I loved the house.  If it had been on more than one-half acre, I might have been tempted to buy it.  This front view, while lovely, isn't what I loved most about this house.

 This is what I loved most about the house: this bay window.  Can you tell from the picture that the glass in it is curved?  I am in awe of the craftmanship from the 1890s.

 The old lady who had owned the house died a couple of years back, and two guys from either New York or New Jersey bought it.  They've made it into a banquet hall available for rentals.  It's where the Bar Mitzvah was, and I sought out one of the owners to ask to see the curved window from the inside, and to tell him that they have done a magnificent job renovating it.  He seemed pleased by the compliment.

This is a closer view of the University of Scranton's curved wall; you can see some of the buildings farther up the road a little better.

 This is the cathedral in Scranton.

 And this is just a random intersection, one of many.

This is nowhere near all of Scranton.  It's just the first two miles on the main road into the city heading south from the suburbs.  It really is a stately old city.

My tours aren't nearly as informative or exhaustive as Diane's tours of France.  Of course, Scranton is under 200 years old, so there's nowhere near as much history to absorb.  But, if you're a fan of "The Office", or just like seeing other places, I hope you've enjoyed the little bit of our "big(ish) city" that I've shown you!

Round and About....

....to the book sale on Saturday!

Two more views of the pretty little town I'd shown you before.

And I didn't try to park here.

I bought books to ship to my mother, books for the boys, books for my girls, and even these two for me!
Hope you all had an equally relaxing weekend.

Round and About: One Town West

A while back, I showed you the little library in the next town west of us. They have used book sales there twice a year. Isn't it an adorable little place?
So I thought I'd show you the rest of the town. This is the pub across the street. When the sprinkler system burst last year, and flooded the basement, the owner of this pub held a fund raising barbecue for the library. So, while I don't drink, I love this place.

Down the hill a bit is a pharmacy. It's one of the rare pharmacies not owned by a chain. I try to stop by there whenever possible.
Looking down the street from the library, you can see the corner of the pub in the lower right of the picture, then a park and the pharmacy. Beyond that are a consignment store, an architect and an antique store. On the library side are a window tinter, a deli, the fire house, post office, tanning salon, TV repair shop and a tiny independent grocery. It's a nice little place.
But, since no one there has dog cookies, Thor is less than impressed.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Round and About: Virginia

Thanks to Diane in the UK and France for the title. I might have to use it now and again.

I really enjoy reading Diane's blog and seeing pictures she's taken "round and about" in France; it's fascinating to see other parts of the world. So, when the mood moves me, I'm going to try to show you a little of my area of the world. Fair warning: I don't get out much, so don't expect a lot.

When we were in Virginia last weekend, we wandered around the Piedmont area. To orient you, Washington, DC is about 100 miles north of Richmond, Virginia, and Albemarle County, which is in the Piedmont region of central Virginia, is about 100 miles west of Richmond. So these pictures are right in the middle of Virginia. All were taken through a car window, so if they're a little blurry, please accept my apologies.

First up: Black horse fence. There's a lot of horse fence around here, more white than black.

Next up: White horse fence. Which do you think is prettier? To me, this is all the prettier because it's the driveway entrance to someone's yard. It may be a horse estate or cattle farm, but wouldn't you just love to drive up this lane every day?
A relatively new industry around Charlottesville, Virginia is vineyards. Presumably they have a winery somewhere on the premises, although the signage didn't indicate it.
A different angle of the same vineyard. Actually, my dearly beloved believes this may be an old estate that belonged to a family he knew about a gazillion years ago, when he was in college. Of course, there were college aged daughters in that household. Why else would a college boy know a local family?
And there were cows. Plenty of them. But after the horse fence, doesn't the post and barbed wire fence look kind of ugly?
This concludes today's tour. I hope you all enjoyed it!