#366 Colors

Colorful flowers. Yes, my dear English friends. That's how far assimilation has progressed. Writing color as colour is merely a thing of the past for me now...

#365 Pumpkins

Since this post is number 365 one would think that we have been blogging for an entire year now. But not so. Looking back shows that our first post was on October 25. We are as confused by this as you are, dear reader. Here are some pumpkins to get over it.

#364 Pinot Noir @ Lake Seneca

The wine experts amongst our readers knew it already: Yesterday's picture showed a few Pinot Noir grapes.

#363 Grapes

Vineyards over at Seneca Lake. Who can spot what type of wine is growing here?

#362 What is it?

Another quiz: What is shown in the picture.

#361 Road to Nowhere

Photo taken in some vineyards at Seneca Lake.

#360 Lafayette Winery

I think this is a photo taken at Lafayette Winery but I am not entirely sure. Whichever winery it is, it is located at Lake Seneca and had some stunning vistas over the vineyards and the lake. This is a very rural area, Watkins Glen is the next closest village. While being known for its famous raceway, it still is only a village with population of a few hundred. And Watkins Glen is the biggest settlement in the entire county I believe (Schuyler County).

Anyways, we had a very nice day over there. The clouds tore open every now and then giving a great chance to take some snaps of beautiful lightscapes over the lake. That's probably what this lady on the balcony is doing.

#359 Seasonal Use Highway

Our littel car convoy driving on the "seasonal use highway" mentioned yesterday. Needless to say, that you need to clean your car after this.

#359 Look at that

"Is this really where the GPS wants us to go?"

Out in the countryside there are many seasonal use highways - essentially single lane gravel roads through the woods. Of course, the GPS knows about them.

#358 Fall Foliage

This photo is taken on the drive over to Seneca Lake. This is the sort of shot that characterizes the Finger Lakes region during fall very well (I think so anyway).

#357 Amerciana Winery (4)

A final shot of the nice deco at Americana Winery. We'll be back to get some more wine and fudge (!) in the near future.

#356 Americana Winery (3)

The vineyards of Americana Winery got damaged beyond repair when the previous owner fell ill and couldn't take care of the winery. The new owner therefore had no chance but grow their wine somewhere else (some spot closer to Seneca Lake). They are working on growing back the old vineyards right next to the historically restored winery building.

#355 Amerciana Winery (2)

These grave stones welcome you at the parking space of Americana Winery. Looking closer reveals that this is not where previous owners are buried but actually a form of humor.

#354 Americana Winery

We headed out for a nice wine tour the other day visiting a few wineries in the area. One of our favorites is Americana close to Lake Cayuga ("our" lake).

#353 Winter is coming

Don't let yourself be cheated by us, this picture was taken almost a year ago. It serves as a reminder, that winter is coming (it's already getting a little chilly out there...)

#352 Fun Slide @ Apple Fest

During the Apple Fest weekend here in Ithaca two children hat tons of fun on the Fun Slide. All the others found the idea of sliding down a plastic thing on a truck trailer pretty boring and walked past to see Hilby the Skinny German Juggler Boy.

#351 Fairground Ride @ Apple Fest

#350 Drummers

This is one of a group of drummers who have been drumming all day at Apple Fest (probably also all day yesterday). I believe they are some sort of religious group. Maybe they think their drumming saves the world. It doesn't.

#349 Scanned Leaf

Quiz question: Which tree did I grab this leaf from?

#348 Fairground Ride Operator

This is the bored dude who operates the ferris wheel at the Ithaca Apple Fest 2009. The photo is taken yesterday, today it was pouring down rain and he had nothing to do because no one wanted to get wet in a ferris wheel.

#347 Hilby the Skinny German Juggler

This is Hilby the Skinny German Juggler who performed this weekend at the Apple Fest on the Commons. Judging from his accent he really is German. How he got a work permit for the USA is unknown. Maybe he married an American juggless.

#346 International Park(ing) Day

According to the internets, International Park(ing) Day 2009 was on Sept 18 this year. These Cornell students parked in Collegetown here in Ithaca on Sept 25 though. The Cornell Chronicle reporters seem to have walked past during their lunch break, too.

#343 The Stadium - again

Taken in Schoellkopf Stadium, find some trivia about the stadium here.

#342 Six Mile Creek Embankment

This is the steep, high and colorful embankment of Six Mile Creek.

#341 Beginning Autumn Foliage

No text today.

#340 Cleaning up the pitch

A dude cleaning up Schoellkopf Field after a bunch of kids had football practice. According to Wikipedia the stadium sits 25,597, that is well in excess of the Erzgebirgsstadion where the great FC Erzgebirge Aue plays (now again in the third division of the German soccer leagues).

#339 Fixing the roof at Barton Hall

This is Barton Hall getting a new roof. Some trivia from Wikipedia: For a long time, Barton Hall was the largest unpillared room in existence. The interior of the building covers almost 2 acres (8,100 m²), and includes a 1/8 mile (200m) indoor track.

#338 Chimney

This chimney peeks out of the trees on the State Street side of Six Mile Creek. This photo is taken from the empty pedestrian bridge. I have no idea what the chimney belongs to but I suspect it's not operating anymore.

#337 Schoellkopf Benches

Schoellkopf Stadium was sunny and empty, so I took a few photos.

#336 It's fall/autumn

For an interesting discussion on fall/autumn terminology see this Yahoo Answers discussion. I was surprised to hear that the original English term for fall is in fact fall. "Fall" was in use in England a few centuries ago. The British English language moved away from using "fall" towards "autumn". The Americans stuck with "fall". So much for the accusation that Americans messed up the English language...

#335 Gold and blue

This door seems quite magical. Would be interesting to see whom you meet when you wlak through.

#334 Getting autumn

And so its getting grey.. so grey that even 30 strong lights can't lift the spirit.

#333 New addition

Kiana, very important member of Ithaca with to much fur for that box.

She was found at the Maguire Family of Dealership in Ithaca. Really annoying add on the radio!

Ok but back to Ithaca...

#332 Weill Hall

Weill Hall on Cornell Campus shortly before a thunderstorm (I did get home in time). Weill Hall is a relatively new building. You can read a few lines about it here. Apparently the architect made rules about people not putting chairs into the windows to not ruin the looks of the building from the outside.

#331 Butter Milk Falls

A natural basin full of Buttermilk.

(This is a picture my friend Owen took while hiking up Buttermilk Falls)

#330 Maid of the Mist

Completely unrelated to Ithaca this is a picture of two packed boats called "Maid of the Mist" showing illegal immigrants from Canada to the USA and vice versa.

Also note that today your digital alarm clocked showed 9:09:09 on 09/09/09.

#329 Buttermilk Stirrer

Since this tree rests in Buttermilk Falls, I suppose it is used as a Buttermilk Stirrer occasionally. When I was there it was probably lunch break and no one was stirring.

#328 Karate (or something like that)

These guys where blocking the Buttermilk Falls path while doing some sort of Karate performance. It was pretty entertaining and also somewhat random.

#327 Tompkins Trust: Your bank statement is waiting

This is from a leafelet that came through the mail from Tompkins Trust, one of our local banks here in Ithaca. In Germany we call something like this a "Steilvorlage". The term comes from soccer and refers to a situation where someone plays you a ball that comes in steep right towards you. Sometimes these Steilvorlages make for good goals. Here is why this one is a Steilvorlage: Tompkins Trust gives me a nice opportunity to tell the world how bad they are. Because my statements and in fact a few of my debit cards might still be waiting for me - somewhere in the "Undeliverable" cabinett of German Postal Service.

I opened an account with Tompkins Trust in Aug 2008 when I arrived here in Ithaca. They claimed that for some legal reason they need my German address is addition to my local address. So I gave it to them. And what did they do? Started sending my cards to my German address. When you are new to a country you need a lot of cash to buy things and for that a debit card is somewhat important. Mine had not arrived for two weeks but Tompkins Trust thought this was normal. After two and a half weeks they re-ordered the card. After five weeks I still had no card from them.

It turned out they send my cards and all correspondence to my German address - just without putting ZIP code or city name on the letter. Due to some miracle on of these letters got through to my parents after many weeks. I tried to report this very inconvenient error to Tompkins Trust but Delevane (the counter chick at the Cornell branch) told me she doesn't care. I subsequently tried to complain about her to her manager who also didn't care. The complaint letter I wrote to the manager of her manager prompted a reply saying they do care. They cared so much that they sent my statements to my Ithaca address for almost a year before switching back to sending them to my German address.

I keep my Tompkins Trust account to be entertained by their continuing goofs. I'll keep you updated on any future goofs of Tompkins Trust.

#326 I wish you well

Saw that sign in Park Street today. No idea what the story is that goes with it...

#325 Soccer, Football, Baseball, all on one field

It's a little blurry but here's what's happing on the pitch: These people are playing football on a baseball field. To make matters worse, they play European football, i.e. soccer. How can you play soccer on a quarte-circle shaped pitch? I don't know.

#324 Schoellkopf - again

Well, yeah, it's a crappy picture. But I thought I was super-creative when I was taking it. So here they are again: The Schoellkopf Lights.

#323 The Schoellkopf Lights (again)

I am slightly obsessed with the lights of Schoellkopf Stadium. Maybe it's because I see them everyday on may way to work or maybe its just because they really make for a nice photo opportunity. Either way, after #125 taken last winter, here is a summer nights photo of the Schoellkopf lights.

#322 Apple Macintoshs grow on Trees!

Here in Tompkins County laptops grow on trees! Grisamore Farms even offer U-Pick Apple Macintoshs.