The 366-day photography project: week 36

Just a week after Easter, its warmth was just a fond memory. The temperature had dropped, the plants were drooping, and icicles had formed on the house.

It was cold and dreary and damp. Winter was not going without a fight.

At night, I turned the lights off in the laundry room and watched the snow coming down, illuminated by the neighbor's lights. I wondered if I would be able to photograph snow coming down and, sure enough, there it is. Snow coming down at night in April. 

The snow covered the ground. Winter collides with spring.

Early plants are very resilient.

I went outside to take pictures of the April snowfall.

This is the street on a snowy morning.

This is the sidewalk, covered by wet, heavy snow.

The New York State presidential primary is on April 19th. My mom voted by absentee ballot, so I took the ballot and put it in the mailbox.

... and walked back to the house...

My poor plants drooped under the weight of the snow. They looked forlorn.

On Tuesday, I went to the Island Ship Center for the Grand Re-Opening. A big addition is being built on the back of the building. Although the addition was still a work in progress, the party was held, and approximately 200 persons showed up to celebrate with Fahim and Seema.

Fahim started in Grand Island with Creative Leather Concepts. Then he got into shipping and he and Seema opened the Island Ship Center. The business continues to get better and better. Several years ago, I went there to have color copies made of a painting. The results were terrible! The color balance was completely off! I was told that a new machine was coming. So I went elsewhere for my color copies. The results from the second business were less than stellar, however.

One day, at the other business, the color copier was in need of repairs, so I went back to the Island Ship Center to have greeting cards made from one of my paintings. The results were spectacular! The colors were so vibrant and so alive. I had found my place, where I could get beautiful cards.

I also discovered a place that would package things that were hard to pack and ship them for me. Fahim and Seema packed and shipping a framed painting for me to Florida. 

Fahim was honored by the Chamber of Commerce with the title of Citizen of the Year. It was a well-earned honored. He volunteers his time with the schools and in many other ways. Here he is with town board member Beverly Kinney and Town Supervisor Nate McMurray.

On a cold day, it is nice to warm up with a cup of tea.

This lovely soap, a gift from Seema, looks pretty and sells nice. Her soaps are for sale at the Island Ship Center.

On Wednesday, I did quite a bit of baking. I was thrilled to find that I had an egg with a double yolk.

I put the double yolk egg into the cookie batter...

Oatmeal cookies with craisins and white chocolate chips.

On Wednesday, I went to the linear bike path with Diane and Suzanne from the Conservation Advisory Board, as well as with Tom from the town's parks department. We were there to look at the creek bank.

The grass had been mowed right to the water's edge, which resulted in some soil erosion. Our goal was to plan a living shoreline for the creek bed. Native plants and other organic things are used to stabilize a shoreline. Native plants tend to have deeper roots than grass. Native plants would include such things as Joe Pye weed and black eyed susans and similar plants.

This is what the shoreline looks like now. When the weather gets a little better, we are looking to get the high school's environmental club to help us plant the living shoreline.

This is another view of the creek. At this point, no one mows because it is too wild for any lawnmower to get through.

After the outdoor adventure, I went home and baked cupcakes.

All of the goodies were made for the Grand Island Historical Society meeting, scheduled for Thursday, April 7th.

On Thursday, I went to the painting class at Stella Niagara Educational Park in Lewiston, New York. It is a twice-monthly class. Our theme for this class was lily pads. So I painted lily pads with a happy frog sitting on two of them.

This is the instructor's painting, featuring all sorts of jumping frogs.

This is another person's painting.

So many interpretations of the lily pad concept.

Chuck LaChiusa was the guest speaker at the April meeting of the Grand Island Historical Society. He offered a powerpoint presentation on the women of Millionaires' Row. He talked about famous women, such as Kate Robinson Butler. Her husband was Edward Butler, owner of The Buffalo Evening News. She was born in Atlanta and she studied piano in Paris. She was a sportswoman, who enjoyed skiing, shooting, and fishing.

Mrs. Butler entertained Bob Hope in her home during World War II. She had a home in Paris, France, that had beautiful furniture and art. During World War II, all of that was lost to the Germans.

After Mr. Butler died, Mrs. Butler became publisher and president of the Buffalo Evening News (now The Buffalo News). She eventually was instrumental in negotiating the sale of the newspaper to Berkshire Hathaway. She passed away in 1974.

She is buried in "millionaires' row at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

The audience was fascinated by Chuck's presentation. One of the other women was Ethel Mann Curtiss. The house that she lived in is now occupied by the International Institute. Ethel Mann Curtiss was born in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Dr. Mann, who was a gynecologist. When President William McKinley was shot in front of the Temple of Music at the 1901 Pan Am Exposition, it was discovered that the surgeon, Dr. Roswell Park, was unavailable. Dr. Mann was called in to perform the surgery. The president, however, died a short time later. His death was blamed on botched surgery at the hands of a non-surgeon.

There were some amazing houses in Buffalo. One house, called the Williams Pratt House. One of the bedroom's walls is gilded with gold foil.

This is display of things found at a site on East River Road, where an amusement part formerly was located. The amusement park was called "Electric Beach." The person who lives in the house that was built on the site of the former amusement park has found many artifacts.

A wide variety of artifacts have been found. The former owner made a shadow box with a bunch of the artifacts. That box fell apart, and the Historical Society had a new box made. Linda from Eddie's Art Shoppe put together the shadow box. It is still a work in progress. Information will be added as part of the box, to identify the artifacts, as well as the place from which they came.

We had yummy refreshments. I contributed chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, and oatmeal-craisin cookies.

It is now spring, but it's looking more like Christmas.

The perennials, however, are coming back.

In Grand Island, the soil is mainly clay. It absorbs water slowly so, after heavy precipitation, the water tends to sit on top of the ground.

I have started painting this picture, that I shared last week.

On Saturday, there were food trucks and activities at Saint Martin in the Fields Church. Inside the church, there was a bake sale. The event was a fundraiser for Jack and Jill, a preschool that rents space at the church.

The Erie County Sheriff's Department sent a few officers and a group of young people, called the Explorers, to the Saturday event. The sheriff's deputies and the Explorers were bringing the Operation Safe Child to the Jack and Jill fundraiser.

Operation Safe Child is a program was established in 2005 to raise awareness of child safety. Vital information about children, including their fingerprints, is stored. Parents receive identification cards for their children, which the parents carry. In case a child is abducted, the information, which is on file, would be useful in helping law enforcement find the missing child. Fortunately, most children are not abducted, but, for parents, it can be reassuring to have this card and to know that, with their approval, information about their children is being stored digitally in a database at the Division of Criminal Justice Services in Albany.

The Explorers are members of Post 505. It is aimed toward young people between the ages of 14 and 20. By participating in the program, young people learn, in a hands-on way, about careers in law enforcement.

Here are some of the offerings of the bake sale.

The bake sale was a big hit.

A good time was had by all.

Next week: The adventure continues.