CHAUTAUQUA

 

It really is quite crazy to realize that it is the middle of August!

No matter your age...how busy you are or are not....

how much fun you are or are not having...

time flies by!

 

I am blogging from Ithaca, having arrived at Sarah and Keith's

two days ago, but the photos herein are from the

several days before~

 

 

 

I am quite pleased with the end result of my first independent sidewalk project :-)

Having been Pat's assistant over the years, it was fun to know

essentially what to do and to do the work myself.

Although, Pat was close by for advice,

assistance, and the hauling of limestone

Hopefully those of you who travel into our house from the

back will find this path to be safer and more pleasant

than before!

 

 

I am not finished with the little gardens along the walk, but this one was

actually there before the new sidewalk. I love my

little angel/fairy gardens.

 

 

 

On Saturday Barb Rosen (in blue) and I drove to Chautauqua with our

hostess June Trenty (in pink) for a 3 day introduction to June's

 "favorite place on earth". 

 

 

 

And, I have to admit, it really is quite extrodinary!  You are looking at

the stage of the Chautauqua Amphitheater and the Sunday morning

Chautauqua Choir which numbers about 100 voices.  The organ

and the organ master and the choir are wonderful!

The Chautauqua Orchestra also calls this open air amphitheater home

for the 9 weeks of the Chautauqua Institute.

 

 

 

June and her husband, Richard, stay at the Lutheran House when they come.

The two of them had been there during week 7 when Ken Burns was

the guest speaker for the week.

Richard was not feeling up to going a second week, so Barb and I were

lucky enough to be invited in his place.  Here we are sitting on the front

steps of the Lutheran House.  It functions sort of like a

Bed and Breakfast and was quite wonderful.

  We both had other

commitments for the rest of the week and as we were

leaving on Tuesday, Marge, another friend, arrived

to take her turn.

Thank you so much, June :-)

 

 

 

This beautiful little Episcopal Church was just a few houses down from us.

Sometime shortly after this church was constructed, it was decided that

during the institute weeks the denominational services would take

place in the denomination homes and that the main

service on Sunday would be an interfaith service

held in the Amphitheater.  Each week

there is a different Pastor invited

to conduct worship.  There

is a service every

morning.

It was so cool to find that the pastor for week 9 was a

woman minister from a large Disciples

congregation in Georgia. 

She was incredible!

 

 

Although there are homes of varying sizes and styles in the community,

you will see that the 3 pictures I have included are large Victorians.

They are just so beautiful!  And, by luck only, these are where I

was when I had my camera and enough time and light to

take pictures.  Enjoy :-)

 

 

 

Love those colors!

 

This is a new one!!

 

Lake Chautauqua is considered one of the Finger Lakes - who knew!

And...like all of our lakes, it is suffering from algae pollution.

With that in mind, there are rain gardens being incorporated

into both the public and private areas of town.

After noticing the Cardinal Flowers in all the rain gardens I have

figured out why they have not thrived in my garden...duh~

 

 

The beach was closed while we were there :-(

You could smell the algae in some areas, but

the water was still clear.

Also, CHQ has always been known to be "mosquito free"

until recently due to a large brown bat population.  Unfortunately,

they have all succumbed to a white fungus - very sad.

 

 

Good bye Chautauqua.

Again, Thank you so much, June for a lovely three days.