What better way is there to (unofficially) end summer than loitering in Riverside Park at sunset with my usual accomplices, Lollipop and Sylvie (seen lurking, ghost-like in the shadows at the head of this paragraph)? The Park was surprisingly empty, so I’m posting a couple sunset photos for all who missed it.
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Posted in Mohawk sunrise or sunsets
One year ago this week, the weather was almost as perfect as the sunny, refreshing days and cool, dry nights we’re having as September 2009 unfolds and heads toward the Labor Day weekend. Last year, I wasn’t yet used to taking my camera with me on my Stockade strolls, but the weather inspired me to both bring my PowerShot and actually snap a photo or two around the neighborhood. Here are a few of the scenes and items that caught my eye the first week of September 2008. [click on a photo for a larger image; scroll over it for a description]
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– above: the 1st Reform steeple and 214 Union St. (my former home) with newly-painted trim; below: the cemetery at 1st Presbyterian Church and Lawrence Circle; Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2008 –
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. . . 2 Cucumber Alley weathervane, September 1, 2008
And, yes, there were memorable sunsets from Riverside Park that week; this trio of photos were taken September 2, 2008:
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. . The lovely first week of September 2008 was capped off by the annual Outdoor Art Show. As reported last year at f/k/a, the rainy remnants of tropical storm Hanna caused the 2008 Villagers Outdoor Art Show to be postponed a day. The rain date, Sunday September 7, 2008, brought perfect late-summer weather and a large, happy crowd to the Stockade.
– Lawrence Circle at the conclusion of the 2008 Villagers Outdoor Art Show –
.. last year’s top two prize winners .. 
I’m not sure if I’ll be snapping many photos over Labor Day Weekend this year, or at the 2009 art show. I am going to appreciate every day of this perfect weather. And, hope it will stick around or return for the 58th Annual Stockade Villager’s Outdoor Art Show, Saturday, September 12, 2009, 10 AM to 4 PM (rain date, Sunday Sept. 13, noon to 4 PM) — taking place, as always, at Lawrence’s Circle [Polachek Square] and the contiguous blocks of Front St., Green St. and N. Ferry St.
Posted in Stockade Views
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. . Flier
Aerobathon Fundraiser for Family & Child Service of Schenectady
Viniar Athletic Center, Union College, September 20, 2009 Postponed to an as-yet-undertermined date. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.
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Whether you’re spending the last days of summer enjoying a Mohawk sunset with friends, reading a crime thriller on a Stockade porch, or out of town at your favorite lake or swimming hole, I hope you’ll put the FCSS Aerobathon on your post-Labor Day To-Do List. The fundraiser [has been postponed and] will be held on September 20, 2009, from 1 to 3 PM on an as-yet-undetermined future date, on the Union College campus, Viniar Athletic Center, to help support the many programs offered by Family & Child Service of Schenectady — serving families with disabled children, frail at-home elderly, at-risk youth and many others who need a hand of support.
. . . The 2-hour family-fun event will feature aerobics with instructor Lynn Neal and “Zumba” (cool dance moves with hot Latin rhythms) with Deborah Spurgas. The entry donation is $10 for adults and $7 for children 12 and under. Go to the FCSS Aerobathon Event page, or click on the flier above for more information. You can use this “Aerobathon Registration form” or phone Family & Child Service at 393-1369 to register.
Contact FCSS at their Stockade headquarters, 246 Union St. (across from the Van Dyck) or by phone at (518) 393-1369.
Posted in Stockade Views
.. Blame it on the heat and humidity, but I was wilted and lazy last Friday night (August 21, 2009), when I snatched my camera and headed out around sunset time. So lazy, in fact, that I never got past our front porch (which faces southeast) and only snapped four photos — all from the same spot, peeking around the corner, looking northwest-ward. Here are the two shots I liked the most. As always, click on the photo for a larger image.
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As you can see, it was rather difficult to color-accessorize for the Friday night sunset.
By the way, in between the orange and pink phases, I was swatting mosquitoes, while reading Tim Kevan’s first novel, BabyBarista and the Art of War (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 3 Aug 2009), based on his Times Online weblog, BabyBarista (which I discuss here at my f/k/a blawg, and reviewed on September 7, 2009, in the post “BabyBarista serves up a cool, dark brew-haha“ at the Overlawyered.com weblog). It’s the humorous fictional account of an apprentice London barrister willing to do almost anything to beat out the competition for a slot in chambers. If you think lawyers are shifty and greedy, and you want to laugh over their foibles, BabyB’s tale is a great way to end or extend the summer season.
Posted in Mohawk sunrise or sunsets
Last week, we enjoyed a number of evenings featuring subtle pastel skies at sunset. If you prefer pictures to words, you’re in luck: Our humid weather has left me too wilted to draft stirring commentary. Here are shots taken on August 8, 2009 and August 11, 2009 along the Mohawk near the Schenectady Stockade.
. . As always, click on a photo for a larger version. .
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Bonus: The pastel sunset from March 11, 2009, the night after the historic ice jam along the Mohawk River:
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Posted in Mohawk sunrise or sunsets
– foggy morning behind 16 Washington Ave., August 10, 2009 –
Confession: I am not a morning person, nor AM photographer. It’s hard to get my eyes wide open and my body outdoors early in the day. That’s why you will rarely, if ever, see sunrise shots here at suns along the Mohawk, despite an open eastward view as nice as the western one, down at the river in the Schenectady Stockade. It is also why I haven’t taken photographic advantage of a summer that has — I’m told by radio announcers, but can’t confirm with my own eyes — produced many foggy mornings.
Yesterday, however, I was semi-awake extra early and again heard talk on the radio of fog in the valleys. Poking my head outside at about 6:30 AM, I indeed noticed an intriguing layer of fog over the Mohawk River. After a quick cup of coffee, I stumbled out my front door by 6:50, only to find the fog rapidly thinning. I was able to catch a bit of it before it disappeared — and before mosquitoes looking for breakfast drove me back indoors.
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That’s all the fog this groggy fogey could manage to corral yesterday morning. (Click here to see some more Riverside fog photos, taken in the autumn of 2008.)
Posted in river seasons, Stockade Views
. . a farewell to Pete Polachek . . 
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. . Paul W. “Pete” Polachek died on August 6, 2009. I learned of his death through a comment at our earlier post “Polachek Square unveiled” (June 13, 2009), which celebrated the centrality of the Polachek family and Arthur’s Market to our Stockade neighborhood. Pete’s death at age 60 from cancer is a grave loss for his family, and his many friends and acquaintances. [click for Pete’s obituary in the Schenectady Gazette.] You did not have to know Pete well to know and feel his goodwill and caring for his Stockade neighbors and our community.
Pete’s daughter, Tiffany Brace, told the Gazette her dad would have wanted us to remember his sense of humor. See “Retired owner of Arthur’s Market dies; Polachek was a Stockade institution” (Schenectady Gazette, Aug. 8, 2009). Pete told Tiffany:
“Don’t let anyone feel sorry for me. I’m happy, I’m 60, I had a good run.“
At Suns Along the Mohawk, we often celebrate life through the beauty of sunsets. Therefore, I took my camera to Riverside Park on the day Pete Polachek died, to capture our first sunset without him. Here are a few of the photos I took that evening (click on them for a larger version):
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. . . This is the sunset view on August 6, 2009, as seen from the memorial marker for Emily Polachek, Pete’s daughter, near North Street, along the Mohawk River, in Riverside Park:
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Yes, Peter] Polachek “had a good run” (while owning hundreds of running shoes). But, his neighbors, friends and family wish he could have run with us, and sat with us, for a few more decades.
update (August 10, 2009): According to Pete’s obituary, A memorial service will be held in his honor, Friday, August 14, 2009 at 11 AM at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 30 N. Ferry St, across from Arthur’s Market.
p.s. Just two years ago, on July 4, 2007, the family and friends of Pete’s dad Arthur Polachek came together to celebrate Art’s life. That day, as is the custom in the haiku-poet community in order to memorialize a beloved friend, I posted at my weblog f/k/a the Arthur Polachek Celebration — a collection of haiku in his honor by a number of well-known haiku poets. (It is formatted so that it can be printed on two sides of a letter-size sheet and folded into a tri-fold brochure.) That haiku collection seems equally relevant today to celebrate the life of our grocer-friend and neighbor, Pete Polachek.
Posted in Mohawk sunrise or sunsets, Stockade Views
….. less than 3 miles away 
– Schenectady’s Central Park Rose Garden, Central Parkway at Wright Ave. –
My friends Yu and Anita Chang literally live a stone’s throw away from Schenectady’s Central Park, and about two blocks from the Central Park Rose Garden, which is located less than three miles from our Stockade neighborhood. Since yesterday was a particularly lovely, rain-free August day, Yu and I headed to the Garden with our respective digital cameras (his is much larger and fancier than mine, as befits a disciplined and gadget-oriented electrical engineering professor, and renowned haiku poet and haiga artist). The late afternoon sun was a little too bright for a photographic adventure, but we weren’t looking for perfection.
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– Robert Blood’s sculpture, Variations on the Chinese Character “Yuan” (Garden),
pointed me to that lovely white and red rose –
I snapped a lot more photos than I normally would in the hour we spent strolling the Rose Garden, which has over 4000 individual plants, and about 400 varieties of roses. Being overwhelmed by giant displays and scores of beds, I was attracted to Robert Blood’s sculpture, Variations on the Chinese Character “Yuan” (Garden) and decided to play off of it for a lot of my shots. Here’s a bunch of rose photos featuring the Yuan character, plus some odds and ends from around the park. [As always, scroll over the picture for a caption and click on it for a larger version of the photograph.]
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a favorite spot for brides …. 
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update (August 1, 2010): I got over to the Rose Garden yesterday, and the resulting post “July ends gracefully at Central Park” has two dozen photos from the Garden. As mentioned in the post, the Garden has been named one of the ten best public rose gardens in the nation.
2011 update (June 20, 2011): See our posting “rose garden in June.”
Posted in visits elsewhere
suns along the Mohawk 
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