suns along the Mohawk

….. 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.”

   update (Nov. 4, 2011): The Moon & River Café in the Stockade (115 S. Ferry St.) is hosting a special multi-media exhibit of paintings and poetry by Elizabeth MacFarland, from November 1st through December 31st.  The exhibit — “The Making of a Children’s Book”  — focuses on Elizabeth’s recently-published book of poetry for children titled “Butterfly, Dragonfly” (The Troy Book Makers, 2011).  It features 16 oil paintings Elizabeth used to illustrate her book, along with the related poems.

There will be a reception and book signing on both Friday, November 18th, 2011, 6-8 pm, as part of Art Night Schenectady; and Sunday, December 4, 2-5 pm, when Elizabeth will perform piano and flute pieces with flutist Laura Bulatao, and with some of their students.  Spotlight News did a feature article about the exhibit, titled “an artist of many colors” (by John Purcell, Nov. 17, 2011, at 12).

– below are two pages from Butterfly, Dragonfly –

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– two poems with painting-illustrations from Butterfly, Dragonfly (click on the image for a larger version) –

Butterfly, Dragonfly has 35 poems, which were inspired by true-life happenings, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when her two grown sons were little guys.  The book will be available to purchase at Moon & River, as well as at The Open Door and The Little Book House in Stuyvestant Plaza.

Elizabeth is a professional pianist and composer, and has an active piano studio in Niskayuna.

[original posting]

. . . Below are a few paintings by former Stockade resident, Elizabeth MacFarland, who now lives in Niskayuna.   As you can see, I have no experience photographing art (nor anything else) indoors, but I hope you’ll appreciate her talent with oils.  Click on the photo for a larger version of the painting.

– displayed at the St. James Square Starbucks, Niskayuna, New York, for 350.org International Day of Climate Action, October 24, 2009 –

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. . and from my personal collection, early Elizabeth: