Out A Little Rough

The way the New Year started out. Hauling the wood wagon around the corner I slipped on the ice and went down leaving my index finger on my right hand sore and swollen but thankfully not broken. The next morning when I looked in the mirror I was horrified to find the white of my left eye blood red! I went to the emergency room to find out its common and nothing they can really do. I can't remember the word they call this condition but in time the blood will disperse. This happened on New Years day and now two weeks later it looks a lot better but still has a ways to go. I haven't worn lenses in two weeks! My sister Nancy had her double mastectomy which went well and she's on the mend. Other than that all is as good as can be for what ever normal is. I'm back up at Stillwater to play a few gigs and take some shots of snowmobiles and what ever Marian needs me to do. So happy to be here as always. My home away from home. I just love this shot of Marian and Joe! And as for the rest of the year, may it be filled with many, many happy moments in and out of the mountains. Cheers!

Done with Christmas

Ba Humbug! It's time to put Christmas back in the attic where it belongs! Christmas day was fun with family..no drama just a very enjoyable day. Mom, Lisa and Jeff are enroute to NC today and will stop to see Ro in Scranton I worked my butt off for this day after bypassing it last year as Nick just got sprung. I made a carrot cake for Nancy's birthday which was awesome as I suck at baking. The Christmas dinner was Prime Rib with a garlic, rosemary and thyme salt rub. Roasted brussels and cranberries and fontina, bacon mashed potatoes. I also cleaned four pounds of shrimp, and made a spinach and artichoke bread bowl and a cheese platter in between the four dozen cookies. Oh and butternut bourbon bisque to die for. The decorating, the gift wrapping…all the planning is done. Christmas accomplished. The tree's coming down tomorrow as Larry the cat has pretty much broken all the bulbs that once hung on the bottom branches. Even Lou is sick of Christmas and is puking! I'm sitting here at the barge with a cup of chamomile tea trying to get back to whatever normal is. Bill's father is here for a week so I've gone from family overload to the senior ward praying Stillwater call's to get back to work. Here's my new winter gigging poster. Dang these machines are quite amazing to what I remember as a kid in a blue caboose behind Dad's arctic cat. The sleds of this millennium are works of winter art! On with the new year!

This Hunting Season

As this beautiful Indian summer fades to clear, cold starry nights and hard frost mornings. Gunshots begin exploding in the many acres of woods and state lands that surround my home. Another hunting season has rolled around. Hunting season was always a big thing with the Swan family. A Swan tradition. I have fond memories of my father leaving the house all dressed in his hunting clothes. Red and black plaid wool jacket, pants and cap, shot gun in hand. I would just stand there dumbfounded at this transformation with him going from slick business man suits with the smell of Niagara spray starched shirts all the way down to his shiny black wing tipped shoes to this totally out of Gary Swan character, scratchy Woolrich almost comical mighty hunter. In his rubber hunting boots, he would meet up with his brother's Ken, Dale and Bill and my grandfather and head up to their sacred hunting ground not far from our home on Swan Hill Road...a place they called Buck's Nob. To this day I really wonder if Dad liked hunting. I tend to think not, even though I don't remember him ever complaining about it. When my brother Gary came to hunting age and showed no interest in it, Dad didn't seem upset that the tradition would end there. Though Nancy's husband Malcome was eager for the huntsman ways and Dad eagerly trained him. Our home on Swan Hill Road was a new split level house with the garage perfect for hanging the gutted deer. My job was wrapping the meat in the stiff white freezer wrap paper held together with brown masking tape. It was with great importance to be part of this family ritual and getting to hang out with the men...my Uncles. The mighty hunters. I remember them reminiscing about the old days when the deer were hung in front maple trees (for the town to see no doubt) of the maple trees that shaded my grand parents house they called the Country Side, and how they would have to set up a table outside for the meat wrapping party. It'll be a mystery forever I suppose to know if Dad really had the hunting bug. He did shoot a deer and the deer head hung over every fireplace we ever had with his kid's graduation tassels hanging from the points of the antlers. For some reason I have this picture of Dad sitting under a tree somewhere munching on candy bars, while doe's (girls he used to call them) curiously wandered up, smelling his unloaded shot gun while his brother's were out on a yonder wooded hillside hoping for the big buck to come over the rise. Dad would trudge home early afternoon's, serene from his day in the woods, empty handed but uncaring. I remember standing on the couch and looking out the big window that was over garage. The same window were I saw him get out of the car in a blizzard clutching something that was stashed in his black overcoat which turned out to be kitten's for Nancy and I. But during hunting season he always managed to save us a candy bar...if we could find it in the red and black coat of many pockets.

Time To Get Out The Stormy Kromers!

Just a little quick trip to Old Forge...lunch at Slicker's, a movie at my favorite movie theater where we saw Captain Phillips and all I can say about that movie is WOW! Hanks should win an award for that role. The snow was falling beautifully most of the afternoon and I got out to take a few shots. Here's my favorite shot!

Reverend Ross's Wood Workshop

It was a wonder to behold filled with antiques and a year of stories.

Fly Creek

Some Random Shots of Early Autumm 2013

Larry And The Pumpkin

Cedar Waxwing in my European Mountain Ash

The Back seven acres of my beloved home. The Country Side named after my Grandmother's Beloved home in Glen Aubrey NY.