A Little Wander to a Little Corner

Hulloo!  This is a blog about a little wander to a little corner of a field that's grown up over the past few years in a spot that I've driven by hundreds of times, I'm sure. 

Something like six years ago, a parking lot sized space was cleared next to the Latta/Long Pond Wegmans.  Whatever was supposed to happen to it, didn't and, as often happens, the plain dirt was slowly decorated by what people call a  "field".  It's actually on the West Side of the Frontage Road that connects Wegmans to the  Mc Donalds, a day-care center, and the Latta Road brach of Eastman Credit Union (otherwise known as a bank).  I'm using the term frontage road because, in the rest of the country, that's what it would be called).

One day a couple of weeks ago, I had several errands to run and decided I'd park my car in a central location and walk to my destinations.  As has now become habit, I carried my camera.

I've driven by this field SOO often and never actually seen it...I want you to see it, as well, just for grins! And because it's kinda neat



Okay - I just made this bigger.  If you'll look carefully in the upper right corner, about 1/4 down from the top?  You'll see a little white dot.  That is the hood of a car in the parking lot of the store.  So we're literally only a few yards from the day-to-day world.  And no, that's not a discarded bright red plastic cup down in the lower left.  Honest!

Right off the bat (where the heck did that saying come from?), I must apologize for not having the foggiest CLUE what the names of the wildflowers are.  Some look like they escaped from a backyard and have decided to go camping in this field.  But I have no skill at naming them.  Except, of course, to say they're pretty.  (I am exceptionally proud of my immense scientific background.  Can you tell?)

This is the fence that Wegman's put up around the field back when it was supposed to be something else. I like it, so was obliged to take several shots of it, both nekkid and with flowers.

The view a tightrope walking squirrel would have.  And me playing with wood grain and all.

I cropped out my sneaker, which insisted on toeing itself into the bottom of the picture.  I took this sitting on the ground.  The colors of the little purple flowers were almost irridescent and varied from pinkish purple right on through to purplish blue.  Wonderful!!!!

Again from the ground and again the pretty purple flowers.  They look a little like mini-foxgloves!  The yellow flowers?  Dunno, but they were tremendously cheerful to look at ! 

So, on we go to flowers and greens!

For the most part, these are daisies, I think.  The purple flowers in the backgound aren't the same as the ones by the fence, but they're pretty anyway!

These are pretty (I know - I have to work on my vocabulary).  But what interested me the most about them is the way that the colors range from white through to deep pinkish red.  The flower in the middle has flowerets that are all diffferent shades of pink, red, and white.

These little yellow guys look like stars!

The clover shades from light pink to deeper and then to almost white (color 818 for the counted cross stitchers among us).

And the paler pastels and their stems and leaves add a quiet background of color.

Remember that bright red splotch in the first picture?  This is the splotch up closer and more personal.  Again, I don't know what it is, but it was BRIGHT!!!!

Each of the little flowerets' petals had ruffled petals. I liked the grass as well.  There were so many different green things it was a little overwhelming!

Another bright splotch of color was this flower.  I remembered seeing something like it on a web page and went looking.  It's a coreopsis.  And it seemed to be the only Coreopsis nearby.  Perhaps it had pioneered from someone's garden and decided to set up housekeepingg here!

This is just a little wander, a glimpse of a field perhaps an acre in size, on a semi-cloudy day in June in 2011.  I'm glad I decided to take that walk from the post office to the bank, or I would have missed seeing this!  Keep an eye out, because there's neat stuff all over the place!

Until next time!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame - 19th Century Style!

Hi, folks!  This post is for Lisa and Ron because I took piccies of the baseball field out at Genesee Country Museum yesterday (the season starts today with a double header).  Now, remember, this is a league that plays ball back when the game was called  base ball (with the space between the two words) and the players wore woolen uniforms and those weird flat topped caps.  The field is set up according to the rules that were up and running in the 19th century (the first real rule book came out about 1868).

I noticed that the distance between the pitcher's mound and the plate was much shorter than it is today.  And things were a bit more "out in the open".  BUT, that being said, it appears that base ball is base ball no matter when.

According to the information on the website and also on a sign at the field, this is the first vintage base ball field (and, of course, the best, but I'm wildly biased) in the nation.  There are four local teams who play vistors from other areas in the country.

Here we go!

Every Base Ball field has a sign.  This is the one for this field.

Here is the sign that greets folks as they walk in.  It explains a bit about 19th century base ball and shows the layout of the diamond.  And, yes, there were folk who played wearing ties.  Don't ask - I have no idea what would have been going through their heads!

And here is the obligatory artsy shot, this one is looking through the box seats down the 3rd base line including the bleachers. 

Yes, it's a field.  Very definitely!

I decided to take shots from the pitcher's mound.  From my vantage point, the pitcher's mound didn't seem very high.  But all is relative, I suppose!

This is the box where the referees sat.  To the right are the bleachers and box that I showed in the first picture.  To the left is the whatchamacallit - the backstop, maybe?  The red bench in between the ref's box and the covered bleachers is the team bench.

I've stepped back away from the mound to get a shot of the entire backstop.  And whoever said hay bales were just for storing sileage?  Not I!!!!

This is the scoreboard.  When a game is being played, one or two young people change the information as it mounts up.  I think it's pretty neat (but that's just me).

This is a better look at the players' bench.  The box behind the bench carries the team's equipment.  The table on the sawhorses could have been used for water buckets or perhaps to take a look at an injured player...I'm not sure.  But the stand on the near side of the bench held the bats during the game.  (Can you tell I'm not really a huge base ball fan?  But I am a huge fan of the history of things!)

There were ads on the fence, of course (ads have been on things since people have built buildings and decided to do exterior decorating!).  The camera that this ad is talking about (just for grins and giggle) is a very early Kodak camera, before the Brownie.  In Kodak's first years, one purchased the camera loaded with film.  When the film was used up, the entire entity, camera, film and all was returned to Kodak.  The camera was reloaded and sent back to its owner.  I know that sounds rather odd, but some years were to pass before the film came in a format that the customer could handle without damaging the negatives.

There was a Wendy's sign as well, but, although the format was distinctly 19th century (no little Pippi Longstocking look-alike).  I decided, instead, to show this sign.  Again, it is definitely the way a sign would have looked in the 19th century, but it's modern.  I believe that K&P Weaver is the company that makes the old fashioned uniforms used by heritage teams.

It's a field, there are no line strips and I couldn't figure out where the bases were (although, since today is the first day of the season, perhaps the team hadn't put out whatever markers it uses for the bases),  and the players are going to be warmer than the weather even before they start playing.  But the game will be a base ball (baseball) game like any other, right down to this day.  There will be hawkers vending their wares, homeruns will be hit and everyone will have a great time! 

OH, one other picture - and this is a part of history that isn't as well known, I think.

There is a women's 19th century base ball team at the Museum.  I am just back from doing some research because I wasn't aware that women DID play ball in the 1800s.  However,they most certainly did. 
As you might expect, women played out of the public eye for the most part in the early years: playing base ball, like the acting in the theatre, was viewed as marginally acceptable by the public. But play they did.

Here's a URL for more information about that time frame.  It's from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

http://www.hsp.org/node/2934

Yesterday, they were playing on the Great Meadow (where the bandstand is) at the Museum.  And their excitement over the game was contagious.  This is a long shot, but I wanted to get a picture of the ladies in as well.

I wish I could have gone to the double header today, but at least I got a chance to see the field and to take some pictures!  I hope you liked what I did!

Have a great day!