Thanks Cornelia, Tom and the Travelettes!

Cornelia Read, author of the awesome Madeline Dare novels, shared a story via FB friend Mr. Tom Barclay about a 1904 New York City subway station that is no longer used. The story comes courtesy of the Travelettes Blog and is here.

The pictures depict a beautiful yet eerie time capsule of the NYC Subway's past. This is not the only station no longer being used. If you click on this link you'll find more, along with pictures and information where available. I spent a few hours reading through the list and checking out the pictures. It was pretty neat.

You can read more about the City Hall station and see more pictures here and here. And if you want to see something really awesome, check out this link. It has vintage footage of a short subway ride from May 21,1905 (about 7 months after the subway opened), and if you watch carefully you will catch a fleeting glimpse of Victorian-garbed ordinary people preserved for posterity waiting for trains on subterranean platforms. Station personnel in a platform booth stay in view as the train rounds a curve. And at the end, a platform full of dapper well-dressed men in suits, hats, some with canes, bustle around by the train, soon replaced by families and women with small children. At the very end, people who notice the camera glance uncertainly in its direction before continuing on their way, and one man appears to wave as the train departs. 

The picture below is shamelessly stolen from this article (November, 2010). 

As you may have guessed, I am a huge history buff. So you can bet that the next time I am in New York (which will be for ThrillerFest VII) I plan to take that 6 train and see this beautiful gem of the past for myself.

And I also have a neat new blog to read!

Lily

Today's post is dedicated to someone special. She is her mother's only daughter, and will more than likely cause her more stress than happiness on Mother's Day. These days it seems that the tears outweigh the smiles on a regular basis, but she is only 3 and quite a handful, headstrong and very smart for such a small child.

I know this may sound self-pitying, but Lily is lucky that she has a mom to share Mother's Day with. This will be my and her mom's second without our mother. I think of all the special moments my mom has missed since she passed away so suddenly, her first great-grandchild, a daughter's wedding, another daughter's milestone birthday, all those occasions where family descends upon each other to celebrate, laugh, fight, remember.

And I have no doubt that as the years pass Lily and her mom will forget most of the tears and build memories of love and happiness and family and their own special moments to cherish when the years go by.

Here is Lily attending her first circus! (She really was excited, trust me. This is her "another picture, seriously?" look. The price you pay of being too cute for words sweetie pie...)

Now she wants a pony and an elephant and a tiger and a horse ... 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Um, Okay Department

While sitting at a red light I watched a tall, slender blonde woman get out of her Smart Car. My initial thought was, cool car wish I was brave enough to drive one in Upstate New York (bad winters, don't get me started on the drivers), immediately followed by wow she was smoking in that thing! I had a friend in college who drove a Mazda Miata and was also a smoker. Another classmate remarked that it must be like smoking in a plastic baggie during the winter months. Same thought occurred to me now.

She bent down and put the cigarette out in a puddle, reaching back in the car to (I assume since when she stood back up the ciggy was gone) store it someplace safe. She and her purse strode into the store she'd parked in front of.

It was a store dedicated to selling all natural, environmentally-friendly beauty products.

Um, okay. On so many levels.

Supermoon Saturday 2012

In case you missed it (and I almost did), there was a Super Moon last night. I dragged my little camera outside and took some pictures for posterity.

Enjoy!

All Ghosts, No Gimmicks!

The title of this post was shamelessly stolen from here.

Last fall my husband and I went on a five day cruise. It was his second and my first. Neither one of us were blown away by the cruise. The ocean view was spectacular day and night, and the size of the ship was impressive. 

The food was a little better than okay, and given the amount of people served on a daily basis I suppose that's the best one could hope for. If we ever take another cruise we'll try a different line to see. We came to the conclusion that for this particular cruise line, if you like to sunbath most of the day and party all night you're a cruiser. Neither one of us own a bathing suit and we don't drink so ...

I did make a new friend on one of the islands we stopped at.

Aside from spending quality time with my husband, the best part of our trip was the day we returned to Jacksonville. Not because the cruise was over, but because we had time to take a road trip before catching our flight home.

We rented a car and drove south to St. Augustine. The trip was (very selfishly) solely for me. It was another one of those (numerous) occasions that compelled me to drag him along on a quick ghost-seeking trip. By the end though my husband was planning to go back with St. Augustine as our actual destination.

Some people plan vacations around sight-seeing opportunities such as national parks, historic monuments or museums. Others plan destination vacations such as the ocean, a Disney theme park,or mountain climbing. I plan mine around places or areas known for being haunted. (Are you feeling a little sorry for my husband yet?)

I discovered the St. Augustine Lighthouse watching an episode of Ghost Hunters. It was one of the creepiest episodes I'd seen so far. The black figure that peered down over the upper railing and darted around the circular staircase was fascinating. I must admit that I am not 100% convinced ghosts exist, in spite of experiences I've had and the first-hand accounts I've been privy too. What I see on television is not what I consider evidence because, well, it's on television. Still, that does not stop me from trying to find out for myself if there's more out there than we know.

The bonus was discovering that the city of St. Augustine was a gem in its own right. According to Wikipedia, it was  founded in 1565 by Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a Spanish explorer, and is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States. The city is charming and full of wonderful structures and neat stores, such as Flagler College, Fort Matanzas, the Bridge of Lions, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, the Lightner Museum, and Whetstone Chocolates. We squeezed in a lot in the short time we were there and some day I'll be blogging in more detail about this wonderful city.

But the neatest thing about St. Augustine is that it is considered one of the most haunted cities in the United States. That alone is worth a return trip!

Back to the Lighthouse. You can see its black and white-striped tower reaching into the sky over the city from many vantage points.

I was excited to check it out, even though it was during the day. The consensus is that ghosts only come out and play at night, so I had no expectations that anything would occur. When we entered the gift shop/entrance way, the first thing we saw was a model of the Cutty Sark. 

The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship built in 1869, and was known for being one of the fastest clipper ships on the seas in her time. She sailed until 1954 when she was put on display in Greenwich. On one of my visits to the U.K. I took a trip to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian. And yes, I was one of those tourists who took a picture of her feet straddling the hemispheres. Along the way I passed the Cutty Sark, and made a point to visit her during my stay. The ship was beautiful, inside and out, and I went back the next trip to see her again. I am glad that I did. In 2007 the ship suffered extensive damage from a fire and only reopened to the public this past April 25. (All of my pictures are paper, some day they'll all be scanned for posterity.)

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Time for a tangent!

On one of my trips to Greenwich I took a tour. The guides who give tours in London and the surrounding areas are absolutely fabulous, full of knowledge and entertaining. This particular tour took us by the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House. The buildings are joined by a long walkway lined with pillars. That day was the opening of an exhibit at the Museum, the particulars of which escape me. Our guide paused on the great lawn next to the buildings so we could take pictures. I wandered over to the walkway, and decided that it would be cool to take an optical illusion picture of the pillars. The only problem was, two older gentlemen were standing on the walkway blocking my shot. I walked up to them and very politely asked them if they would mind stepping aside for a minute while I took my picture. They smiled and stepped aside.

I kept an eye on my tour group while I was setting up my shot, and I noticed the tour guide waving frantically to me as I approached the men. I assumed they were waiting for me to move along. I finished, waved another thanks to the men, and rejoined my group. The tour guide met me on my way back, breathlessly asking me what I'd said to the two men. She seemed very concerned. I told her, and she stared at me for a moment, then giggled. Turns out that one of the men was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

Back to St. Augustine Lighthouse.

We followed a pathway through a small patch of woods and there she was. Beautiful!

Across the small lawn stood the Keeper's House.

I was very excited to make the trek up the stairs to the top of the Lighthouse. My husband, not so much. Neither of us like heights but I was not going to let that stop me.

The view from the upper windows is spectacular.

So is the view looking down, if only because I could not believe I managed to climb so high. (Yes, those are my toes.)

When we got to the top my husband opted to stay inside. I found some bravery somewhere and stepped outside. It was very, very windy. I almost stepped back inside but when an elderly man stepped out and strode to the railing I felt better that I wouldn't die alone if I got blown over the side and stayed. I must admit though that while I did manage to make the circumference of the top, I did most of it hugging the wall. Hey, it was really windy! I managed to get some good shots without dying.

One of the things on my to-do list when we return to St. Augustine is the Dark of the Moon tour being offered by the Lighthouse staff. Regardless of whether or not you believe in ghosts the publicity from the Ghost Hunters show seems to have garnered more attention for the Lighthouse. As a non-profit, it depends a lot on donations, so go visit!

Paranormal activity has been reported at the Lighthouse for years and years. Some people believe that the two young daughters of Hezekiah Pittee (or Pity), Eliza and Mary, who drowned in a tragic accident in 1873 while the Lighthouse was being built, still play there. Some believe the ghosts could be former lighthouse keepers, or pirates rumored to have been buried on the grounds. 

Regardless, there are too many stories to discount the possibility that there may be ghosts inhabiting the Lighthouse. As I said earlier, I was not expecting anything to show up on my pictures. As it so happens, I was pleasantly surprised. (Below is one of many, and I did check before and after shots to confirm.)

 Next time will be even more fun!

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The dark can be scary. It changes pretty, sun-lit woods you walk by during the day to a creepy, monster-filled danger zone you will only pass by in your car. The window you look out of when you're relaxing on the couch reading a book on Saturday afternoon frames a view of freshly mowed grass, colorful flowers and stately pines. At night you shut the blinds so you can pretend that nothing is lurking in your backyard trying to peer in your windows. An old, historic graveyard is the perfect place to walk your dog after breakfast, but you wouldn't be caught dead there after the sun goes down.     

But the darkness is not always full of hidden dangers, scary monsters and frightening shadows. The dark can be magical. When I drive through the neighborhood during daylight hours I see houses, some new, some old, some well-kept, some not so much. Some neighborhoods are street after street of cookie-cutter houses with small touches of individuality here and there. Others are house after house of mine is better than yours.

Yet when darkness falls everything changes. Lampposts come on, solar lights illuminate pathways. Garden statues become animated; fairies hold up tiny glowing lanterns, a lighthouse slowly turns, lighting the rocky path of a garden, angel's wings throw soft light across peonies and roses. 

No more my house is better than yours. No more cookie-cutter houses. No more some old, some new, some well-kept, some not so much. The lights that the darkness bring turn them all into a Narnian lamppost-lit forest of soft colors, tantalizing shadows, back-lit flowers and twinkling lights through slightly moving leaves. If you're lucky the moon is full and adds an extra special touch of awesome. And every season has its own unique variation of colors and lights and wonder to enjoy.

Magical.  

Happy Birthday to the Cat

Today my sweet boy turns 15. In people years that is 76. Older than my parents when they passed away (much too soon). We miss his sister, who lived to 13 until a mysterious flu-like illness took her pretty quickly. The Boy is still hanging in there. We shower him with extra love and attention (and of course treats) in case he has doubts about leaving any time soon. He has many nicknames. Poop Head, Booger, the Boy, Puppy, Kitty Poopy, Yoda (see picture below), Pillow, and Puke Face.

He earned the name Poop Head as a young lad. He loved to run full speed into the bathroom and sail into the toilet. I learned quickly to keep the lid closed. Booger was bestowed upon him when he caught a cold. It was amazing what came out of such a tiny nose. The Boy has no special origin that I can recall, probably because he was the boy and his sister was the girl. Puppy came about because he shared property with two growing up and I didn't want him to think he was any different than anyone else. Kitty Poopy is what my husband calls him when he leaves little nugget presents for us to find. Puke Face is what my husband calls him when he eats too much. (It should be noted that Mom is the designated nugget and puke cleaner-upper.)

My Boy spends most of his day as a man of leisure. Sometimes above the covers: 

sometimes underneath them.

He is a cat of habit, some new some old. Growing up in a single parent household was a breeze. Sharing Mom with a sister was too. If his sister was curled up on Mom's lap it was easy enough to put his head underneath her and shove her out of Mom's lap so he could take her place. His sister was a runt, never getting bigger than six pounds, so it was easy to get his way when he was so inclined. Sleeping meant that Mom always had to be on her right side so both cats could snuggle under the covers in a little cave. Sister got the bottom, the Boy got the top so he could put his head on the pillow next to Mom. The name 'Pillow' was bestowed because somehow by the morning Mom was using the Boy as a pillow.

When he finally got a Dad it took him a few months to adjust. Dad as well. He'd never had a pet of any kind before so it was a big change. But soon enough Dad and cat become the best of friends, and when Dad was home Mom was a distant memory. Dad learned how to belly rub like a pro and the Boy would do the drop and roll whenever he could. One thing did not change, and that was bedtime. Even though his sister was gone, the Boy still sleeps with Mom on her side under the covers, head on the pillow. Because Dad has his specific side of the bed, this means that Mom has to sleep with her back to Dad.

And if Mom does not place herself in the proper position, the Boy will either sit and wait patiently until she moves, or leave and come back as many times as it takes for her to do so.

He is stubborn that way. But we love him just the way he is.

The Boy would like it known that he intends to maintain his dignity throughout his twilight years. He has no intention of exhibiting the kind of behavior a certain cousin has been lately.

Just saying .....

Happy Birthday with love and kisses!!!!!!!!!