Work in progress, be patient

red sunset over Cayuga Lake, New York between trees
I mentioned, just over a week ago, coming back from a trip, and that I’d be following up on that clue as to where. So before I continue, I offer the above photo as another clue, to let you guess again (or stick with your original answer.)

All set? Want to examine the photo for more details? Those aren’t palms, so despite the impression, there’s no actual indication that it was semi-tropical. Except for the spoonbill, because I’ve only ever seen them in Florida.

Except for now.

Enough stalling. The trip had been up to central New York, the exact same location as the previous trip – you probably figured that out from the casual remark in the previous post. The first trip had been to visit family, especially my dad on Father’s Day, because that trip had been delayed a year. The second… was to attend his funeral. Within about a week of my return, he’d started crashing, and we discovered that he had advanced color cancer, and so he passed on the 7th. He was 91, and had soldiered through numerous issues including a stroke, two different C-Diff infections (nasty, those,) a few UTIs, and freaking COVID, so, unexpected, this was not. I’m glad I got the chance to visit, and some may say that he held on until then, or he himself might have said that he made sure that wasn’t going to happen again (trust me, that was his sense of humor, and not something I’d take offense at.) No real regrets.

This, by the way, was the third family member to pass during the run of this blog – I just don’t talk about those things, especially when I find typical funerals to be fucking annoying, and while others may use such platforms to hash out their problems, issues, and feelings, that’s not me, and not the purpose. Enough said.

I have countless photos and video clips from both trips, and I’m getting to them – I just spent about two hours figuring out how to run sequences in slow-motion and getting them lined up, so hopefully at least one will be along soon. I’m also trying to catch up to mental goals of posting numbers, which is stupid, but still better than social media.

So the sunset above was once again over Cayuga Lake, at the Gatsby mansion, which the owners were again very kind to let us stay within – this time The Girlfriend got to see the place firsthand, and she’s enamored of it. So many thanks, again and always, to John, Jay, and Jim. The wildlife on the grounds and in the immediate area was performing much more readily this year – we’re getting to that quickly. And yes, the roseate spoonbill was there in central New York – how and why, I cannot say, since this is way outside of their typical range of southern Florida, and my Sibley Guide doesn’t even show any sporadic appearances in New York at all; again, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Elsa might have something to do with it.

I close, for now, with an image that was entirely intentional, and not due to any wandering autofocus, but instead a carefully composed artistic abstract and exactly the way I intended it to look. Really.

American goldfinch Spinus tristis well out of focus behind reeds, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, New York
Lots more, coming soon.