Murder in Miniature

Hi Folk,

This morning I just had a few minutes while drinking my morning cupper, I was listening to BBC radio via my iPad, so I heard the word Baltimore which held my attention, as Baltimore is quite close to us in the scheme of travel in the USA, just a couple of hours south.

The program was about miniature scenes, some of houses or barns, so somewhat like miniature dolls houses, but with a twist.  These are forensic miniatures of crime scenes, made by Frances Glessner Lee born in 1878 to a wealthy family in Chicago, she lived on Prairie Avenue, where all the rich people lived, their fortune was from International Harvester.

Her father would not hear of her going to college, so she took the traditional route of wealthy women of the time, married, had three children and not so traditionally was divorced within eight years.  It was not until her father died when she came into her own, that she pursued her passion which was legal medicine and especially death scene crime investigation.  See here details Death in Miniature

It seems that over twenty detailed miniature scenes are housed in Baltimore, but can only be seen at special request.

Corinne May Botz wrote a book about Frances Glessner Lee.  I may go to the library and get that.  The miniatures were built by a carpenter and his son, and took as much time and cost as much as a regular house of that time period would have cost.  Frances also contributed to the miniatures and it was her eye for minute detail that makes them so interesting and used as a teaching tool for homicide detectives.

Burned cabin miniature.

Pink bedroom miniature.

I found it quite fascinating so go to the link Death in Miniature

This morning was a beautiful ride to work.  There was a cold mist hovering over the grass and shafts of sunlight were filtering through the autumn foliage, very lovely.  I just wanted to get out with my camera and take photos, but of course had no time to do so.

Take care,
Christy

The Making of a Film

Hi Dear Folk,

My last installment on our last trip to Ithaca. Mum and Dad were up and out by 7:00am to be at the Boy's by 8:00am.  We stopped at Tim Horton's which is a donut chain, they were all fresh and the baker was there.  Mr. B. asked for a crueler with chocolate on top, which he did not have, just the plain ones, but he topped two especially for Mr. B. and they were so good.  So picked up coffees and a few things here, then to the Boy's. 

It went down to below freezing overnight, so here you see the early morning mist and frost.

Rob is rushing around getting ready and the major thing was to load the film into the old style camera, which has to be done in the dark.  He had three rolls of film.  So he calls me into the bathroom which has no windows, I can hardly see what I'm doing, I'm holding the spool and the Boy is trying to load it in.  Why are your hands wet mum?  Well I just rushed in out of the kitchen, wipe them on your trousers. Eventually he gets it in, then he thought it didn't sound right while cranking it, but eventually he thought it was all correct.  Talk about stress.

All is now together and we get out on the road, a bit late but not too much, to meet the person who owns the old derelict school.  He is going to let us in.
 

So while the boys were filming, mum is going around taking these black and white photos.  I enjoyed that a lot, I like photography, I guess it maybe runs in the family.  I don't know all the advanced stuff like the boys do, but I know a bit.  So here are some of the many shots that I took through out the day.

An old discarded reel of film from the 1950s.

By this time I have had enough of being inside and standing on concrete floors, so I thought let me run down to The Man in the Moon Café and see if they are open, and they were.  So I bought back coffees and something for lunch for the guys.  I went back and hung out for about two hours, with a chai latte and a scone.  I had explained to the owner Annie why I was there and she said she remembered me from a previous visit, and would I like to hang out.  Yes please.  It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I sat outside with my crochet which I had with me and just relaxed, I think that was the most relaxing time of our whole visit.  They closed up at 2:00pm and since I had walked from the school she said would I like a lift back, which I excepted.

Old farm machinery.

This is the old King Ferry Fire truck which is housed here.

A few hiccups along the way were that the last roll of film that he had stored in his refrigerator at the bottom, got wet and he could not use it at all, at least he had shot two rolls.  After filming then sound had to be recorded.  The Boy soon realized that the stands did not have the correct thread to screw the mikes on, so Mr. B. had to manually hold them for him.  And of course we spent more than twice as long there than he thought it would take.  We did not finish until around 5:30pm.

At least they have smiles on their faces.

As you can see the Boys are very intent on ordering food.  We ate at the restaurant that Rob works at.  That was nice and we were looked after.

Still not finished though, all the equipment had to be returned to the College.  So by the time we did that stopped off at his apartment and did a couple of things there, I don't think we got on the road home until almost 11:00pm.  We did stop off at a rest stop and slept for an hour, not getting home until the wee hours of the morning, thank goodness I had Monday off or I would never have done that.

That's my story.

Christy

Doug's Fish Fry, Skaneateles, NY

Hi Dear Folk,

If you visit Skaneateles you cannot leave without visiting Doug's Fish Fry for a great fish sandwich.  Rob said the best fish sandwich he ever had.

Gumbo soup.

Nothing fancy, but good food at a good price.  They also have a train that runs around the room, near the ceiling for the kids.  You can see the line in the photos above and below.

So Jean when you come over next visit this is where we are going.

Take care,
Christine

Skaneateles, NY

Skaneateles, NY on Lake Skaneateles is one of the wealthier lake areas on the Finger Lakes.  I wish I had taken a photo of their brand spanking new fire house, wow!  I guess they don't want any of those mansions burning down.  Having said that it is a beautiful area and one does enjoy the atmosphere and just walking around town.

This is where we bought my yarn pottery bowl.  It was getting towards the end of the day and the clouds are rolling in now.

I think they have a wooden boat pageant some time during the summer, you can see one in the boathouse.

Here are some of the homes around the lake.

We did eat at Doug's Fish Fry, more to follow on that.

We left here with over an hour to get back to pick Rob up.

Well first of all we have no cell phone, so as we were driving we realized that we would be about twenty minutes late.  Fortunately as we come into town to pick Rob up, there he is walking up the hill, so in he gets.  We had totally forgotten that we had to take him to pick up his gear and the cutoff time to pick it up was 5:30pm.  He phones says he will be a few minutes late, sorts all that out, phew!

When we get there nothing has been assembled together on a cart as it should have been because the students working there were understaffed and had been going all day.  Rob had put in his request, but unfortunately the computer locks down at 5:30pm, so they had to get someone to override the system with a password to check out all his gear.  They said a check out time of no later than 5:00pm should not be in the system, not Rob's fault but whoever entered it.

Eventually we get all the equipment loaded into the SUV, he was relieved as the filming had been set up for the next day and had to be done then.  It all ended well, but was a bit stressful.

By now all are hungry so we went down into town and ate at Viva, the Mexican restaurant, the wait was thirty minutes.  After which we decided to go to a recital that one of Rob's friends was in.  He said I think it's just small group of people.  When we get there, which is quite a hike across campus, and up hill and down dale, we arrive at the auditorium and it is packed out.  This was a whole Choral and Choir evening from 8:00pm until 10:30pm, black tie affair.  There were no seats available but eventually some seats opened up.

It was a great evening and a true surprise, from African music to Elizabethan madrigals to Mozart and Russian Opera, so quite a range, we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Nice treat to listen to beautiful voices live.

By the time we dropped Rob off, and he helped me figure out how to download some videos, and then drove to our Motel, it was late.  This schedule is wearing mum and dad out.

Have a great weekend,
Christy

Geneva, NY

Hi Dear Folk,

Another rainy day, although it is clearing up. 

The other day I was in Aldi's looking for fresh spinach and tin tomatoes for my ever faithful Florentine soup, when I came across some new plastic containers, made in Germany no less, with attached lid and clip locks, I treated myself to a new set for lunches at work. It is so nice to have a little matching set, and bring me joy to look at them in my lunch bag, I know small things.  My other older ones went up to Rob as he said that he did not have anything the right size to pack his lunches in.

He cooks himself up a pot of chili; we also took him up a large stainless steel cooking saucepan, which I had in the basement.  He buys soft tortillas and wraps chili and cheese inside and this makes up a lunch for him.  He is getting quite thrifty because he can actually eat at the restaurant where he works for 50% off, but as he said that is still $6.00 and he can cook himself up a meal for $1.50 to $2.00, The Boy is getting the idea.

Here is Geneva, NY a town that we stopped off at.

 

Obviously a lot busier in it's heyday, but still nice. I would have loved to have seen the department stores at their peak, but we know all this has changed. 



 

Waiting for master.

Still fun shops to investigate, like this yarn shop.

And this quilting supply shop.  With lovely mellow wooden floors and the brick wall.

These shots are expansive I think and show the amount of space allotted to roads in these old towns.

Mr. B. was on a quest for a good cup of coffee to have along with the Monkey Bread that he bought.

So we spent a nice hour or so in Geneva, got a little carried away looking around an antique store, as I'm on a quest for a cast iron, made in USA, cast in one piece fry pan.  Did not find one.

 

Christy