Late one April afternoon these backlit Hepatica on the gorge wall above the South Rim Trail of Treman Gorge posed for their portraits.
Personable Wildflowers
With wishes for a Blessed Easter 2021
Category: Finger Lakes Region of New York State
Hepatica
Early Spring Beauties
Most every year since 2002 I’ve photographed these personable beauties, the first wildflowers to bloom as early as late February through the snows.
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Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Hepatica, Fillmore Glen
Hepatica from April 2007
Back in 2007 I used a 100 mm Canon Macro lens on a Kodak slr along with a Sony DSC-F828 variable lens for this mix of macro and habitat captures presented as a gallery so you can flip back and forth among the larger images. Click any image to bring up a larger version.
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Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Iron Grace
Spring Solstice is today
A storage building fashioned into an overlook, just off South Pulteney Road, Route 76, as the road climbs the hillside. This cast iron decoration graces the fence around the roof. The building is built into the hillside, one edge level with the ground.
As far back as I can remember, over thirty years, yet unmarked on maps, this building and view has been part of the experience of Keuka Lake. During that time, the fence was erected to protect us. The place symbolizes the gracious hospitality of the Finger Lakes Region.
I caught this feature during an outing to Dr. Frank Winery, just a ways up the road, one day of an unusually cold early December.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Carpenter Falls flows into Skaneateles Lake
on the jug path
Under a crystal blue September sky, my wife and I climbed into the gorge of Bear Swamp Creek to the foot of this waterfall past the site of a distillery where, years ago, locals used to frequent using a “jug path.”
The creek is strictly protected as part of the water source for Syracuse, flowing from the Skaneateles Highlands past historical villages such as “New Hope.” Before merging with Skaneateles Lake, the creek traverses this 90 foot fall, call Carpenter Falls.
You need to climb the steep slopes of the gorge for this unobstructed view.
It is even possible to climb to the ledge behind the water. Standing on the ledge, the stream passes 50 feet overhead. It is a lovely view down the gorge in all seasons.
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This site is protected by the Finger Lakes Land Trust.
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Ice Bells
Noticing small miracles, taking the time and effort to capture them…..
These icicles were formed along Fall Creek during the coldest months of February in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.
The transient nature of these forms is suggested by the thinness of the pedicle joining each bell to the ice lobe of the ledge. Note the golden crystals in the ice lobe.
A visualization of the symbolic power of the numeral three, reflected on itself. Question: what do “threes” mean to you?
Captured with the Sony DSLR-A700, DT 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 lens, hoya circular polarizing filter, mounted on the Manfrotto tripod with ball head.
Click the photograph for my online gallery Ice Bells listing.
Weekday Visit to Sapsucker Woods
A far-seeing, nature loving group of individuals set aside this prime swamp-land in 1954. January 8, 2021, it is surrounded by homes, a major road (the unluckily-named Route 13), an airport. Though the trails are narrow, I am happy to report everyone encountered (six individuals, though two were encountered twice on the circular trails) wore mask and demonstrated consideration.
Swamps are navigated on wooden walkways. Here are a few IPhone 7 snaps from the entrance.
from the parking lot toward visitor center, featuring locally quarried blue limestone. 
Frozen woodland pool 
grapevine bower 
sadly, no more 
Today I noticed for the first time this glistening sculpture with a plaque reading, in part, “Kent Ullberg, Swedish, b 1945, ‘Invitation of the Dance’, 2017. Stainless steel.” It was donated by the billionaire Imogene Johnson shortly before her death in 2018 at the age of 87. Mrs. Johnson was a Cornell University alumna. She and her husband were huge donors to the university, having met there as undergraduates.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Late Autumn Ithaca 8
A Dangerous Game
Hard on the Ithaca City Cemetery is our version of the crookedest street. Cascadilla Park road ascends East Hill as a series of switchbacks, charming homes cut into the hillside. A foot path overlooks the gorge, seen here.
Today, two young teens used the hill bottom for skateboarding. Taking turns on watch, each sped onto intersecting University Avenue. A dangerous game.
A brass plaque commemorates Daniel D Tompkins on eponymous Tompkins County courthouse. When the county was formed, 1817, Daniel Tompkins was a former governor of New York and Vice President to James Monroe. Tompkins never visited “his” county, there is no other connection between him. His family and life was rooted in eastern part of New York, around “The City.”
“Maternidad”, Seneca Street Garage, a mural by Nick Gilbert was the 2014 winner of 2014 @culturaithaca Latinx Mural Design Contest.
Mosaic Mural “Feels Like Ithaca” by Annamarie Zwack, Seneca Street Garage Also known as “Spirit of Ithaca”
I am not finding the attribution for this undersea idyll, also on the Seneca Street garage adjoining “Feels Like Ithaca.”
This completes my Sunday afternoon walk around Ithaca.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Late Autumn Ithaca 7
Hillside Rest
We pick up this walk through Ithaca from the December 23rd post, next to a waterfall and the “Theory Center,” starting with the spiffed up rear façade of the Cornell Health Building, renamed from Gannett Health after a right wing newspaper publishing magnate. The building fronts “Ho Plaza” thus carries an address with unfortunate allusions, named for a distinguished Cornell alumna who’s family name is Ho. I included this building in appreciation to Cornell University and students for being good neighbors during this COVID-19 pandemic, controlling the virus.
Today, I avoided the views of the popular Lib Hill to minimize personal contact. Instead, descending the hill on footpaths, found myself on Stewart Avenue and the eastern side of City Cemetery.
Enjoying the solitude and long shadows of our northern afteroon.
Traversed a gate of hemlock branches….
Admired random monuments. By the way, George Washington Schuyler, whose family anecdote I shared in a previous post, rests here under an impressive stone. Not this one.
More afternoon light, fallen leaves, hemlocks.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Late Autumn Ithaca 5
Golden Hour and “Happy New Year”
Walking the Lower Cascadilla Gorge Trail from the end of Court Street, downtown Ithaca, named for the Tompkins County Court is a favorite way for students to walk from the Cornell Campus.
I avoided the route today, the trail is narrow, much less than the 6 foot minimum distance. The footpath from Eddy Gate to College Avenue passes where the trail climbs up from the gorge. I did opt to catch the Upper Cascadilla Gorge trail, much wider. The trail passes two footbridges accessing the Engineering Quadrangle and the main Cornell Campus. Photographed here is the approach to the second, smaller, footbridge.
Late fall/winter afternoons the “Golden Hour” is hours long for this view of the footbridge and waterfall.
Waterfall views from the bridge. I left the tripod at home, so these exposures “freeze” water motion.
Look up from the other side for this view. Baptized 1985 as “The Theory Center,” 2007 saw the name changed to the more evocative, “Center for Advanced Computing.” It always filled with supercomputers. Socially, the culture of the place was retrograde from the beginning with “faculty only” lounges that kept out the lowly staff members. As if on cue, I came upon a group of the privileged, unmasked, strutting down the hill toward me, like vacuous moles.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 