Happy Halloween~!

Ridgewood Fall Classic - Motorcycle Benefit Ride for Tomorrow's Children's Fund

For the second year, we hopped on our 2003 Goldwing Trike and rode the Ridgewood Fall Classic, a 40-mile police-escorted motorcycle ride through scenic northern Bergen County, NJ. This ride is a benefit for Tomorrow's Children's Fund against pediatric cancer, in honor of Shayne James, Jr., one of our neighborhood children.

Its quite an experience to be in the midst of hundreds of roaring motorcycles!

Me on Big Bee, by Eric!

Click here for our YouTube video of the start of the ride out of the Bergen County Harley Davidson parking lot in Rochelle Park.  (Hold your ears).

To see the fall foliage, click here for another YouTube video of today's adventure .. It was a bumpy road up that way, so it was a bit wobbly with the camera as well .. The colors were magnificent though!

Some of the many beautiful bikes outside The Office Restaurant in Ridgewood, at the after-party

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Autumn has arrived

Ah, Autumn, our favorite season!  Just a few leaves down so far ... The maples here in northern New Jersey are just starting to pop.  Beautiful!

Lost pigeon in our yard

This isn't a remarkable photo, but this lovely bird has been our focus since last Wednesday when he appeared at our main bird feeder.  He's been coming back nearly every day, feeding for a few hours at a time.  He's a lost homing or racing pigeon, wearing a leg band with incomplete identification. We can only make out 3 numbers, "479".  We want to get him back to his rightful owner, safe and sound.

In order to do that, we've been advised by several racing pigeon people that we have to capture him to get his full i.d.  Evidently, *IF* we can do that, we can simply look him up online and get him back where he belongs.  I love a challenge. Tom'w, we'll start plotting how to make this happen .. We have some ideas and a large cage for him, in case we are successful.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23

The pigeon is still with us!  We contacted all of the local racing pigeon associations, had another blog entry put up by a local bird sanctuary, and even put up an ad on Craigslist, but no luck.  Nobody has claimed him.  We learned that if this bird had been racing, he would have been wearing a second leg band.  Our considerable efforts to capture him have been unsuccessful.  We were told that these birds are smart .. and they are!

We tried the old "box, stick and string" trick but he wouldn't fall for it.  We even set up a blind with a blanket on the nearby fence, but to no avail.  Our squirrels, Sparrows and Mourning Doves waltzed under the box, not a care in the world, but not this pigeon.  He studiously avoided it.  After a few days, we took it away.

He just calmly watches us from his perch on a nearby tree and comes down to feed as he pleases.  We see him nearly every day.  His weight is good, his feathers look clean and he seems to be thriving.

We had our first frost warning last night .. We hope he makes it through the NJ winter.  We feed our wild birds all season long, even when it snows, so he will be well fed as long as he hangs around.

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Cradle of Aviation Museum trip

My husband Eric, the Curator of Aviation and Aircraft Restoration for the Intrepid Museum, invited me along for the first Museum members field trip, an enjoyable excursion by bus to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island, NY.  Above is the Lunar Module, my all-time-favorite outer space vehicle!

Not all museum curators of fond of mannequins, but I was fascinated by those at the Cradle.  They were all so life-like and well lighted!

Eric's middle name is Charles, after Charles Lindbergh.  Eric's late father, George Boehm, was a turret gunner on an Avenger at the age of 17.  Pictured here are some wonderful Lindbergh ephemera.  I have a small connection to him too, having attended Lindbergh School for kindergarten.

Eric did a wonderful job of entertaining and educating the members, regaling them with true stories of the aircraft on display which have connections to Intrepid's history.

(Click on any image to enlarge, use back arrow to return).  



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Jersey Shore on a quiet Friday

The Jersey Shore was very quiet today, but relaxing. We didn't make it down at all this summer, so we decided to head down today and make sure the ocean is still there.  It was socked in by fog, but yep, its still there.

Jenkinson's Aquarium on the Point Pleasant Boardwalk.  Delightful!

Desolate Boardwalk scenes were just meant to be black and white.  You can almost hear Bruce singing in the background ... (Click on any image to enlarge, use back arrow to return).  

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Mushrooms after the rain

Ordinarily, mushrooms wouldn't catch my eye, but these were so classic, the kind you'd find a fairy dancing around ... I couldn't resist.  Lighting was very low when I shot them on Thursday afternoon in our side yard garden. I used my 70-200 mm 2.8 VRII at f2.8 for 1/100s.  By this morning,they were gone!

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