I Love New York!

Two of my dear blogger friends mentioned in comments on my last post that they hadn’t realized NY has such a beautiful countryside. They pictured it as just a big city. This is a common misconception. When I met my hubby (in Australia) and he told me he was from NY, that’s exactly what I thought…..big city! How wrong I was. I saw our little valley for the first time in July of 1971 and immediately fell in love with it. We are about 5 hours from NY city. The state is a large one and NY city is just a small portion of it.
We have some of the most beautiful countryside in the United States. There’s also plenty of history here with many interesting sights to visit.
The Leatherstocking area is rich in Revolutionary War history. The nearby Mohawk Valley is the scene of a famous book called, "Drums Along the Mohawk"….a fascinating historical novel of that wartime period (there’s an old movie based on the book, which is wonderful). The book is one of a series written by Walter D. Edmonds.
Another famous book, "The Last of the Mohicans", is set in the beautiful Adirondack Mountain area, not too far from where we are. It too was made into a very famous movie, which most of you have probably heard of, and many may have seen.
We have the historical Erie Canal, which goes from Albany to Buffalo. They didn’t have to worry about the price of gas (petrol) back then :) The boats carried all kinds of goods back and forth. Loads of history there!
NY State shares the beautiful and awe-inspiring Niagara Falls with Canada. This is a sight for the whole world to see!
There are many other interesting historical sights and some very beautiful state parks to explore. NY State really is a wonderful place to visit. I think a lot of people don’t realize this and consequently don’t think of visiting our beautiful state. We are an under-appreciated part of the country :)
Our region is a dairy farming area and not too long ago was full of small dairy farms. Alas, they are few and far between now. Many of the farms these days are much larger operations, with cows numbering in the thousands. We sold our dairy herd back in 2000 and both work off the farm now. My husband misses the cows very much.
I thought I’d post just a few pictures I’ve taken recently of our farm to show you a little of what the countryside is like. If we’d still had cows we would’ve turned them out to grass last week. The grass is growing and turning green. The color is coming back after our long, mostly white winter. What a welcome sight!

Taken 2 weeks ago before the fields began turning green. In the foreground is a corn crop that was harvested last fall.

Another view taken 2 weeks ago. These 2 pictures were taken at twilight.

The cut leaf maple with barn and shed in the background, taken just a week ago. The grass is much greener!

Looking towards the hill behind our farm buildings. The cats were keeping me company, as usual.

In the background are the Oz trees I mentioned a few posts back. The sky was so blue that day!

The barn and a machinary shed.

This view was taken from half way up the hill exactly one week ago. You can see the river in the background.