Winter's Walk With Fawnie- dog

It's one of those crisp winter mornings- perfect for taking Fawn for a nice, long walk in the park!

Quebec Cathedral de Notre Dame

 The Cathedral de Notre Dame in Quebec City was rebuilt after a fire burned down the original cathedral in 1922. This beautiful cathedral felt every inch older than 89 years!

 The entrance through these wrought iron gates led into a dark vestibule and massive doors leading into the church itself.

 These two candles were lit for my friends Harriet and Sharon because they've both been struggling with health issues this past year.

I was just trying to take in all the beautiful elements of this church! Gorgeous carvings, gilded archways and statues, stained glass windows telling stories of the Bible.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures after mass. 

 The two candles in the middle were lit for two special intentions, one of them my dissertation work!

 They just don't make confessionals like this any more!

This mass was conducted in French and was memorable just for that alone!

COGLE Conference

Doesn't this look like a scene from Harry Potter? This was the roof of Chateau Frontenac while it was snowing one evening... Just like a scene from Harry Potter!

The 2013 COGEL (governmental ethics conference) was held in Quebec City this year. And even though it was a busy conference and I attended all the sessions, I did have some free time to explore the city and attend an amazing mass on Sunday morning! Here are a few of my favorite views... Old city...

Such a romantic place in winter!!!

Wilmington's Catholic Cathedral

Ever since attending that beautiful mass in French in Quebec, I've wanted to attend mass in a more traditional church. There's just such an enduring quality to that traditional architecture... So this morning we went to mass in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington . It's so charming because it's such a diminutive cathedral...

Please know that I took these pictures before mass, and not during.

The outside is surrounded by this charming brick wall... a reminder of older times when this architectural design was intended to provide privacy for the priests and nuns in residence.

Fetch and Carry

It's holiday break and that means fetching Sophia from the city and delivering the cat to a friend's care. We stopped for lunch in Brooklyn at Bare Burgers- amazing hamburgers and sweet potato fries! (There goes the diet!).

Great mushroom burger!

Buse street traffic on this beautiful day! The temps were close to 70 F and everywhere families were walking their babies and children...

Magnificent brownstones!

Wonderful daughter!

Phantom of the Opera

We enjoyed a snowy day in the city last week and went to see Phantom of the Opera- believe it or not, this was our firstBroadway  show! It was absolutely magnificent!

Below: Times Square with snow flurries...

Abandoned Places- The Old Snuff Mill

One could drive through Yorklyn and not even know that you've passed through-- other than a few houses, and an old-fashioned non-descript post office, the most noticeable thing about Yorklyn is the abandoned NVF plant and the broken down red brick buildings of what once was Garrett Snuff Mills.

What is a snuff mill? According to online resources, snuff is a pulverized tobacco product that is inhaled through one of the nostrils so as to get a swift kick of nicotine. Use of snuff dates back to Europe where in the 1500's it came into use and was hailed as having medicinal properties. The word snuff comes from the Dutch word "snuif" (oh how proud I am of my landsmen!). Snuff was widely used in Europe by the aristocracy and came to America by way of John Rolfe (husband of Pocahontas). Snuff mills were a lucrative business back in the day.. but now, they represent a time gone by and are mostly abandoned places...

Clearing the Brain

I am doing a lot of dissertation work today, but after a week of meetings and pouring over thousand of pages of text, I needed to clear my brain and took advantage of this beautiful day to take a brisk walk. Here's what provided a feast for my eyes...

Bowers Beach

Bowers Beach is one of those very small, unassuming little fishing villages that remind one of a different time.

As many times as I've traveled up and down the state, I had never stopped there, but only knew of Bowers Beach as a spot on the map and a headline in the newspaper.

 Last week, coming back from a downstate meeting, I decided to pull off the road just to see Bowers Beach. It's only 3 or so miles from Route 1, tucked away along the shores of the Delaware Bay.

I pulled over next to this channel to look around, and a man with a dog started talking and telling me about the gale force winds they'd had earlier in the day-- it was hard to imagine since it was so very calm when I stopped... 

 ...that very same man told me to check out this one-hundred year-old schooner rusting away at the dock. I'm sure I must have been trespassing on somebody's property to look at it, but oh well, nobody there to ask!

 Don't think this rusting schooner is a tourist attraction...

The dock site was in disarray, likely the effect of somebody not knowing what to do with this relic or lacking the money to do anything...

Bowers Beach is tucked along the Delaware River, and these beach front homes do have a nice view of the water... although this day it all looked very quiet and not very exciting...

 But I could imagine this to be quite nice in the summer. 

And that was my short visit to Bowers Beach! Another one checked off the list!