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Galas And Graves

Galas And Graves

We are currently living amid the most ebullient, lush time of the year.  Greenery grows inches every night.   The cinnamon ferns in my shade garden are unrolling like so many bright green scrolls.  Soon they will be high enough that I must peer through them to see the bird feeders.  And baby raccoons and skunks will be out and about.  We have an interesting variety of creatures in this region; opossums, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, black bears, skunks, fishers, coyotes, turkey vultures (four of whi

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Protecting Those That Protect Us

Protecting Those That Protect Us

Over the past three years, the home security consumer awareness and research organization Safewise conducted a “The State of Safety in America” nationwide survey of “more than 15,000 Americans to see how safe they feel.” According to the group’s final report, issued in March, “New York is by far the most concerned state.” New York is the “most worried about safety” state in the nation, the survey found, with 70 percent of New Yorkers reporting that they are “concerned daily” about their saf

Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

You Made A Difference…

You Made A Difference…

Maybe we don’t say it enough… those little words that mean so much - “You made a difference…” or “I appreciate you…” or “I love you!”  Along with the words, there are ways we can show how much we care, and here are a few I’ve been pondering.  Since retiring, I have totally enjoyed a second “career” - subbing in our public school district, and noticed something right away that has been consistent… the welcoming words and smiles from staff on up to the principals and superintendent – words o

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Your Family Tree #12 – Genealogy Website Resource List

Your Family Tree #12 – Genealogy Website Resource List

As we conclude our discussion on how and where to begin your ancestry research with suggestions based on my experience, I thought it would be helpful to collect the online resources in one place.  The following is a list of some of the many online sources which I found most helpful.  I also continue to stress that not all submitted family records on any given site are totally accurate.  Unintentional errors and misspellings in data do creep in.  It is up to you to seek out and prove the ac

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Desirae's Creations

Desirae's Creations

Rotund Man has been a little busy lately, but he'll be out there checking out the gastronomic delights again soon. In the meantime, enjoy this review from June 2020:   I know seeing some of my recent food reviews and anyone that may have seen older reviews may think I got my fat guy stature by eating delicious fried foods and other gastronomic delights. While those are a minor contributor the real reason I can only see the tips of some toes when I look down is baked goods. So it is my

RotundMan

RotundMan

Thanks But No Thanks: Why I Haven't Gotten The Vaccine

Thanks But No Thanks: Why I Haven't Gotten The Vaccine

by Jeff Minick In a recent conversation with an internist, the good doctor asked me whether I’d gotten a COVID-19 vaccine. When I told him ‘No,” he then asked if I intended to get it at all. “Not unless someone forces it on me,” I said. I then asked him the same question. “I got the first injection, but I think I’m skipping the second one,” he replied. “I’ve read up on it, and the first injection is probably good enough.” He then cited some statistics, and we let the subject drop.

Guest Writers

Guest Writers

Be My Tower

Be My Tower

I wish every Mother a very Happy Mother’s Day, including those without children who mother other children!  Below is another different reflection, but written out of the blessing from within life’s difficult reality.  Nor is it my very first poem, but close enough. It was written at an extremely difficult and stressful time in my life after my mother had a stroke on Christmas Day 2011. My mother was different. As I grew up, we didn’t get along well, and that continued as I raised my own fam

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Your Family Tree #11 – Using Genealogy Websites

Your Family Tree #11 – Using Genealogy Websites

There are many free genealogy websites which are a great resource for records and helpful family data, including RootsWeb.  This free site, part of the ancestry.com family, includes a RootsWeb Family History Wiki section with their guide to searching your family trees. Along with Hosted Web Sites, you will find great tips and websites on how to begin searching, a list of sources and where to find various records, and a list of various countries/ethnic groups.  Clicking on any of their hi-lited i

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Dancing Through May

Dancing Through May

There was no dancing around May poles this May Day.  With COVID restrictions as they are, intertwined children and ribbons are not a good thing.  But spring flowers are dancing in the breezes.  Lilies of the valley look as though they could ring those little bells as they shake in the wind.  Tulips are a bit stiffer, but they too move, in a stately way --- rather more like a minuet than the free-form bobbing of the little lilies.  Lilacs will soon be scenting the atmosphere everywhere around alo

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Creation's Glory

Creation's Glory

Yesterday afternoon as I meandered around our yard, checking the gardens, transplanting new offspring, I see all is growing well.  The trees show leaf buds in various stages of growth, and perennial flowers and bushes are growing nicely with more daffodils this year than usual it seems!  The snow with bitter cold winds and temps in the high 20s a week ago left little lasting damage, even to the fragile bleeding hearts. I gaze in awe at the beauty of creation on full display all around us

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

An Alarm Sounding Louder Than Ever

An Alarm Sounding Louder Than Ever

Here we go again. The ink on the new state budget is barely dry and the Albany Democrats are already eyeing their next tax hike opportunities That’s right. New York’s out-of-control Democrat supermajorities just enacted a $212-billion state budget that blew through a one-time $13-billion windfall of federal aid, increased state government spending by $18 billion, and raised taxes by nearly five billion dollars. Already, it’s not enough for them. Already, it’s being made clear
Low Calorie Beers Are What's Up

Low Calorie Beers Are What's Up

One of the ways to help survive quarantine (which is still kind of thing but not totally a thing like it was a few months ago) was finding little things to look forward to. Walks, TV shows, watching the sprinkler run. These were just a couple of the ways in which a person could at least temporarily escape the seemingly endless doldrums of the hum dumness of quarantine life. When the tools we have in our lives to mark the passing of time began to fade, we needed something to help get us through a

Ryan O'Connell

Ryan O'Connell

Local Roads Are Essential

Local Roads Are Essential

Since the adoption of the 2021-2022 state budget, I have been outspoken in my strong criticism of this massive $212-billion, tax-and-spend fiscal plan that sets in motion a whole host of future, long-term commitments to massive new spending and taxing by New YorkState government. There are places in this budget, however, that do address the right priorities and that deserve to be highlighted as positive and vital to the future. As I’ve also noted, that better be the case with $18 billi

Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

A Healing Catharsis

A Healing Catharsis

I'm sharing something a little different today.  Yesterday would have been our Jenn’s 43rd birthday, now celebrated in her heavenly home. As family and friends, we never forget a loved one who has left us, especially sooner than we expect.  Yet, we can remember and celebrate their life with joy as a blessing from God. Today, rather than a poetry reflection, I’d like to share memories in Jenn’s own words from psychology class at Houghton College.  It gave me insight into her thoughts, experiences

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Bees, Bonnets And Blessings

Bees, Bonnets And Blessings

Today is Earth Day ---- an occasion for taking time to appreciate the very ground beneath our feet and all that grows thereon.  It is a day to notice the bees (dwindling in numbers) on dandelions, the white of shadblow on the hills and to appreciate the rain (although maybe not so much that mixed precipitation!).  We (human-kind) have been careless and lacking in gratitude for the amazing connections and interconnections in our world from the depths of the seas to the starry endlessness of space

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Beer Returns To Chemung County

Beer Returns To Chemung County

by Erin Doane  It was 88 years ago this week that people in Elmira and surrounding towns tasted beer again after years of Prohibition. Nationally, Prohibition began on January 17, 1920 but Elmira had gone dry 15 months earlier on October 1, 1918. Between then and April 7, 1933, not a single drop of alcohol passed the lips of anyone in the county. Okay, that’s not true at all. Throughout the entirety of Prohibition, illegal beer and hard liquor had been available (click here to re

CCHS

CCHS

Colors of Spring

Colors of Spring

Ahhh, spring!  My favorite season!  And isn’t it beginning to look beautiful outdoors?  I love to see the signs of new life emerging slowly, almost imperceptibly, after earth’s long wintry sleep.  To smell the fresh earthy aroma that follows a gentle spring rain is refreshing, to see the grass almost immediately turning from shades of crisp tan and brown to verdant greens, and to watch the daintiest leaf or flower bud begin to emerge brings joy to my heart.  With a bright sun’s nourishing

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

The Ten Best Moments From "Game Of Thrones"

The Ten Best Moments From "Game Of Thrones"

As we sit here, ten years removed from the premiere of Game of Thrones and nearly two years since the show ended, it’s easy to think back to the show and the massive set pieces and battles, shocking deaths, and breath-taking episodes. The big stuff is largely what separated Game of Thrones from everything else on television. The show just felt so enormous, certainly more massive than anything you’d have expected to see on television and anything we had seen up until that point.  To this day

Ryan O'Connell

Ryan O'Connell

Your Family Tree #10 – Last Will and Testament

Your Family Tree #10 – Last Will and Testament

We previously briefly touched on the importance of your ancestor’s Last Will and Testament, an excellent source of family documentation.  Wills are filed at surrogate court or county clerk’s office along with estate records for those who died intestate (without a will), inventories of estates, letters of administration, and guardianships, etc.  Some older wills may be found online at Sampubco Wills as posted by W. David Samuelson from whom you may purchase documents.  This site includes wi

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

Bannerman’s Castle on the Hudson

Bannerman’s Castle on the Hudson

A Scottish castle on the Hudson?  Drawn to the hazy beauty of this photo, I was mesmerized by the castle’s classic lines… so reminiscent of centuries-old castles scattered around the British and Scottish moors and highlands, intrigued to know it sat upon American soil.  After researching and naming my Mom’s maternal Scots-Irish, I am proud to say that they, too, hold a special place in my heart amongst all my Dutch ancestors. Photo of Bannerman's Castle  by Will Van Dorp, on his blog,

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

New Budget Of Missed Opportunities And A Troubling Future

New Budget Of Missed Opportunities And A Troubling Future

In the weeks leading up to the adoption of the new, 2021-2022 state budget, I kept repeating that we had an opportunity and a responsibility to utilize a massive, one-time flood of federal stimulus aid, nearly $13 billion, in a fiscally responsible way.  We faced an unprecedented chance to commit New York State to a short- and long-term strategy for the post-COVID rebuilding, restoring, and resetting of local communities, economies, environments, and governments for the long term. Equa

Senator Tom O'Mara

Senator Tom O'Mara

Letchworth State Park: Voted Best In The Nation

Letchworth State Park: Voted Best In The Nation

Letchworth State Park in Western New York is one of the foremost exquisite scenic areas in the US, and undeniably a jewel in the Empire State’s crown. A USA Today poll found Letchworth State Park voted best in the nation out of 6,000 contenders, and in 2020, the park topped an identical list, again! There are several sets of waterfalls at Letchworth State Park. It’s worth taking the time to see them all. The nice thing about this park is it doesn’t require a lot of walking if you

Mathew Ingles

Mathew Ingles

Your Family Tree #9 - Military Records

Your Family Tree #9 - Military Records

Anything but a boring read, military records are another invaluable source of documentation.  The first step is to determine when and where your ancestor served.  Often clues to an ancestor’s military service are found in family stories, old photos, death records and obituaries, grave markers and/or cemetery records, local town histories, and other family records or correspondence. Many military records are available at Ancestry.com.  You will find draft registration cards for WW I and WW I

Linda Roorda

Linda Roorda

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