Christmas in Carthage

I was fortunate enough to spend time in upstate New York, Carthage area at Christmas.  I fell in love with the place!  It has all the small town ambiance you could ask for and then some....in my opinion.  I thoroughly enjoyed the architecture of the town, especially the older downtown sections.  They do not make buildings with that kind of character anymore.  Many of the homes were of the older 2 & 3 story Victorian-ish (can you tell architecture knowledge is not my forte?) type of homes.  Of course, with the snow comes the very Dickensian look to the whole town as well.  In the middle of some neighborhoods you would find an old graveyard, about 15-40 headstones right next to someone's yard.  I loved those too!

One of the other things I enjoyed was of course, the landscape.  You don't have to have flowers to make it a beautiful yard. Just appreciating the textures associated with snow-covered foliage is good.  There were pines, deciduous shrubs and trees, low-growing junipers, grasses, cattails and tree stumps.  They all made for some interesting shapes and landscaping.  One of my favorites was a tree stump top covered in snow.  Also a small pond behind my daughter's place that had frozen over. Along with the frozen water there were rocks & grasses growing around it.

 
I cannot wait to visit again, hopefully in summer or fall.  One of the things that I encountered in Carthage was the fact that there wasn't as much traffic noise as we get here in California.  Maybe it was where my daughter lived, but the silence of the area was calming. Oh, you have your birds, kids and the occasional car, but it was nothing like here in Cali! My ears enjoyed the reprieve and were very shocked when I flew back home! The difference between So Cal and Carthage was incredible and LOUD!  All in all though, I love both places and will have to figure a way to enjoy both on a regular basis!