Results tagged “photos” from Only in York County

I was really excited to see some people who I don't even know starting to submit to our new user-submitted photo galleries!

One woman, Dianne Bowders of York Township, posted a really interesting set of photos of buildings around York County, complete with detailed captions, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Ye Olde York Valley Inn

Dianne writes: "Ye Olde York Valley Inn was originally built between 1738-1747 in Springettsbury Township. The early stone inn was located 2.5 miles east of York near the site of WalMart along the Lincoln Highway/Route 30. George Washington and the Marquis de LaFayette were among its early visitors. Proprietor rules for the inn included that no more than five could sleep in a bed, and that boots were not to be worn while in bed. In 1962, a large portion of the stone inn was moved from its original location to Susquehanna Memorial Gardens in York Township where it serves as the cemetery office." Read more on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, 1730s York Valley Inn may outlast its namesake.

Billmeyer House

Dianne writes: "A front view of the beautiful Victorian Italianate York House or Billmeyer House, built by Charles Billmeyer in 1863. The house is part of the First Presbyterian Church complex. Thirty-five years ago the Church petitioned to tear down this blighted landmark. The restoration began after a prolonged battle between the Church and York's Historic Architectural Review Board who refused to grant permission to destroy the home. The home now stands as a beautiful testament to preservation." I've seen this spelled both Billmeyer and Billmyer - not sure which is now accepted! For more on it under any name, read Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Colonial York, Pa.? No, try Victorian York, Pa.

Dritt Mansion

Dianne writes: "Historic Pleasant Garden, or the Dritt Mansion/Zimmerman Center for Heritage, was built about 1738, the year when settlers streamed across the Susquehanna River. The land was first owned by Thomas Cressap and a log fort was constructed near this site (1729) to prevent settlement on the west side of the River. The Georgian style mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located about 3.5 miles south of Wrightsville at Long Level and is now owned by the York-Lancaster Heritage Region. On the first Friday of each month, the Susquehanna River Art exhibit is open for viewing." Read more about the Dritt family on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Native Americans help clean up Dritt family cemetery in new York County park.

Wallace-Cross Mill

Dianne writes: "Built in 1826 in East Hopewell Township, the mill once operated 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places it is now part of York County Parks and Recreation and is open for tours during part of the summer and on special miller days. The miller's house sits on the hill above the mill." Read more about the mill on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Pioneering sisters operated York County grist mill.

Thank you, Dianne, for sharing these photos! Have any of my readers been to these places? Cross Mill in particular is on my "Top 10" list to visit next summer, and I'd love to hear about your experiences there or elsewhere, so leave me a comment!

Reader Jo took this photo of the 39th annual apple butter boil held at the home of a friend of hers in October. I was invited - again. I missed it - again. It's becoming a fairly irritating tradition! What does apple butter have to do with this post? Read on.

I don't normally do this, but I am hoping to engage in some gratuitous self-promotion here on the blog and get some feedback from you, loyal readers, in the process.

Here's the deal:

I have four "big things" going on online right now - two on the blog here, and two elsewhere. Here, in no particular order, they are:

1. Next week, I'll be guest-blogging for a good virtual friend and fellow Yorker, Debbie Jordan Kravitz, a professional organizer. I'll make sure to post a link when my post is up over there, but rest assured - if you're a neat freak like me, I think you'll love it!

2 and 3. I've got two new "blog series" ideas that I'm going to kick off as soon as possible - hopefully by the end of this month. I've gotten great response to series posts like yorkisms and what stores used to be. The two new series are also going to be occasional and, hopefully, very reader-interactive.

They are:

First, an ABCs of York County. I'll be taking suggestions each week for York County icons that begin with a particular letter, then we'll post a poll and let everyone vote for which gets to "own" that letter. Just think about it. Is S for Shoe House or Scrapple? And is A for apple butter, like that seen above, or the Accomac Inn? This should be fun.

Second, we'll do Names Around Town. Who was A.B. Farquhar and why did we name a park after him? Who is Norman A. Trimmer, for whom my daughter's school is named? (I don't even know the answer to that second one - yet!) We'll find out together, and again, I'll be taking suggestions as well as working through some good sources, like names in county parks and schools.

4. Finally, I am just finishing up something cool for the newspaper's Web site - a new user-submitted photo gallery. This is a great way for you to share your photos, whether you're in York now, from York but living elsewhere, or just a friend of mine with cool pictures. Hahaha! This is another case where I'm asking for your help! Remember the apple butter boil picture above by Jo? Well, she's helping me out by filling up the gallery with some of her great photos before its official launch. I'd love for ALL my readers to do the same. Just go here, click on "Submit photo," and fill out the form. And, of course, let me know if you have any problems or questions!

So what do you think? Willing to stick around with me for some more fun blog adventures? I'm really looking forward to it!

Teresa Strickler of Dover Township snapped this photo of a hummingbird with its tongue out.

Way back in early August, I wrote about a reader, Teresa Strickler of Dover Township, who'd submitted some wonderful hummingbird photos.

We published them in September in the Weekly Record, and when we went to post it online, well, Teresa had so many photos that we couldn't originally include them all.

But my friend and fellow online staffer Rose came to the rescue recently and made a slideshow of all Teresa's wonderful photos.

It's getting colder out now, but if you check out the story and photo gallery, it'll give you a bit of summer all over again. Enjoy!

This one comes from loyal reader Jo, a devoted member of the Greater Dover Historical Society.

What is this item?

It was found in a barn in the Dover area and donated to the society. It's fairly small, but very heavy for its size.

Any ideas? Leave us a comment. I'm at a loss; someone earlier had suggested a harness of some sort and while I could see that (with the chain at the one end), it seems odd that you'd use something so heavy.

Help!

Whether you call them red-beet eggs or pickled eggs, I think you can agree that they are indisputably purple eggs!

See? Purple. Photos were graciously provided by my "unofficial Only in York County staff photographer," Jo, who sent them to me with a note: "The real McCoy! No red food coloring. No Photoshop 'adjustments.' And they are surrounded by York County red beets and some will be lunch today."

Jo, hope you enjoyed your lunch! Jo, by the way, is in the minority in our egg poll... she says these are definitely pickled eggs. Unfortunately, of the 27 votes cast, 70 percent opted to call them red-beet eggs instead. (And my father-in-law, who clearly does not know his York County eggs, called them deviled eggs. My goodness.)

More on the great egg debate to come, including recipes! Do you have a recipe for either deviled or pickled/red beet eggs? Comment please! Otherwise you are stuck with whatever I turn up!

I've been excited this summer because a hummingbird has been visiting the large butterfly bush outside the front window of our house.

Yesterday, while editing some reader-submitted photos to run in various sections of the paper, I came upon some really great hummingbird photos from Teresa Strickler of Dover Township. In fact, these are so good that they're going to be the basis for a future Weekly Record centerpiece, but for now, I just wanted to share them with you.

I can't wait to read what my writer, Barb, comes up with to go with these and Teresa's other photos. I asked Barb to talk to some gardeners about what plants attract hummingbirds - for instance, I had no idea my butterfly bush would. And I know you can get those red sugar water feeders at the store, but are there other things you can put out to attract them?

If you know, let me know. I'd love to get some more at our place!

I think I've mentioned before how much I love to scrapbook. It's kind of a sickness. :) I've been working on several albums, including my high school years, my daughter's first few years (of which the picture here is the cover), and - amazingly - I finished a 2008 family album and am starting a 2009 album.

But in the last couple of months, I've taken on another project - organizing, captioning and getting into scrapbooks the OLD family photos from both my mom's and my dad's families. (Hubby, meanwhile, got bit by the bug and is organizing HIS mom's family photos. Yes, we're insane.) And I'd never worked with "old" photos before. It's harder than it seems!

Well, coming soon, there's a program at the York County Heritage Trust that will help folks who are in the same boat. From their release:

Sounds pretty fun. If you go, you might see me there ... I REALLY need some tips on this old memorabilia.

The Concilio relatives have gone, I'm back at work, and we're almost ready to resume our normally scheduled programming here on the blog.

But first, you have to put up a quick wrapup of the weekend's festivities; a bunch of us went to the Phillies game on Sunday, in which we beat the Pirates 5-1.

My uncle Lenny was really in the spirit before we left:

And we had great seats:

If you happen to like baseball, check out the YDR's MLB section and The Southpaw, written by one of my friends and employees, Pat Abdalla, about all things Major League Baseball.

If you're NOT a baseball fan, thanks for sticking with me. And speaking of "sticky" things, don't forget to vote in my poll about grilled/toasted cheese! Grilled is winning by a landslide, but there's still plenty of time to cast your vote.

I'm out of town today at the Phillies game (part of the big family reunion extravaganza) but I wanted to show off something really cool that my sister Linda made yesterday for the big reunion get-together: Concilio brownies!

You're jealous, aren't you? You've never had family-personalized brownies! Hahaha. It does make me think, though - what's the best "family gathering" food you've ever had? Leave me a comment!

I pick on Hubby all the time on the blog - you know, referencing his purchase of "special" meat for lunch and his unusual marshmallow-grilling technique.

But Chris is a great guy, and if I'm going to tell all of York County about him, I think it's only fair that I share this GOOD story that sums up why I'm so lucky to have him.

Last Wednesday was a busy day - Sarah had tennis lessons in the morning, we needed to buy some books from a woman in Dover Township in the morning, we in turn had people coming over to buy some books from us in the afternoon and evening, and we wanted to go to the Women of Today fun fest in Dover.

Sarah, a day or so before, ended up with a killer ding on her nose. I say bug bite, because it's either that or a world-record-sized pimple, which I doubt, but either way, it was a mess. She had scratched at it in her sleep, it looked kind of infected, and it was just huge. So, being a good mom, I took a tissue and tried to get off the ickiness. Yes, I know that's gross. But bear with me.

She cried. She said it hurt, and since I hadn't TOLD her what I was going to do, I wasn't surprised. I offered to get a Bandaid, but she was a little dubious about letting me near her again. So, I said, that's OK, "Daddy can put it on for you!" So he did, and that was fine, but then she started to wonder about how it looked, you know, with a big ol' Bandaid on her face.

Hubby is a genius. And a very loving person. "Hey, Sarah!" he said. "Do you think I should put a Bandaid on my nose too?" She looked at him kind of funny. "I have special nose Bandaids upstairs!" he added. Well, of course, this made her giggle, and she says, yeah, go get one!

So he did, and came back with his "nose Bandaid" on. I didn't think much of it - until later, when I realized that he'd worn it to sell books to people at our house, worn it to the Women of Today carnival, and worn it to Palasta for dinner.

There they are: Sarah with a Bandaid, and Chris with his "nose Bandaid" - one of the Breathe-Right strips he wears at night sometimes to help him not snore.

They named themselves the "Bandaid twins." They were even glad to pose for a picture.

Now isn't that a good dad? LOVE YOU, HUBBY!

Last week, I took the family and headed out to the Dover Women of Today fun fest up in Dover, which you'll remember came as a spontaneous invite from a couple of women I met while selling items online.

I am really glad I met up with these ladies, Brenda and Cheryl. Not only did it give me blog material - for which I'm always grateful - it gave my family a really fun night out and didn't cost us more than a few cents. Oh, and daughter Sarah won a bunch of fun prizes!

I know you'd rather see Hubby's pictures than read my ramblings, so without further ado:

The kids could play free games to win tickets, which could be turned in for prizes. I hate clowns, so I was hoping Sarah would kick butt in the "clown knock off." (She didn't, but that's OK.)

Possibly a bigger money-maker than the club expected was the penny pitch. Sarah won a cute Precious Moments "Friend" mug, which was fine. Thankfully, we didn't bring many pennies, so we did not end up taking home an entire set of mismatched dishes, like some of the families there did. (And that is also OK!)

Sarah's favorite game - in which she won tons of tickets - was a version of Plinko, a la "The Price is Right."

And then there was EVERYONE'S favorite part:

Little alpacas!! These cuties were from Rusty Rocks Farm outside of Dover, and they were just the softest, nicest animals I've ever met. You could pet them and everything. And, of course, we did, because we're total animal junkies.

Now, instead of arguing with West Manchester Township about owning a goat, I think I'd like to figure out how to pass off an alpaca as a pet. C'mon, it's not that much bigger than my dog, just with a longer deck. (And probably smarter!)

I do have one more photo from last Wednesday's goings-on to share, but it's got its own special story, so it'll come in another post. Thanks for reading this far!

Remember the seaweedy Yorkers from yesterday?

Well, I promised to tell "the rest of the story" today, so here goes. This was among a set of pictures e-mailed to the office by Susanne Daly.

Here's her story:

"The attached pictures are of myself and several others at my parents' annual 4th of July picnic at Rosewood Farm in Dallastown. Every year we have lots of food and lots of people. The children - and young at heart adults - will usually go for a swim in the pond. There is a rope swing and a large raft, from which feats of water gymnastics can be performed. This year, there was less than the usual participation in the water sport aspect of the picnic - I suppose for good reason; the pond is smelly and covered with what appears to be "seaweed." To liven up the party, I suggested that we emerge from the pond covered in "seaweed" and proceeded to the picnic area demanding dessert. Everyone thought it was a grand idea and proceeded as directed. A photo shoot ensued - with the attached photos resulting. My parents' friend said that he had such a good laugh that maybe others in York County would be interested and that the photos should be sent to the newspaper."

Boy, are we glad you did, Susanne - I had a great laugh, too, and I can't wait to print them in a future edition!

Susanne summed it up the best, for my money: "Fireworks pale in comparison to this!"

I bet you didn't do it the way THESE Yorkers did!

I celebrated the holiday at work - I can still hear fireworks from the office, and it's 10:50 p.m. - but if you want to know the story behind the "Creatures from the York Lagoon" above, check back tomorrow morning!

Of course, if you've been following the ol' blog here for a while, you'll remember our family's quest last summer for all 30 "letterboxes" in the "Catch the Activity Bug" summer library program.

Yes, we found all 30, and WOW, was it a great way to spend the summer.

This year, the program continues again, with the kids being asked to make rubbings from 30 "creativity stations" instead of collecting ink stamps. (If you've got kids in your life - I really encourage you to take part; visit goyork.org and your library for details.)

So far, we've found our first three - one Wednesday at Farquhar Park in York, where we also found tons of ducks and geese, a beautiful heron and what we think might have been a baby hawk or vulture - and two Saturday at our favorite place, Pinchot State Park.

Here's a shot that Hubby took of Sarah and I on "Pinchot's Rocks," a formation along one of the trails.

And here's Hubby's own blog post about our adventures so far. I was so happy; I think it was the first time I made HIS blog!

We're looking forward to many more hikes this summer. In fact, by the time you read this, we might have found even more!

One place our family likes to eat is the Cracker Barrel in York Township, near York County Tech.

In our opinion, the best day to eat there is Sunday, because of their great specials. That's where we went last Sunday after church, because Mom and I wanted to get the Sunday special of "Homestyle Chicken."

From Cracker Barrel's Web site:
"Starting at 11:00 a.m. every Sunday, enjoy two boneless chicken breasts hand-dipped in fresh buttermilk, breaded and deep fried to a golden brown in our kitchen. Served with choice of two vegetables."

While we waited, Chris and Sarah made an alien out of paper napkin rings, and we played the peg-jumping game (which Sarah is better out than I am.)

Once dinner came, we were glad to dig in.

My dinner: Homestyle chicken with fries and dumplins

(Read on for the rest of the family's choices.)

... and insert various other goose puns here!

Remember these guys from last Wednesday?

Well, Amy might have been the only person to take a guess, but she was right! I took this in the Meadowbrook Village shopping center near Border's and the old Circuit City. We had gone to that Isaac's for lunch and were on our way down to Border's when we saw this goose family plus another one.

Also, a special shout-out to my father-in-law, John, for his goose puns. This punny nature, by the way, he passed along to Hubby, who I'm surprised didn't pipe in with his own tributes to wordplay.

While "Pappy John," as my daughter calls him, is from Rhode Island and would have no idea where in York County this was, he did make several suggestions. You know, like Quacker Lane? Honkers Alley? Gooseberry Plaza?

Let the groaning begin!

Another pop quiz! Can you guess where I was in York County today, that I came upon this nice family? I'll give you a hint, though you probably won't need it - We had a nice lunch and did a little shopping at one of Hubby's favorite stores.

Leave your guess in the comments!

You won't see me or the family out and about in York County today, but for VERY good reason.

My sister Carol is getting married today in New Jersey. I couldn't be happier for her and her (well, at this point, soon-to-be) husband, John.

I love you guys!!

One unusual hobby that Hubby and I share is the love of decrepit places. We love nothing more than going for a drive and finding buildings falling down. One of our best finds was an abandoned mini golf course - that was amazing!

Anyway, we love to take pictures of these things, mostly all around Pennsylvania. Our dream is to start a photo gallery Web site with a name like "Pennsylvania in ruins" to chronicle all these, in which we'd post ours and also take submissions or suggestions.

Well, on Sunday, while Chris was leaving Heritage Hills, where his family had a scrumptious Mother's Day brunch, he snapped this photo at Mount Rose Avenue and Route 24.

We think it's a shame that this intersection - one of the county's most congested, I'd wager - has such a falling-down building on one of its corners. I was talking to my boss about it; his wife works at a facility inside the HardKohr gym there (formerly Yorktowne Racket & Fitness), and he said the problem is that it's possible they could want to widen the road there to allow for turning lanes. So, of course, all the business owners are worried about how much of their property would be taken for that, and that means this lot likely won't sell.

I can definitely see why that's a problem. But, come on. Only in York County do you have a building that still has "Vote Kerry" graffiti in 2009.

I got another cat. But I do have an argument to make in my defense.

If YOU saw the picture above, and you got an e-mail about poor Mitts, who is 7 or 8 years old and whose owners left and abandoned him, leaving him outside, wouldn't you want to give him a home? He was very lonely, and he'd run up to almost anyone who came near, hoping for some attention.

On top of it all, he is mitten-toed, a congenital deformity that gives him extra toes on some of his feet. On his front feet, they come out sort of like thumbs, and look like mittens. Hence the name Mitts, I guess.

But he's a very nice boy and he seems to be settling into the house. What's great is that we have family visiting this weekend, and in about an hour, 12 people will take part in a big dinner. Twelve people... four cats... a dog... can't forget the goldfish... what a house!

(If you have a soft spot for sad cats or dogs, you should check out our featured pets listing of those that need homes. Please!)