photos

While at the accident scene this afternoon, I noticed some people looking at something in the sky behind me. I turned around and it was a C-130 circling the area. One of the Mercy Flight pilots told me the C-130 pilots -- wherever they're from -- routinely make practice runs in the area.

Somebody has built a large snow fort on Ellicott Street, in the city, in front of St. Joe's Cemetery. It looks like the developer used one of the city's blue recycling buckets to pack snow in and then piled the blocks on top of each other.

This is the view of the Tonawanda Creek behind the court house at about 3 p.m.

The weather advisory is lifted.  There is about a 40-percent chance of snow showers tonight.

It's been a beautiful day, even if a bit cold -- my truck's thermostat read 8 degrees this morning. Too much work to do today to get out and shoot a lot of pictures, but still taking advantage of the nice sky.

Above the white barn of Partridge Farm on Ellicott Street Road and below, the cement plant of Bonsal American on Cedar Street.

Weather through tonight, cloudy, with a chance of snow overnight. Tomorrow, warming considerably (into the 30s) with an 80-percent chance of rain, and then back to snow on Thursday.

We've had pretty steady snowfall today, but nothing to the level that would warrant the National Weather Service to put out an alert or an advisory. Intermittent snow showers are expected to continue into the evening.

The weather seems to have contributed to a number of fender-benders this afternoon.

I went out to Le Roy today and on the route back, I came down Randall Road.

Ryan Rast, of South Street in Le Roy, stands next to a giant snowman he built in his front yard with his buddy Ben Long.

The ladies of the Red Fedora Fanatics, who get together monthly for a social luncheon, met at the Fedora Diner on Ellicott Street Road today. All of the women are Genesee County residents. 

One member said, "without our drivers, many of us couldn't get here," and asked that I take a picture of their drivers, below.

This afternoon I drove out to Byron for a bit and found a couple of interesting looking barns. The pair above, if I remember correctly, were on Warboys Road. Below, a group of barns on North Byron Bergen Road.

Driving back to Batavia on Richley Road this morning, conditions seemed good to get a picture of this barn.

Also, I liked the stand of trees below. Anybody know what kind of trees they are?

I left the house early this morning with the hope that despite the cloud cover, we would have some good light.  Last night, the forecast -- I didn't recheck this morning -- was a break in the clouds at 8 a.m. That never happened, and instead by 9, we had the first flurries of snow.

Still, I managed to find some interesting things to photograph.

Above, a dog (if I remember correctly, her name is Diana), an old truck and a barn on Starr Road in Pavilion.

My first stop was an old, apparently abandoned, graveyard on Covell Road, Pavilion.

Also from the graveyard on Covell Road.

Just as it started to snow pretty good, I arrived at a grave site off Route 63 in Bethany that somebody had recently told me about.

As long as I was on Route 63 in Bethany, I thought I'd get a picture of one of my favorite barns. I liked how the snow was just beginning to outline the shingles.

Coming back from Victor this afternoon, I took the 5&20 into Genesee County, and then, well after sunset, I hit some back roads in Le Roy. I came across this barn on Asbury Road.

On my way back from Rochester this evening, I stopped along Route 33 in Bergen and took this picture.

Did you see the spectacular, low-hanging moon this evening? I did, and headed out to Griswold Road in Stafford to get a shot of it behind one of my favorite barns.

This is the "Grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes," or "The Grotto," on the campus of Notre Dame High School, just off Richmond Avenue.

The photos are from last night.

I've looked at this memorial a few times in the past couple of years. It is mounted on the fence behind the courthouse above the Tonawanda Creek.

The sign reads: "Michael Caccamise and two playmates fell through the ice and into the icy waters of the Tonawanda Creek on Feb. 10, 1932. The bodies of Harry Campebello, age 10, and Frank Bezon, age 9, were recovered on Feb. 13th near the dam. However, Michael’s body was not recovered until July 8, 1932.

In Loving Memory of Michael Caccamise
Age 10
Son of
George and Mary Caccamise"

Friday the ribbon was cut on a new $19.5 million surgical wing at United Memorial Medical Center.

More than 125 people attended the ceremony and toured the new facility, with more people taking advantage of the open house to see the state-of-art surgical wing.

The new facility includes five high-tech surgical suites and 19 recovery beds.

"Batavia in its history has had many pivotal moments, and this is certainly one of them," UMMC Board Chairman Tom Houseknecht said. "The entire community can be proud of this new surgery center."

UMMC Chief of Surgery, Dr. Matthew Landfried, said the entire staff is eager to begin working in the new 44,000-square-foot addition.

The first surgery is scheduled for Jan. 4.

Above, Mark Schoell, UMMC CEO, Tom Houseknecht, Dr. Matt Landfried and Bill Fritz, chair of the 2010 capital campaign, cut the red ribbon.

More pictures after the jump (to purchase pictures, click here):

Regular readers of The Batavian may recognize this picture -- first published on April 22. It's one of 15 photos of Genesee County by Howard Owens selected for display in the new wing. The other 14 photos will be hung some time in the coming week.

This was the view behind the courthouse late this morning at the Tonawanda Creek Falls.

As for the weather forecast: Nothing unusual predicted -- some scattered snow showers and more cold.

Members of the State Police and Park Rangers were at the County Airport today practicing open water rescue, taking advantage of the cold weather to get some practice in winter conditions.

The practice involves a trooper and ranger taking off in the chopper and then coming back to the practice zone to pick up a practice rescuee. The purpose is to work on communication among rescuers to ensure all elements of the rescue are coordinated.

A complete sequence of pictures after the jump:

Batavia was hit with a good bit of snow from about 6 to 8 p.m. Above, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church on Ellicott Street, Batavia, during the storm.

The lake effect storm warning remains in effect until 6 a.m., but the radar map shows the heaviest bands hovering to the west of Genesee County.

The hourly forecast for Thursday has partial clearing around noon, but then more snow in the mid-afternoon.

This evening, at Darien Lake State Park.