We made our annual trip to the giant pumpkin farm. This year Cindy came with us. (e:terry) got a great picture of us crunched in the back. This years pumpkin weighs less as I carried it up the stairs alone. Last years was full of water, which made it heavier and ultimately lead to its early demise as it fitted from the inside.

To add to my collection of Berry plants, I bought a black current bush at the pumpkin farm for $4.99. I love currents and you barely see them at the market.

Also, although the loufa plant finally blossomed. I don't think its going to make it :(

pokes through the dark overcast sky.

Yuck. Seriously, how did these nasty tomatoes make it out if the kitchen.

Or the camera made him that way, LOL. No I'm just exploring all of the cool camera modes my phone has.

(E:Matthew) made turkey stuffed peppers. They were so delicious.

Tonight we went on the Lincoln Park home tour. The old mansions were unbelieveable. Personally they were too big for my taste, almost institutional. The McKinney house was so incredible. The woodwork was more complicated then I even imagined.

At the end of the tour we visited three houses on soldiers circle. The last was was a very modern ranch house. The contrast was so stark. The bathroom at the ranch house was so awesome. I wish I could have taken more photos but it was the only picture I could take because they didn't allow interior photography.

Last night we went back to the pakastsni restaurant in the old KFC on Delaware in Kenmore. I really need to take my parents there. I think they would enjoy it.

This time they had this awesome egg dish.

The Prospect Hill Neighborhood home tour today was quite interesting. To be honest, I knew almost nothing about the neighborhood before today. It is located directly next to the Peace Bridge. You probably see it everytime you go to Canada. It has been and is in serious danger of demolition via eminent domain because the government wanted to expand the Peace Bridge truck plaza to be like 5 football fields big.

Its kind of sad how the Peace Bridge Authority has purchased properties along Busti and just let them decay. The whole neighborhood was kind of decaying because for years no one knew what the fate of their houses would be. I mean who wants to invest in home improvment like roofs, paint, etc when you don't know if your home is going to be demolished any day now.

The really interesting part was learning about the major health effects from idoling diesel trucks on the bridge, even at its current size. Apparently, studies show the air is toxic. The one woman we visited was just recovering from breast cancer, she said she was one of 9 out 15 women on her block that had breast cancer and they blame the epidemic on the toxicity. Apparently, all of her kids had asthma too. Here is a PDF with findings and info about the situation
I also ripped the PDF here ::READ PDF::

While on the tour we also joined Preservation Buffalo Niagara as a family and bought ticket for the upcoming Lincoln Parkway tour this week. Family membership is $50. The tickets for the tour were so expensive ($45/per) but I figure it is a once in a lifetime chance to see the fanciest houses in the entire city and the money is going to the preservation group.

Well, here are some pictures. I couldn't believe I took 129 of them. It was hard to decide which to post.

These are examples of the boarded up houses owned by the Peace Bridge Authority.



While there were a lot of awesome houses with really intersting and amazing woodwork, one of my favorite was the home of local artist Julian Montague I really enjoyed both the house and his very interesting graphic design.

The blond colored wood was so nice looking and the windows were amazing though the house needed a lot of work. It made me really appreciate how well the people that lived in our house throughout its lifetime, really took care of it.






Another interesting find was this. A women was excavating a wall in her home and found a beautiful pocket door with a brick wall behind it. On the other side, a previous owner had building a modern 70s swank lounge room. Its so weird to see it that way. I would have to knock the brick down althought I kind of like the look of that room on the other side.




One of my favorite parts was the stairwell of this house. Theo outside did not match the inside at all to me. I mean I like the outside but I would not have expected the inside it had. The stairwell was one of the nicest I have seen. I wish my stairs wraped around like that.










The last house we saw was the gigantic mansion originally owned by one of the Jewett's. The house looked so amazing, especially the leaded glass on the front door, but the amount of work it required actually made me feel sick and I don't even own it. Almost all of the original woodwork had been painted over and the main staircase and much of the original design had been removed or remudled beyond recognition. I don't evny the people who live there and are trying to restore it.