Such Expressive (and Unexpected) Taxidermy
Beware of Fox!
It’s been up on this porch roof for at least a couple of days.
I was driving to the zoo from school on Monday.
The story I heard from the guy out in front of the house next door?
The guy who lives there does demolition and probably got it from some home he was tearing down. It is the season of demolition around the city as you know.
A photographer has no choice but to pull to the curb and shoot the scene. Remember the days of women’s stoles with fox heads dangling and tiny paws with claws? Beady eyes? Ugh. Wonder if they take him in if it rains?
The last book we read in 2nd grade Intervention Group was the Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.
General Grant’s 190th Birthday Party
We have interesting friends. Here’s a creative celebration Steve and I went to on Saturday night. What a fun event. Here are a few of the details. Hardtack crackers and dried black-eyed peas. The sheet music for Tenting Tonight on the piano. Photographs and books bearing the General’s likeness. A willingness to celebrate and have fun. A Prantl’s cake with five candles for his rank. I made Rice Pudding after reading that it was a favorite on the Presidents’ Food Timeline. Thanks Tim and Bernadette for being such welcoming hosts. We had a wonderful time!
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September 3, 1951
Happy Birthday Marlene!
It’s a special one. I know you will have a very happy day. It is wonderful being grandmothers together. We have much to be grateful for, don’t we? Do you remember the day we met, before Mark and Erika got married? I remember it like it was just yesterday. What an exciting time and it has only multiplied over the past decade. And you share the birthdate with my mother, who would have been 99 today. Oh my.
So another round of cake- vanilla and vanilla buttercream on the front porch. I am blogging a birthday cake to you cause I have to drive your birthday card around in my car for at least another week or two. Why can’t I get the cards in the mail? Thinking of you as you celebrate. I am right behind you!!! 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe here 12:20 AM 9/3/11 p.s. just got the call that Mark Erika and the four grandchildren made it to your house just after midnight after 8 hours on the road! SURPRISE!! You called and said I GOT YOU!! What a great birthday present. I am so happy you were surprised.
(I mean it would have been nice if someone at work said Happy Birthday or they had a cake for you but having the family surprise you had to be a happy celebration!!)
BLT Essential Ingredients from Local Bryant Street Market
I enjoy shopping in a smaller market. A place that isn’t an airplane hangar or cluttered with patio furniture and piles of stuff at the ends of the aisles. Just down the hill is a reopened market on Bryant Street, cleaned up and offering La Prima coffee to grind, a delicatessen case filled with all sorts of meats, cheeses and salads. Sandwiches to go. Enrico’s Biscotti. In the freezer they have Donatelli’s Italian Ravioli-mushroom, artichoke, roasted red pepper and traditional cheese. They sell Allegro Hearth Bread, fresh produce and Turner dairy items, Bob’s Red Mill grain products, spices and Chuckles . They’ve extended their hours and will deliver to your home. After my appointment I stopped in to get lunch ingredients as a friend was coming over to eat. BLT on T shouts summer to me!
Shopping list- Vine ripened tomatoes, sliced with serrated knife
Head of garden lettuce, washed and patted dry
Boar’s Head bacon slices, cooked in cast iron skillet and drained on paper towels
Hellmann’s mayo, in a glass jar
Allegro Hearth Bread, toasted in the fancy toaster V gave me for my 50th bday
Potato chips
Tahitian Vanilla Gelato, for dessert
Front porch, to sit out and eat
A summer day
A friend to share the meal.
5901 Bryant Street
Pittsburgh PA 15206
Phone: (412) 661 8720
Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM to 8 PM
Sat 9 AM to 7 PM
Sally Said, Things Come in Threes
Drove to the Post Office at lunchtime to mail a package. On the way back to school I saw this horse’s head. Not the whole rocking horse, it’s true but a horse nonetheless. And Sally had said how things come in threes and to look for that third horse. One block from school. He was waiting for me to find him? There he was. How many times had I driven by him before? Who knows. But today I saw him.
What his story is I do not know.
The Newspaper said “Little to no accumulation…” but-
A friend called and invited me for a slice of cherry pie for President’s Day. Hot tea. I walked down the hill wrapped up in hats and scarves and boots. A good thing- I couldn’t believe it when I came out of her front door two hours later and the snow had accumulated and was piling up. That 60 degree weather on Saturday and now this? YIKES. I trudged home, shoveled the walk and it’s blowing and snowing and really cold. The snow was wet and heavy and a 2 hour delay has been called already for school. How they will clear all the streets before the school buses head out is a puzzle to me. (edit 5:30 AM. All schools are CLOSED! At least they didn’t wait to call it at 7 when everyone is already there. My friend just called, teaches instrumental music and gave me the news auf Deautsch singing Schnee Tag )
Not Spring Yet!
It isn’t that we aren’t ready for the crocus
and blossoms.
We got an unexpected snowstorm.
Shoveling again. And again.
Burrowing in the flannel sheets.
Florida friends, I am thinking of you!
Back to bed.
View from my friend's front porch as I started my walk home up the hill.
Heard from many friends and family who knew and loved Lori today. And from friends who didn’t know her but were touched by her story and loving image with Fredi. I tried to write back little notes of thank you to those who emailed or posted and I told her sister Sara about the overwhelming response but she can’t bear to look at it right now, understandably. A sad day.
Whose Chairs?
A recurring theme around the city as I travel between schools- I see chairs. The chairs make me wonder about the owners, their usual occupants. Somewhere in my hard drive I’ve a photo of a high chair near the curb, waiting for pick-up. Chairs have a personality of their own. I love to hear the names of different types of chairs, each evoke an image- wing chair, ladderback, Windsor or Eames. Lawn chair, rocking chair, lounge or arm. High chair, club chair, captain chair, molded plastic, patio or kitchen chair. School chairs are not particularly comfortable. Kids love the rolling ones on wheels. Folding, stackable, side chair or throne. Where do you sit?
Two yellow chairs and a gray one on Evaline Street. Yellow curb peeking through the snow.
Rooftop Deck View of City from the Southside
The holiday lights down below give the clue as to the time of year. Two gatherings Friday night. Live music at both. Extraordinary piano playing. Walked up to the third floor and out the door onto the roof. Propped the camera up on the deck railing and shot without the cable release. The lights felt magical. A beautiful cold winter night.
Rooftops fascinate me. A terrific vantage point.
Making Spirits Bright
Almost a gingerbread house, sparkling in the snow. Good thing there is a fence to keep in the reindeer!
Snow Enhances Lights
Left school so late that it was dark. Drove a circuitous route home to check out the lights in Morningside. The house I have photographed the past two years didn’t have a single light. Thinking about the possible reasons for no lights this year but maybe they just moved. This house up the street looked lovely in the snow with the greens and ribbons on the white fence.
Looks more like New England than Pittsburgh to me.
Keeping the Darkness at Bay
No one seems worried about the electric bills! The days are growing shorter and the light displays increasing.
East Liberty off Negley Avenue.
Between the Neon Beer Signs on Carson Street
South Side. There is a house sandwiched between storefronts and bars on Carson. Here is how it looked Friday night. In this view you can’t see the Jockey lawn ornament by the life-size Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Making the season bright!
First Snow
As I left school, I saw the snow on the tree. When I walked across the street I saw the Scarecrow people and the ever-blooming flowers in the hanging pot! Happy December
I didn't get the Blessed Mother in the shot, but she was there!
Birthday Cake on the Front Porch
After I had baked the layers and let them cool, I knew I’d frost them before heading out to the Steelers game at Cj’s. Set a table on the front porch to photograph the effort while I waited for Steve to come home to go to the game. The occasion? Happy Birthday Roberta!
Vanilla cake with vanilla icing. 1-2-3-4 Recipe and Buttercream.
Raspberries and Blueberries Dessert on the Front Porch
Only thing that might have improved this dessert would have been Hagan Daaz or Ben and Jerry's ice cream instead of lowfat Greek yogurt.
Bowl of Cherries on the Front Porch
Summer heat as intense as the winter’s snow. Rain this afternoon. Sitting on the front porch and listening and watching it rain without getting wet. Used a new white pasta bowl V gave me for my bday. The ripe sweet fruit. The hammock where the naps are especially restful. Love summer! See a small oil by Picasso with a bowl of cherries click here.
The ripe cherries are really juicy and sweet this year.
Summer Porch Scene
Invitation to sit a spell, relax. Second day of summer.
Suzanne’s garden lush greens. Variegated. Giant Oak Leaf Hydrangeas blooming. Lamb’s Ear and Lavender border the steps. Ripening blueberries in the back. Seeing the latest projects and sharing details about family visits. Catching up with a good friend. What a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon.
Vintage Milkbox on Dorothy’s Front Stoop
Used as a mailbox now, these silver milk boxes were on everyone’s porch steps. Growing up our dairy was Alderney Farms in New Jersey. Thick glass, with paperboard circle caps. You could get a dozen eggs, some cottage cheese. Leave the empties for the milkman to exchange for fresh cold bottles of milk. We still had delivery in the mid sixties. The delivery truck door had a sound when it’d slide. You can buy an old milkbox on ebay.
Lavender from Dorothy's garden rests on her vintage milkbox. I think I need to get her a new flag!
Front Porch Still-Life at Dusk
Old seltzer bottles, a birdcage, the texture of the wicker, some stained glass at dusk. J’s front porch with the sun sinking behind. Condensation inside the old glass, the metal tops. Artists usually arrange inanimate objects to create a still-life to paint or draw. This was already there, waiting. But then it is an artist’s house.
Setting sun through old turquoise and plain glass seltzer bottles
Behind Giant Eagle on Shakespeare Street
I wrote and illustrated a little book for the students called You Need to Read. It illustrates reasons you’d need to read–sorting baggage tags for the different destinations at the airport, a firefighter finding a street name on the city map, a chef reading a recipe, a patient reading the medicine label, high voltage and thin ice. Love the exclamation point.
I am sure there was a reason someone wrote this on the dumpster but who read it?
Winter Night Lights in the City
Days are longer now. Natural light still shining yesterday at 6:30 PM as I drove from school- teachers had to make up time off for the G20 days. The sunlight through the new library windows so intense it hurt our eyes. The blinds are on order. The bright light a welcome change. Birds chirp in the morning now. The snowpiles melting. You feel a “lift”. Wednesday night I drove down Hampton St. and this house on the corner shone like daylight it was so bright. Unexpected cheery lights
As a lighthouse beacon for wayfarers traveling city streets at night
Wedding Flowers in the Snow
What photo to put up? A dilemma. There’s the ongoing documentation of the storm, the damage done- like the aluminum canopy over gas pumps all twisted as if in a tornado, buckled under the weight of the snow. Or an Alpine mountain (i.e. huge pile) of snow that looks like Geology class. So many layers, the striations from the different days. The bottom layer almost black sedimentary rock- coal! A dusting of confectioner’s sugar on top. The snow I shoveled today felt like the stuff in the movies, that ersatz fluff in the Nutcracker that floats down onto the Snow Queen. If you need to Create Fake Snow Falling from a Ceiling for a School Play there are instructions. Tomorrow’s shovelfuls might be like concrete. And it’s snowing as I think of what to share. Lots of comments and emails about Spring and the hope for pictures with green in them. Hmmm, what to do? I’d set this up on my front porch after returning from a happy Valentine’s wedding in D.C., souvenirs from a lovely celebration.
Charlotte & Joel married on her Grandparents' Wedding Anniversary (wed 2-14-1942) Their photo on back of program
Newspaper Delivery in the Snow 2-16-10
Find the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Feral Cat in the Snow
We call her Long Tail. Her 3 siblings had bunny tails, about 3" long stubs.
Braving the snowstorm to look for food. This is one we caught, had fixed and returned to wild.
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