The Film Crew Bathrooms – New York City
NYC residents look straight ahead, walk by,yawn.
Out-of-towners gawk and stop to take a photograph. Oh my.
Easter Weekend
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You want to shoot a photograph with some life in it!
I learned in a workshop, photography can be exasperating. And one thing I know-
Sometimes you are an observer and sometimes you are a participant.
You can’t capture the sound of bells ringing in the sanctuary and bell tower simultaneously, a Gregorian chant, the trumpet, everyone holding a candle in the darkness and as the lights are turned up in the dark city church, late Saturday night, you long to capture the spirit, the glow .
You can’t whip out a camera and show the three out of four grandchildren racked out in the pew, or the smell of candle wax or incense or the feel of freshly blessed sprinklings. A good place to think. Mechanical limitations. The intrusion of the moment.
You are’t on assignment from a newspaper, illustrating the occasion. The grandparents have to head back home for work early Monday so we drove downtown for the Easter Vigil. It’s an early dinner at noon. Then we’ll load the cars and drive back east and south.
The thoughts of Easters growing up, the new suits, shoes and hats. Remembering those you love and who loved you the best and have gone on before. i said to my friend, “vacation flies by’ and she said
“just like life.”
I think of unconditional love. Thanks Matthew. Missed you.
Eating Raspberries on Uncle Frank’s Running Board
Maura and Michael sit on Uncle Frank's running boards and share raspberries.
The family has been in Pittsburgh a lot this summer. A wedding, a family reunion, a funeral, and this weekend a bridal shower.
Lucky grandma.
Here are Maura and Michael sharing some raspberries while sitting on Uncle Frank’s 1933 Plymouth. You may have seen the post where Uncle Frank and Aunt Linda were pulling out of the driveway to drive another bride to the church in this snazzy car. It’s a beauty.
Two Right Feet
No wonder V had trouble getting Jack’s shoes on his feet as we were getting ready to go across the street to the playground. Turns out there are two identical pairs of sneakers that the boys were given last week by a friend. Back in Ohio, Jack put on the two right ones and V discovered it when he was visiting Pittsburgh! How he could manage to walk without falling was amazing.
Four Fruits for Brunch
Shot this with my Canon 50D and 24-70mm EL series lens. Didn't think the iPhone could do it justice.
Mary and I were entertained for a delicious brunch where this fruit was served (with a side of pancakes and bacon) but doesn’t this look healthy?Seeds or seedless,
p.s. If you want to vote on Keep or Pitch and see Cinderella, click here.
Did You Ever Wear a Toe Sock?
One of the Kindergarten teachers wore rainbow toe socks and colorful flip flops for Wacky Wednesday, celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I had this same pair in 1972 (approximately). Well, a pair just like them. And Mrs. D said exactly what I remember, how it feels thick in between your toes and they are humorous looking but not something you want to wear all the time. The floor is the cafeteria linoleum. Friday afternoon it’s going to be GREEN EGGS and HAM in the cafeteria and if anyone drops green eggs they will blend in with the flooring. I guess they’ll leave the ham pink?
I wouldn't want to knit a toe sock!
Fiber Artist’s Palette- Like an Indoor Garden
Spools and spools of thread. Silk. Cotton. Metallic. All colors. Some shimmer. Rich colors. Waiting to be selected, a length cut and the needle threaded. The embroidery comes alive under the artist’s fingers stitching. I had asked Joan B if I could photograph her thread as I have another photo from before but today the light was so nice. She made coffee in a French Press and homemade sticky buns, a Fiesta bowl full of fresh fruit cut up and mixed with yogurt and honey. An indoor garden of color! And the little cushioned chair holds the needles and pins.
Colors Create a Feeling
And these invite me
to think Spring.
Sunday night Thunderstorm-
March lions roar a day early.
Wanted some bright color for today's post. Knew where to find it! Joan's studio.
Eljay’s Used Books is Moving from the South Side to Dormont
I asked why and the answer wasn’t surprising. “Economics.”
After 14 years on Carson Street. I bought a James Beard Cooking Lessons volume to read while I waited for a friend. The fiction section was already boxed up and packed. A lot of books to move. A loss for the South Side scene for sure.
Dormont is fortunate. 3233 West Liberty Avenue will be their new digs.
I Love Bookstores
Losing two bookstores in the city.
Just this week.
Borders with the new books-not open lomg
barely two years
and now Eljay’s Used Books on South Side,
Signs of the times.
What a First Grader Gave Me as a Little Present Today
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season. A wonderful student gave me a little present today. I can’t tell you how it touched me. Two Trefoil Girl Scout Cookies, held together by pink Silly Bandz. One cookie looks like there might be a little bite out of it. As you all know I am trying to watch what I eat ( forget the burger, pizza and milkshake posts) I am back on track. So I didn’t eat them. But I held them in my hand a long time and thought about the heartfelt gift. When I took it across the hall to Ms. P’s room to show her, she was touched by the sight of the two little cookies bound together by the Silly Bandz. We both said “awwwww. sweet.” Good to have nice neighbors at school to share these moments –thanks to everyone for looking today!
Presentation
The end of the week
and you’re whipped.
Happy to turn off the alarm for Saturday.
You review the week–
it can wear you out
but sweet moments come to mind.
There’s satisfaction.
To know a child was moved
to go to her locker and
bring a little offering to the art room.
p.s. If you get a minute, go and vote on my Keep or Pitch blog post to help me downsize. 
Find the Mantel in the Remains of the House Demolished on Centre Ave.
At first I thought it was an upright piano on top of the pile. M-a-n-t-l-e is usually a cloak. M-a-n-t-e-l is the fireplace one. Although it seems they are interchanged frequently. I try to spell correctly on this blog but sometimes it’s tricky.
Driving to school I saw this pile of rubble which was a house last week. An abandoned, boarded-up house but still standing. Webb Construction guys were nice to let me take the photo. I asked them how they do it and he said you start at the top and work your way down. Oh, and I met a contractor who restores houses and is looking for worthy pieces to salvage for the homes he restores. What a contrast.
When It Is Too Far Gone to be Repaired or Restored
It gets torn down.
No one has the money to fix it up.
Houses stand boarded up a long time.
Sometimes there are occupied homes right next door.
Seems the city is demolishing abandoned homes at breakneck speed.
No archeological digs as in Philadelphia sites.
You wonder who lived here and the stories of their lives.
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.
In My Grandmother’s Hand
I might try to make something from her recipes tomorrow.
The Pineapple Upside Down Cake recipe. My father’s mother’s recipe box. Sitting on my kitchen shelf. Yellowed newspaper clippings between the file cards.. I was looking around for items to put on my Keep or Pitch blog and the antique radio from earlier this week reminded me how objects can tell a story. Or two. There are recipes for pickles and yeast rolls. Illinois cuisine. The edge of the file card is discolored as well. I am not going to pitch this in the downsizing effort. I sifted through the cards, read her notes, remembered how she made egg noodles and hung them to dry on the broom handle. Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks born Feb 7, 1892. She taught me how to knit. I sleep under one of her quilts now and am figuring out how to repair an afghan she knit. In her retirement, she worked in the flower shop in Lincoln, Illinois. Kept her lunch (a can of spinach and a hard boiled egg), inside the glass door refrigerator right next to the buckets of gladiolas and carnations for the bouquets.
What did your grandmother bake/cook that you remember?
I chose this recipe card
cause her handwriting
seemed clear and legible
through the camera lens.
Windy With a Chance of Sunlight
A beautiful day. And though inside from 7:30-4:00 I was able to catch the unfurled flag from the second floor window AND the flag shadow on the asphalt during lunch. Right through the glass.
The Cathedral of Learning in the distance, the light fluctuating as clouds rolled across the sky. Had to tilt the camera to get both the flag and the shadow- the angle a technique I don’t use often.
Windy
In the daytime look out the windows.
Branches bend, papers blow across the yard.
Ripples or waves on water.
A pile of leaves caught up in a whirl.
You can tell it’s windy.
At night, listen.
A train along the river whistles.
Calm, a burst, a roar.
Earlier in my car on the bridge.
Wait for the light.
Feel it. Vibrate.
Bounce bounce bounce
right up through the tires.
Eye level to the top of a flag pole- a cool perspective.
Zenith Radio Model 12-S-370, 1939
Tonight at the book club meeting I sat at the table with this radio in front of me for the evening. I knew it had a story and the hostess just wrote to tell me I left my notebook where I had jotted down what I needed to know about the radio’s history. I remembered the location of Beaconsfield Street in Detroit. Here is what Lisa B. wrote to me just now about this radio from her husband’s family. Zenith Radio Model 12-s-370. found online Antique Radio Museum.
Here is what Lisa wrote in an email tonight- “So here you go: The radio belonged originally to neighbors of Virginia and Joseph Belloli who lived on Beaconsfield Street or Holcumb Street in Detroit. During WWII the neighbors were German nationals and as German nationals they could not own the radio because it had short wave capabilities. The neighbors sold the radio to “Granny” and “Grampa”. Joseph was born 1895 in Cuggiono Italy and Virginia in 1896 in the US, though her family was from Cuggiono as well. And just to make things complicated, three Oldani sisters married three Belloli brothers. You just have to accept if you were born Belloli and you meet another Belloli in Detroit or St. Louis, yes, somehow in some convoluted way, you are related.”
You can see more about this model in a video a guy made on youtube with one he found at the curb in Peoria IL
Michael Jumps Off the Board into 12′
Saturday afternoon with the family . We checked out the indoor pools, one a leisure pool with a lazy river. Everyone had a good time. How to ward off cabin fever? Enter the balmy Westerville Community Center pool. We skipped the climbing wall. Note the little drips of water off the back of his suit as he jumped. Mark took the two oldest back on Sunday afternoon.
Practicing my sports photography, stop action!
School Chairs & Chain Link Shadows in the Snow
Someone left the chairs out in the snow. Today the sun came out. I photographed these a couple of weeks ago and they just looked uninteresting to me. So not the whole chair, just a part. It was the shadows that attracted me today.
This morning I saw my first sundog*.
I was unable to photograph it properly.
It was a stunning sunrise from the Birmingham Bridge.
I didn’t even know what a sundog was until Joanne
sent me a photo of one.
It was clear and cold, blue sky and a magnificent sun.
It is amazing how you can feel when it is light.
The view of the sundog from the school parking lot seemed less dramatic.
I was trying to show our librarian. Definition below.
*from good old wikipedia
A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, from Greek parēlion, (παρήλιον), παρά(beside) + ήλιος(sun), “beside the sun”; also called a mock sun or a phantom sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[1]
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.
A classic assignment for beginning photographers- Capture the shadow!
Button, Button, Whose Got the Button? ( & Bridal Veils, too!)
1700 Carson Street is the home of a great button store. It fascinates me- Parker Button. Boxes and boxes stacked from floor to ceiling. All colors, shapes and sizes. Like an artist’s palette. Shank or flat. Frogs and belt buckles. Ribbon and trim. Spools of thread to sew them all on for utility or ornamentation. My mother had a glass jar full of buttons. My sister made me the coolest necklace from vintage mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, strung onto embroidery floss. Do you have any clothing missing a button?
The other half of the shop is Clarissa’s Boutique . One word to describe the bridal veils, jewelry and accessories for custom headpieces and wedding necessities- exquisite? lovely? classic? ethereal? They will create a custom headpiece for you but allow three months. Feathers, flowers, jewels, or pearls. Voted the Best of the Knot for weddings 2011.
These Days Buttons are Often a Part of Web Design
Or people push our buttons.
Press the button to call the elevator
or select your floor.
Today’s post is the old fashioned kind.
Two-hole, four-hole or shank.
Metal, plastic, shell or bone.
Beatrix Potter shapes of rabbits.
When was the last time you sewed on a button?
Today marks 500 blog posts and counting!
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Growing up we had a record with the song ( these lyrics are from 1929)
Button up your overcoat, When the wind is free, Oh, take good care of yourself, You belong to me! Eat an apple every day, Get to bed by three, Oh, take good care of yourself, You belong to me! Be careful crossing streets, ooh-ooh, Cut out sweets, ooh-ooh, Lay off meat, ooh-ooh, You'll get a pain and ruin your tum-tum!
The Carnegie Museum Fountains in Winter
Shooting a color photo that looks black and white is fun. These pods looked chilly and the sounds of the water splashing gave a shiver right under my wool coat and scarf.
Ever watch kids play in fountains
in the summer months?
Not the day I shot this photograph/
and I doubt kids play in these
or if they do, I’m sure not for long.
Vigilant museum guards would
come out and put a halt to any splashing
February 1st after lunch on Professional Development Day.
Check out Keep or Pitch and vote today!
Bloomfield Fan’s Display Sums it Up
I was driving back into the city from Columbus OH, early Monday morning. Trying to get to work. BUT I had to pull over on Liberty Avenue to capture this fan’s feelings. It was a gray day. Mostly rainy with a chance of the blues.
Driving back to the Burgh I
forgot about traffic at the tunnel.
Everyone trying to get to work.
Including me.
We’re all tired. But this sign tells the story
of our city.
Steelers Fans- Loyal to the Black and Gold!
(Don’t forget to vote on the Keep or Pitch blog today.)
Steelers’ Family Preparations- Pittsburgh and Beyond
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See Maura two years ago dressed for Super Bowl 43 and now at two years + @ the piano bench, Steelers hat by her side, ready for Super Bowl 45. Not my house- the mansion of Fifth Ave. with the huge gold and black banners on the porch at night.
And a friend at work, Ann and I, decided to knit obsessively and make four Steelers hats. Used a double strand of Cascade Superwash 220. I mailed mine to the grandchildren but forget trying to get a photo. We had fun trying. I think.
Sue B made the yellow pepper black olive topped salad for the AFC championship game and the cake was as Black and Gold as I could get it. No one would eat a licorice cake. A Brown Mountain cake (recipe) from Farm Journal with classic buttercream icing. No buttermilk in the house so I soured the milk with a T of vinegar and it tasted fine.
Smiley Cookies are from Eat ‘n Park and they were on the sign-in counter so weren’t consumed by me.
Mark has a Steelers flag to fly in the daylight and a blanket to keep warm and an Official Terrible Towel.
The last shot is the snowfall today. Hear there has been snow in Texas too. Thanks everyone near and far for the well wishes. And for putting up with the hoopla if you are a diehard Packers’ fan. (luv ya Rob)
A Longest Day
Sunday. Some things to cook.
We’ll wait for the game to begin.
Today a snowfall and weather reports.
I think I’ll knit one more hat!
The act of knitting reduces anxiety.
‘Twas the Night Before Superbowl, Fans Asleep in Their Beds-Visions of a 7th Ring, Float in Their Heads
But not overconfident. Just hopeful. And the Packers fans are dreaming the same vision I’m sure. (Actually photographed Thursday night Feb 3rd.)
Settling Down for a Long Winter’s Nap
And then you turn on the TV-
warm up
for the big game.
Have to wait all weekend long.
A two hour delay for Monday–
school, already called!
View of Homestead Over the Mon
Heard Giant Eagle was packed and fans are loading up their carts with salsa, ribs and Tostitos and chips. Iron City and Yuengling, some Penn Pilsner at the Beer Distributor– you can’t purchase beer in the grocery store in Pennsylvania. Fans are careful to follow rituals and are aware that their actions might jinx the outcome. Some can’t stand to watch.
By the (Ominous) Dawn’s Early Light
On the way to school, a bus stops. Traffic stops. I take a photo of the scene. One streetlight on, one streetlight off.
A massive cloud–
a golden light
The school bus’s red lights
Everyone stops.
The dawn reflected
in street signs.
Filmstrip Projector Paired with a Record, I Can Hear the Sound to Advance the Frame
School. Ditto machines and drinking in the smell of the purple sheets and filmstrip projectors. Who remembers?
Little canisters of filmstrips are still in cupboards. Ding!
Groundhog Sports Black and Gold Beads
Happy Groundhog’s Day. A friend sent an email of a groundhog finding a Lombardi trophy as a shadow.
You can click here for all the serious information from the official website in Punxsutawney PA.
I hear there are some competitors around the country but Phil lives close by …. “If Candlemas be fair and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.” or this poem from Wikipedia “In Scotland the tradition may also derive from an English poem:
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop
One year(1990) my sister and I went to Punxsutawney to see Phil the groundhog. Pre-Groundhog Day movie.
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