Seven years ago I was in Florida watching Anna while Erika and Mark went to the hospital. Happy Birthday Michael Joseph! He just lost his first tooth and is starting First Grade on Wednesday so your last day of summer vacation you don’t have to go to school. Bet you’ll find time to build something with your new Star Wars Lego today.
Blogging from Aunt Mary’s computer in NYC at 3 AM so when you wake up you can see your birthday post. Love, FF Ruthie
It’s an iPhone photo story and the bowl of peelings didn’t come out. This was last Thursday.
Recipe for a summer afternoon.
Generous neighbors with an apple tree laden with fruit- a couple of boxes waiting to be filled. (We filled one.)
A friend to help pick, peel, core and slice.
The crust was butter, flour and salt, a few tablespoons of ice water- mixed up in the food processor, rolled out.
Four open face pie/tarts and one quart of applesauce that looks almost green to me.
We took one of the pies down to the owners of the apple tree and were they ever surprised. I brought one out to Ohio for the family. Along with the applesauce.
Small apples, tart and sweet, firm flesh and delicious. A sprinkle of lemon, dots of butter and light on the cinnamon. A bit raggedy looking but tasty.
The sisters-in-law take a photo class and Saturday morning was the field trip to Franklin Park Conservatory. They invited me to go along. They went out to the Bride’s Garden and the doors locked behind them. I was photographing the Fairy Gardens and the model railroad and they were looking for me. Laura called me on the cell and I went and opened the door. I saw this view as I approached the doors.
I was focusing on photographing the two of them instead of the butterflies and the flowers and this added to my series.
Everyone shoots this one- Chihuly’s Glass.
Sisters-in-law shoot the fountain. They have to create a slideshow with ten images to show to the class.
Bubbles from the fountain.
View from the Gift Shop windows.
This week’s challenge was something to think about on my trip from Pittsburgh to Columbus Friday afternoon. Sorting through images I had in the archives. (in my mind, obviously) Nothing jumped out. And then-
an opportunity presented itself, right in front of me. Standstill traffic. On Route 70 West, Friday afternoon.
A 3 1/2 hour trip took almost SIX hours to drive today due to congestion from road work and merging to a single lane and perhaps a bad accident that was cleaned up by the time I got to the site.
I saw police and emergency vehicles driving the other direction with lights and sirens.
A truck reflected the sky AND an old fashioned airplane is in the left door panel. It looks like a bird. The sky seemed to merge with the reflection in the shiny truck. Nature and machine-made merge. I waited to merge to the left single lane. Other interpretations of merge are here
When my family left my house to return to their home in Ohio, they made a stop before they left the city.
Here’s what I received on my phone.
The four children and Murphy seated on the steps of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Polish Hill.
Anna (8+) photographed her parents on the steps. She has wanted to be guest blogger for a time.
And here is the whole family sitting on the steps of the church where they were married a decade ago.
At their reception I photographed Mark and Erika dancing at The Lamont- with FILM – ten years ago.
Now all I shoot is digital. I bought my first digital camera just before Anna was born- 10-10-2003.
</a
What a hot day it was- August 17, 2002!
Happy tenth anniversary!
(Photos used with permission)
My friend Steve told me about a documentary he watched last Saturday night about the Toynbee Tiles. Toynbee Tiles? I’d never heard of them. The documentary is called Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles . It’s a film by Jon Foy and was chosen as one of the best documentaries of 2011 by Roger Ebert.
Turns out there was also an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the tiles downtown but I missed it when it came out.
So last Sunday afternoon, Steve and went to look for them. We found three of the Toynbee Tiles. The first photographs of them were in the 1980’s so I am a latecomer to these mysterious plaques. And I am intrigued by their placement in so many locations.
Find the pop top and the screw in this close-up.
A couple of them are paved over. Chicago doesn’t allow them, they rip them up. But in Pittsburgh they are there for pedestrians to walk over and cars to drive right on top of them. It is a mystery who places the tiles but there are a lot of them in the world. Right by the church where James and Laura were married in Columbus, OH at Third and Broad there’s another one and Laura’s seen it! They are considered guerrilla art. And a mystery!
You can see it in the crosswalk below.
An you can see the above tile in the crosswalk below.
Not sure why but I didn’t shoot the location of the third tile we just happened to find when we went back to the car. 
The neighborhood is Shadyside.
Almost to Walnut Street along Shady Avenue, I had to stop and pull over.
A summer cloudburst, along with the sun appearing in the western sky- rainbow!
I’m sure the image could be tweaked a bit to darken the colors, but this is just as it was. The building is Calvary Church Parish Hall on the left, the church on the right. The 50mm 1.2 L lens was on the camera.
My friend Barb brought these beautiful figs. I rinsed them and put them in a bowl to take out to the front porch. They looked so lush and colorful, I pulled out my phone and photographed them before we picked one to eat. They were perfectly ripe and delicious.
Sunday afternoon my friend Steve and I drove downtown to look for the Toynbee tiles.
He’d seen a documentary about them but that ‘s another whole post for tomorrow. I want to read more about them and view the documentary myself before I write about seeing them. We found three. Stay tuned……
We decided to check out the baseball game and considered getting a last minute ticket. (Note how full the stands are these days!)
Here is the view of PNC Park from the Roberto Clemente Bridge above the Allegheny River.
Later in the evening we met some neighbors at the Saint Rocco Festival in Morningside at St. Rafael. There was singing and dancing the Tarantella. We ate a meatball sandwich and looked at the beautiful handmade cookies in the baskets. I asked the name of the cookies and the woman said Taralli. I went to my favorite authentic Italian recipe blogger, Chicago John and searched for a recipe for these particular cookies and didn’t find one but I am hopeful he’ll have one. Here’s a recipe I was able to find for now.
The evening ended in fireworks and lots of smoke.
Some of you may have seem my post of the Festival last year when there was a full moon. Just clouds this year.
If you want to read about Saint Rocco’s story it’s here
Roller Coaster connoisseurs have a preference I’m sure. Some prefer solid ground and wait for family and friends while they ride.
I know our friends Rob and his son Bradley were touring the country, riding roller coasters in many states. I even have a friend who told me tonight that she sat in the first car on the Phantom’s Revenge and I was in awe of her bravery.
That’s not for me but I’m fascinated by the lines of people waiting to get on and ride. Summertime is the time for thrill rides at Amusement Parks and if you live in Pittsburgh the place to go is Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, along the Monongahela River.
Thunderbolt is the big wooden roller coaster but there are two other wooden coasters- The Jackrabbit (built in 1920) and Racer, which is a double track wooden coaster.
One of the newer coasters is the Phantom’s Revenge. You watch it go up, up, up to the peak and then drop. Even though I’m not on it, I imagine what it is like, just before that steep drop and the rapid drop itself. You hear the screams.
Here’s a photo of the wooden Thunderbolt and the metal Phantom’s Revenge, photographed as my family waited to board the Turtle.
Both coasters make different sounds.
I rode The Jackrabbit last week and still can’t believe I actually went on it-
and yes, you do lift out of your seat, YIKES!
I’ve ridden the Thunderbolt and the Racer but that was when the kids were younger.
Here are a few photos of the Phantom’s Revenge
And the RACER. You have to wonder why they have that big yellow sign- DON’T STAND UP!
And the kids loved the Pittsburgh Plunge, getting wet on a hot day didn’t seem to bother them. It goes up slowly slowly and when it comes down…………….
