I’m helping out with the grandkids this weekend.
At breakfast, I looked out the kitchen window and saw rays of sun.
Threw a coat over my pajamas, added my hat, laced up my boots, got my camera, and tried to capture some winter sun.
Worried about that groundhog seeing his shadow on Groundhog’s Day.
the edges of the metal decorative windmill
Frost pattern on wooden that didn’t get put inside in the fall
Swing Set Chains, one rubber coated,the other metal.
Depth. Going deep. Depth of field. Meaurement. Feeling. Distance. Diving- where depth matters.
Sycamores on Shady Ave
Unknown Diver Needs Deep Water
Forebears in Durand Cemetery, Illinois
Tonight was the annual viewing of the Harold Ramis’ classic Groundhog Day movie. If you follow the blog, you know how much my family enjoys this holiday. (No gifts required)
I noticed in the opening credits how different the 1993 skyline looks.
The updated version will have to be another post. And I’ll need a helicopter ride to capture the same angle.
A screen shot of my computer screen shows the old skyline as it appeared before all the advertisements.
Just two years ago there was an article written by Bob Bauder about this issue- Skyline-defiling signs targeted by council chief. “Harris said the signs, including company names and logos, clutter the city skyline and detract from its aesthetic splendor.”
And author Charles Rosenblum’s blog post Under a Bad Sign– Pittsburgh Architectual Club weighs in on the issue.
Destiny brought me a plate of Shepherd’s Pie. (She is one of the knitters, too)
It was delicious.
All after school activities have been cancelled due to icy rain and slippery roads.
Welcome winter sustenance.
A few shots I took while doing a photo shoot on Sunday afternoon.
Today after school I went to visit my friend Donna. She had commented that she had a doll collection when she saw the post of Barbara’s dolls last week. I asked her if I could come over and photograph her collection.
Here’s a painting of her Grandmother – Anna Kugler, born in Germany est. 1884 according to the 1940 census I was able to find. The artist is Donna’s Uncle Francis, Anna’s son. There are two more paintings he painted. The snowy back yard with the bird feeder is Donna’s parents backyard.
1940 Census found online.
Painted by Francis Kugler
Donna’s Aunt , Sister Evarista, created this nun doll c. 1950. The clothes are made from an acutal whipple and habit from the Order of St. Joseph.
Uncle Charles Goodall, Donna’s father’s brother, brought back the Koala bear from Australia in WW II.
Bride Doll used at showers for decoration
Two hour delay for school this morning. Teachers to report on time or as close to it as they can, safely. I was making it!
I drove by “the find”. but when I got to the top of the intersection by school, I turned around on the snowy hill and went back and captured what I saw in the trash.
Snow on a discarded cat tree started my day.
The snow on the cat tree shapes caught my eye.
Across the street( from my second turn around) I saw these windshield wipers standing at attention.
Then on the way home from school, I thought I’d see how my favorite tree in the nearby park was looking with the snow on the branches. Looks identical to my other photos of this particular tree in the park when it snows but I felt happy it was there.
I like it when a color photograph looks black and white
The snowman was a bonus and I even got out of my car and trudged through about 6 inches to find him with sunglsses, branches for arms and a carrot nose. As my friend V, who had been shoveling earlier, said “The snow is perfect to make a snowman.”
How the light changes throughout the day. When I got home, The Mary statue I rescued from someone’s trash a few years ago had a halo of fresh snow. She was painted by the puppeteer, Laura O.
Our Lady in the Snow
Steve said it was Robbie Burns birthday today. Born January 25, 1759.
We missed the fancy fundraiser for the museum last week, the Haggis and men decked out in kilts of their clan.
We missed the “not your grandfather’s ” Robert Burns birthday party in Lawrenceville and the one on the South Side with all kinds of scotch at Piper’s pub.
But we got to pay homage to the Scottish poet, just before dusk. The end of a January gloomy Sunday.
We headed out to Schenley Park to the Robert Burns statue (by Scottish sculptor J. Massey Rhind) and it started to snow.
Right next to Phipps Conservatory.
Mrs. Peacock sounds like a game of clue but here is a snippet of the article in the Mary 3, 1914 Post-Gazette.
For a list of Robert Burns memorials around the world, click here
Quotes
“
“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley.
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
(To A Mouse)”
― Robert Burns, The Works of Robert Burns
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.”
― Robert Burns
from Tam o’Shanter
But pleasures are like poppies spread—
You seize the flow’r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river—
A moment white—then melts forever.
Line 59
“And man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!”
― Robert Burns
It was Janet of Sustainabilitea blog, ( This,that and the other thing/ Looking at life through writing and photography) who wrote in a comment “these photos would make great puzzles”.
She was right. Thanks, Janet, for the super idea. (original post of the doll collection was just January 6th).
I went down the hill to give my friend the early birthday present and it was a cool surprise. Waiting until the actual birthday on the 29th was too long. Barb was really thrilled with the origianl idea and I told her how a fellow blogger suggested making the photo into a puzzle. Her husband thought the photo below would make a cool document of the idea come to fruition.
Here my friend Barb’s husband Rich holds up the puzzle I ordered from the photo of her doll collection.
It came in a lovely tin. Ravensburger USA in New Hampshire did a super job.
How much fun it would be to photograph collections to be made into jigsaw puzzles.
I tell the grandkids, “okay guys first a crazy pic- then a nice one.”
This is at the Columbus zoo.
I didn’t tell the tiger anything.
Good thing for the glass between us.