Scroll down for the crop with the dog walker and his dogs in the distance. Didn’t see him when I shot the photo.
Another color photograph that looks black and white. Shot with a EF Canon 50mm 1.2L Lens- 500 ISO f/16, 125 shutter. Wish I had tried a few more settings at the time but wanted to get home.
Thursday the temperature is to be in the 50’s. Unusual fluctuation- one day twenties and snow and ice, another day about zero, now up to sixty?
Something feels off.
I heard a loud machine sound out my bedroom window this morning. No school today. I shot this right through the screen and glass and need to pull the storm windows down. It was a vehicle with a strong leaf blower. Hmmmm. The tree muncher arrived later to chew up a few branches that fell on the park across the street.
Friday night we made a reservation at the Teppanyaki Kyota Restaurant for Saturday. Tonight Steve and I walked down the hill to the new Japanese Restaurant and it’s 34 degrees outside so the Hot Miso soup filled with onions was a welcome beginning. I think I was hungry and chilled so didn’t get that photo! Just ate it heartily. Next we shared a House Salad with Mango Mint dressing and a Sapporo beer to accompany the meal. Grilled Pork with Ginger and Onions and then Yaki Soba a Japanese Noodle Dish with Shrimp. After those dishes we ate a Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Rice Ball). The wife of the owner/chef explained how to put it between the seaweed leaves and eat it. Pickled radish was on the side. The cooking shown in the slideshow is Okonomi Yaki- a Japanese Pancake.
We finished with a square of Green Tea Cheesecake for dessert. Light and not too sweet. And then a very chilly hike back up the hill to home. Everything is cooked to order just for you. Perfectly. All fresh ingredients prepared with attention to detail.
And a word from the Chef off their Facebook page as he doesn’t want to turn customers away but also wants to make the customers in the restaurant happy-
I finally tell you that I decided the date to soft-open Teppanyaki Kyoto restaurant. It is January 15th. That is this coming SUNDAY. Only counter seats. Because of new style of restaurant in Pittsburgh, we take only reservation for beginning of a few months. Please CALL me to make a reservation. Phone nunber is 412 441 1610.
I am looking forward seeing you soon.
Do call and make a reservation. The food is delicious and Bryant Street is enhanced by the presence of another excellent restaurant! We had a good time and a wonderful meal.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Highland Park, Pittsburgh. 174th Patronal Festival.
What the Rector said in the neighborhood List Serve “November 20, the people of St. Andrew’s observe our patronal festival, the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, with festive services including, at 11 a.m., our good friends of the Syria Highlanders Pipe and Drum Band. The bagpipes will begin in front of the church at about 10:45 and will play as well during the service.
A festive reception after features a traditional Pittsburgh cookie table . .” I saw a woman enter the Parish Hall with a square plaid tin of butter biscuits. Sorry to miss the cookie table. One of the bagpipers came 140 miles today. They practice once a month.
If you want to check out all things Scottish in Pittsburgh including the Syria Highlanders click here
Drove by the moving truck on the street that runs into mine. After I drove by, I glanced in the side mirror. Pulled over with the flashers on and caught what I saw in the truck.
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.
The sycamore’s stump was ground up into mulch yesterday. I saw the equipment in the street but when I got my camera it had pulled away. Even the pile of mulch has been removed as of today. As Beth says it’s the cycle of life. The follow up to I Used to Live on a Tree-Lined Street post.
Lucille tells me farmer wisdom says “You have to have a really good reason to cut down a tree.” More than 100 years old and felled in less than two hours. I thought about avoiding the stump, the empty space. But I felt it important to pay my respects. The “Gentle Giant” has retired all right. (click to see the tree before the removal) Chopped up in the chipper in no time flat. A sad day for Heberton Street. A loss of shade, beauty and grace. A life. Another living thing, come to the end of its life. With help from the tree men, the city and the diagnosis of canker. Beth reminds me that we all become soil or dust. It is part of the cycle of life. Here was my reminder today.
Change
My friend T says the only guarantee is change.
And lots of it.
Takes time to familiarize oneself
to the constant in our lives.
Change.
Maybe as I get older
it’s harder to accept?
Or I notice an increase in the amount.
Steve knows about planetary motion.
Explained how fast we are traveling
each second
as earth rotates and orbits around the sun.
Yesterday I took Murphy for a walk after school. And it was about 37 degrees. Chilly but not freezing. I got down the street and saw this hanging from a tree branch.
Original latté art by Rachel at Tazza D’Oro in Highland Park. A lovely way to start the day.
Like a little gift! You sip it in your car, make it last, wend your way across rivers, up the slopes. It tastes delicious.
A Day in the Life
Simple things.
Rituals.
Treating oneself
in moderation of course.
Someone does something nice for you.
You feel happy.
