My Year 2015 in Photos

Thank you for visiting the blog and clicking the ‘like’  button and/or leaving some good words.  I appreciate your taking the time to look at the photographs.  If you’ve been with me this year, you’ve already seen these images but after reading the Annual Review of my Blogging Year from WordPress, I wanted to capture 2015 myself.  What I notice is I like weather, people, family and night photography.

I wish you a new year filled with good health and happiness.
A few of my favorites from 2015- I skipped over most of the food photos.  Will take new ones in 2016!

Pittsburgh in FogPittsburgh in fog

The weddings

 

jack and mauraGrandkids visit “Cloud Arbor is made up of 64 steel poles reaching 32 feet into the sky, embedded with nozzles that spray a fine mist of water, creating the effect of a spherical cloud suspended in the air.”         (artist Ned Kahn)

 

Some of the family photos-

People at work and play

 

 

Places

Found the Key to Happiness

You know how I’m always looking for signs.

And there it was at the Auto Glass Store.

Driving from school, stopped at the red light.

Written on the portable sign.

 

Key to Happiness

Me on Big Screen TV, Sort of

When I parked the car to go to coffee this morning, I saw this huge TV on the sidewalk, waiting for the trash.

(Another title could be Trash Selfie?)

Me on Big Screen TVYes it was really windy.

The inviting scene as I parked the car.

DSC00517

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette Gallery

NOTE:  If you are not a WordPress Blogger just skip down to the collection of Silhouette Gallery photos 

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So WordPress decided to change the editor where one creates a new post and I just couldn’t see how it is any sort of an improved model. Perhaps it just takes some getting accustomed to the new format?

“No worries, just switch to classic mode” they reassured me at the top of the WordPress Page.  I clicked.

 And then when you click :PREVIEW the post from the classic mode, it then reverts to the New Editor, it does not stay in “classic mode”  

Life is all about change and our ability to adapt to change, right?

 But sometimes CHANGE is NOT an improvement.

(And what the heck is the BEEP BEEP BOOP someone created for the loading while you wait?  Oh my)

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Now back to our regularly scheduled programming and I know talking about computer issues bores people.

MY SILHOUETTE GALLERY – You’ve seen a few of these before if you follow the blog

silhouette cupples field st. John

St. John at Cupples Field South Side

silhouette  hand murray ave

Looking up Murray Avenue

silhouette family smith mountain lakeFamily at Smith Mountain Lake

silhouette Hudson RiverHudson River Silhouettes

fireworksJuly Fireworks at The Lakes

michael on the zip lineMichael on the Zip Line

silhouette MauraMaura at the Strawberry Farm

Bobbijo and Tim  Wedding
Bobbijo and Tim
Wedding

silhouette steam shovel 2

Dinosaur Demolition  (you’ve seen this one before)

silhouette Hudson River 2 Looking to New Jersey

silhouette birds on wire

Birds on a wireIMG_0848

Celeste as a bride last weekend.  I was actually trying to get a good silhouette but it didn’t quite work out.

silhouette winter trees

Winter trees in Highland Park

silhouette gigapanGigapan Work on Mt. Washington

silhouette supermanSemi Silhouette of Superman in Hardy Virginia

Cars Driving Uphill Have the Right of Way

….and so when I leave school and I’m driving down Parkfield Street (AKA the Cow Trail) and someone’s driving uphill, the road’s so narrow you have to pull over to the curb and allow the uphill car passage. Even pulled over it can be a tight squeeze.

Wouldn’t you know it, I got lucky on Monday afternoon and as I’m at the curb I look out the passenger window and see the neighborhood of Carrick and St. Basil’s Church up at the top of another hill.   One shot with the window down and then I put the camera back in my school bag and take my foot of the brake and head down the hill as the uphill driver gives a wave of thanks.

Looked up St. Basil‘s story, too.

This shot shows Pittsburgh topography. Hills and more hills.

The trees are full of leaves now. Shot with the Canon 70-200mm lens as I was headed to the  Girl’s Softball game.

Carrick Neighborhood

 

 

 

Found Shopping List

Sunday afternoon I drove across the Monongahela River to the Waterfront at Homestead, PA and did a little grocery shopping.

When I wheeled my cart to load the car, I saw this little list on the pavement of the parking lot.

I used to photograph found lists, little wrinkled slips of paper, write poems about them. Some lists abandoned in a cart-  seemed like poems when I found them.

I’d think about the people who wrote them. Sometimes they’d written the oddest mix of items.

I have a friend who keeps a magnetized shopping list pad on her fridge and when she uses something up, she writes it down immediately so she can replenish the larder.  I’m not that disciplined.  I’ve written a list and then left it at home but it can help when trying to remember what I’d written down.

There are even tablets of preprinted lists and you just check the boxes of what you need to get at the store. That’s not my style of list, either.  When I entertain I’m more likely to write a menu AND a shopping list.  Cross things off as I put them in the cart.

What is your “list style”?

What's Cooking Tonight?
What’s Cooking Tonight?

One Minute It’s Summer- Now the Pool’s Drained

 

Officially summer on the calendar but nothing like Back-to-School to bring it to a close. Summer vacation has been wonderful. Relaxing and lots of time with the family. Reading a book, flipping through a magazine, lazing about on the hammock, getting things done or not. Fresh sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. Summer’s grand.

Then school started with meetings and room set up and although it was a short week of actual teaching(2 days), the back to school feeling is in earnest and a new cycle has begun

A bit hot and muggy tonight from the rain, I can’t hear the cicadas but the change of season is impending.  The earlier sunsets. Something about the feel of the air.   Today we saw swarms of students shopping for wastebaskets and bedding, eating ice cream as they crossed the street.  The city has a different feel since they’ve returned to campuses.

I converted both images to black and white to unify them for the thought of swimming in summer and then a different pool, just drained for the season.  You get ideas. Some work. Some don’t.

Swimming at Aunt Linda’s neighbor’s pool-

 

 

 

St. Basils on Brownsville Road in the background.  Phillips Park Pool in Carrick.  Shot at the Corn Festival.

Black Widow Adds a Lot of Screams to the Park

Back and forth, as a pendulum.

Spin round and round simultaneously.  Not to mention the height.     Oh my.

I shot this angle at dusk.

No, I did not ride it but was fascinated by the long lines of people waiting to get onto it and be scared out of their minds.  The screams rated high in decibels.

You can read a great article about it and there is a video link to view as well.  Plan a vacation in Pittsburgh and take the Black Widow at Kennywood.

 

Google Pittsburgh

When we first lived in Pittsburgh and Matthew played baseball in Mellon Park across the street from Bakery Square we could smell the aroma of baking. Crackers, cookies, it was the NABISCO Factory built in 1918.  Bakery Square has been “repurposed” as they say.  And GOOGLED.  

There’s a Coffee Tree that opens at 5:30 AM. for the early birds.

 

And a close-up crop of the Google flag.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful

Murphy the Airedale

Photographed during a family visit to Hardy, Virginia. Labor Day Weekend 2006.  I like the green and warmth in this photo as it is white, cold and gray in Pittsburgh today.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful   Click here to view fellow bloggers responses to the weekly photo challenge.  Their links are in the comments section. A wide variety of photographs.