Black Pussywillow Branches Cast Wall Shadows

When we lived in Germany, we’d get Pussywillow with fuzzy gray shapes along the branch and hang wooden eggs and rabbit ornaments to make an Easter Tree.

Add MediaI’d never seen Black Pussywillows until Wednesday night at my friend J’s home. I was to take a photograph over to her and the evening turned into an impromptu supper. My crazy part is I went over without the picture I was to take. J followed me back to my house after we ate and got the photograph to take back to her own home but she didn’t seem to mind.

A great blog post about this unusual looking plant is here. The Latin name (Salix gracilistylus ‘Melanostachys’)

I can’t remember the name/type of ceramic vase holding the branches. (Taken with the iPhone)

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in My Life

The challenge came out Friday but this day is Saturday night til Sunday night- Easter! Not an ordinary day.

Puppeteer, Prometheus, Pizza and Pencils

Somewhere I read that alliteration should be avoided.

A rule somewhere. For writing or blogging but I can’t find the source with the rule about not using it, so here is the puppeteer on a break.

The kid on the scooter is looking at the puppeteer as if to ask what time is the next show? Central Park.

Prometheus at Rockefeller Center , Bringing Man the Gift of Fire.

A slice of Pizza on Bleecker Street and Seventh Avenue

And my friend R alerted me – March 30th is National Pencil Day. The date the patent for the pencil with the eraser on the end was granted in the year 1858.

Thank you Hymen Lipman!

I gathered up what pencils I could find and added the new box of Cedar Pointes I had in my computer bag. I love to write in pencil on a yellow legal pad. I’ve never liked mechanical pencils although I know some who swear by them. On March 30th we’re to write with a pencil but that will make blogging a challenge.

Five facts about pencils excerpted from this site

A single wooden pencil can write 45,000 words
A single wooden pencil or draw a line that is 35 miles long.
Pencils can write under water.
- John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 pencils a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.
- Henry David Thoreau penciled Walden Pond. After all, his father was a pencil manufacturer
- The last time I blogged about pencils was two years ago New Years when Anna sharpened every pencil in the house

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

This week’s challenge of free spirit was exactly that- a challenge!

Here’s a gallery of free spirit (to me) as I perused the archives, thinking about the definition.

My interpretations have a wide range of the meaning- including a feral cat, The Angel of the Waters Fountain in Central Park, Andy Warhol, a motorcycle guy choosing to go helmet less- free spirit not limited to flower children dancing at Woodstock or Haight Ashbury. I should have gotten a few of my friends to pose and I don’t have consent to post some shots I already have but I when I think free spirit, they come to mind. Next week is the Art Fair in the Park in Mellon Park Pittsburgh so I’m thinking an opportunity for new images of free spirit.

I found this quote on another blog but when entered this text it says author unknown-

“Free spirits are inclined to explore life and taste new experiences that hold true to the deepest parts of themselves vs. being influenced by what the masses around them are doing. They are often people who think freely and have the courage to hear their own voice and follow their own integrity.”

One of the feral cats we were able to capture, get fixed and inoculated. There are two and we feed them on the back porch. Our neighbor Ann had cats, cats, cats and then moved to a home and then passed away and we inherited the two that called this neighborhood, home.

Concert goers enter the Altar Bar, a repurposed church in the Strip District of Pittsburgh.

Italian Festival in Bloomfield.

Shohei Toyoda performing in Worthington OH

Angel of the Waters Fountain, Bethesda Terrace, Central Park New York City. It was featured in the movie Angels in America. In fact, it’s been featured in many movies.

You might remember this shot from the Andy Warhol Museum as I was leaving at night, the party was just starting.

Photographer friend Joycie in Grand Central Station.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Inside seems simple enough. Until you start to read all the definitions and think about the multi-meanings

Cut and pasted from Your Dictionary – the dictionary you can understand

noun

the part lying within; inner side, surface, or part; interior
the part closest to something specified or implied, as the part of a sidewalk closest to the buildings
INFORMAL the internal organs of the body, as the stomach and intestines

adjective

on or in the inside; internal
of or suited for the inside
working or used indoors; indoor
☆ known only to insiders; secret or private: the inside story
BASEBALL passing between home plate and the batter

adverb

on or to the inside; within
indoors

in or to the inside or inner part of

within the limits of: inside an hour

Murphy inside the van looking outside.

Cool enough on Friday to take Murphy to the Post Office so I could mail something. He WAS in the back seat. Moved himself up to the passenger seat while Maura and I were inside and wouldn’t budge for the short trip home. Yes, I worried about air bag deployment and the seat belt dinging alarm sound the whole way. We made it. He does have a harness that attaches to a seat belt for car trips.

We were safe inside the house as Mark held the iPad showing the violent storm while I shot the rain and blowing trees outside. This is the storm where Laura and James lost power for 5 days and Marlene and Donald( Roanoke VA) lost it for 8.

Maura waits inside looking outside for the guests.