I was in the mood to post a cheery photo, and here’s a great one of the daughter and me. I don’t recall who took the photo; it was a year and a half ago on Purim, a holiday where kids get dressed up, and my daughter was dressed as a Prima Ballerina. It was taken at our synagogue, Congregation Etz Ahaim of Highland Park, New Jersey.
I made this sepia in Photoshop by desaturating the photo and then moving the color sliders to increase the yellow and magenta.
First, an explanation for those that do not speak Hebrew. Mabul in Hebrew means flood. This post ideally should have gone up last week, but the cake was not baked until Friday, and the post was not ruminated over until Shabbat, and on Sunday I did JPIX, and after that…well, here it is. I try to make marble cake for Parshat Noach, the section of the Torah about the flood. This year I took Batya’s simple cake recipe (the one I had previously used for orange cake, but no orange in this one, just vanilla for flavor) and divided it in two, one with some cocoa (about 1/4 cup) and one without. I used three cups of flour, and I mixed some chocolate chips into the batter.
The cake itself came out delicious. And no one seemed to care that my lights and darks were not very pronounced. No one except me, however. So in preparing this post I put the picture in Photoshop and made it look a little more marbly (mabully?):
Does it look more like a marble cake now? Maybe next year I’ll melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it throughout the cake batter as I put in the pan. Any suggestions?
Another fun idea for this parsha by Juggling Frogs: Rainbow Menu
Post about this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha:
Avraham Ha-Ivra/the Hebrew (Daniel Saunders)
I took this photo in September when we visited Lee Turkey Farm. It seemed like a good photo for 2sweetnsaxy’s Water Wednesday meme. Feel free to offer a caption for the photo.
I really wanted to get a photo of Donaldson Park from up high. It is a big county park on the edge of Highland Park, and the Raritan River flows right next to the park. I couldn’t get the whole park, but I got a nice tip of it in this photo. It’s on the right of that white streak in the river.
In order to get this photo, however, I had to park my car on a side street near this busy highway, Route 1, which runs from Maine to Florida (I think). The bridge goes bump, bump, bump as all the cars go over it. I don’t think I’ll be venturing out like this again. I got too nervous from all the cars and bumps.
On my way back to my car, I photographed these pretty fall oak leaves.
Not a lot of “at their peak” flowers showing in my garden now. The marigolds are limping along, and I still have a few rudbeckia. White alyssum, however, are as vibrant as ever; these annuals reseed themselves each spring, so no need to plant new ones. The purple alyssum variety do not reseed in the same way.
That’s parsley poking up from under the white alyssum. Fun to mix herbs and flowers.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz, for this lovely meme.
Welcome to JPIX, the blog carnival of pictures by Jewish bloggers.
 Proud Mommy |
 Seraphic Secret |
 Joe Flix |
 Cosmic X |
 Me-ander (Batya) |
 Elms in the Yard |
 Ricki's Mom |
 Muqata |
 Baila |
 Tcheles |
 Mom in Israel |
 Robin |
 Frumhouse |
 Mimi's Israeli Kitchen |
 Cosmic X |
 Leora |
 Wolfish Musings |
 Ilana-Davita |
 Mottel |
 Jacob Richman |
 Elms in the Yard |
 Nad-Ned |
 Lizrael |
 Robin |
 Soccer Dad |
 Mimi's Israeli Kitchen |
 Cosmic X |
 Juggling Frogs |
 Meander (Batya) |
 Baila |
 Joe Flix |
 Mrs. Joe Flix |
 My Right Word |
 Leora |
 Pesky Settler |
 Views From Shiloh |
 Mottel |
  Jerusalemite |
 Frum Satire |
 Lady Light |
 Joe Flix |
 Meander (Batya) |
 Meander (Batya) |
 Cosmic X |
 Muqata |
I included many different blogs, whether you submitted your photo or not. If for some reason you do not want to be included (or I incorrectly attributed a photo to you when you may have used a stock photo), please let me know. The links on the images go to the post; the link on the name goes to the blog.
First, Esser Agaroth did a great Elections Edition Haveil Havalim.
Now for our featured attraction, a beautiful article written by a Highland Park teen:
Seven years ago my mother decided it was high time we children had a dacha, a summer cottage, just like she did in Ukraine…And so we found a private bungalow in the Catskill Mountains — just around the corner from the lake and crowded Russian colonies, giving us both a social life and some relative privacy. The rather spacious two-bedroom cottage, which we would return to every year, with a large kitchen and lovely deck to the side, at first seemed small, compared to the suburban proportions we were used to.
And it wasn’t just the bungalow that was strange; at first we felt like we were dropped onto an alien planet. We had seen these loud babushkas and their Gucci-parading daughters on trips to Brighton Beach, but never in such large doses. Mornings, we were awakened by the eccentric Russian sculptor’s rooster crowing from across the street. Evenings were spent gossiping over tea and sunflower seeds and listening to the latest imported pop from Moscow.
Read the whole thing, on her mom’s blog or in the Jewish Week.
A reader wrote to me saying she is never quite sure how to comment on an image. I realized that my many years of art training helps me comment on photography and art. So I’m hoping that with this post we can help those who would like help with imagery commenting ideas. If you have suggestions to offer, please leave some in the comments. I may add to the post with some of your ideas.
Using a list of formal elements I learned from an art teacher, here are some ideas:
For further reading:
Formal Visual Analysis
Composition and Design Principles
If you would like to test out some of these descriptive ideas, you may comment on the painting in the upper right corner by Van Gogh. Click on it to see a larger version and more information.
I took these photos yesterday in various spots around our little borough of Highland Park, New Jersey. The above photo is looking down North Fifth Avenue.
This one was taken outside the supermarket. Hard to believe we had snow here on Tuesday.
The flag is flying high above the Highland Park Public Library.
For more Skywatch participants, please visit:
The snow in October, unusual for Central New Jersey, inspired me to take these photos. It’s my neighbor’s tree; most probably a “burning bush” (thanks, EG Wow and Carletta). The yellow-leafed plants with green “sticks” are what’s left of my hostas.
My son just called and told me it is RAINING in northern New Jersey.
For more photos with a little red or a LOT of red, visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/.
