Leora

Past Two Weeks

Horses of Barnum Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden, NYC, April 2009
Horses of Barnum Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden, NYC, April 2009

Past Two Weeks on My Blog

Flowers: Forsythia, Daffodil, Red Tulip and Magnolia

Spring in New York City

Many links to photos of Birkat HaChama (Blessing of the Sun, every 28 years) and other Pesach links

What I Would Blog About If I Had More Time to Blog

Banging on the Bimah

Highland Park Featured Event: Found Objects Art Show at Pinos

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • Blogger vs. WordPress.com: A comprehensive look at the two free blogging platforms (the chart is a bit difficult to read, but information is good. I like the factors in the left column; may use some of these for a WordPress vs. Drupal post)
    Note: I use a wordpress.org installation on my own website, so that is different than using those free systems that are hosting on someone else’s website
  • Hillel Fuld on Ten Things you Must Know before Using Twitter (and you can wish him Mazel Tov on his new baby girl)
  • There is a custom called gebrochts, in which some Ashkenazi Jews do not eat soaked matza during Pesach. This means not eating matzo balls on Pesach, for example. Custom stringencies vary; for example, some families do not eat cream cheese on matzah. Mrs. S. posts about eating gebrochts the week after Pesach; sounds like this is her own innovation and a good way to use up the leftover matzah.
  • Rick Black, a friend, local Highland Park resident and award-winning poet, emailed me that his brother is the creator of the Jewish Writing Project. I guess the creativity gene runs in his family.

Found Objects In Highland Park

found_objects
Here is an event that is going on in Highland Park: a Found Objects Art Show (click to enlarge). What is a Found Object Art Show? I’m not quite sure, but Pino’s is right in the center of Highland Park, so I think I should be able to attend and find out. Rick Black of www.turtlelightpress.com sent me this poster. The poster is by Bill Bonner.

What are artists in your area doing?

Spring in New York City

bldg_bloom
Yesterday my daughter and I (and her friend and her friend’s sister and her friend’s mom, who arranged the whole trip) went to New York City. When you are six years old, this is a real adventure. I enjoy when my daughter is inspired, awed, and thrilled with a trip. The top photo was taken outside Macy’s; to me, it says “Spring in New York City.”

macys_flower_show
Our first stop after riding a double-decker New Jersey transit car (we rode on the top level) and venturing through Penn Station, a sight in itself if you don’t have to go there every day was Macy’s, for the Macy’s Flower Show. As you may be able to see above, the flowers were situated above the stations that sell jewelry. Tours were going round every half hour explaining the different flowers on display. My daughter took a photo of one of the three flowered flamingos (I’ll save that photo for a future post, as it needs a bit of Photoshop work to cut off someone’s head that shouldn’t have been in the composition). I didn’t care for the noise inside Macy’s, but I did enjoy when the perfume ladies gave their scented cards to my curious and inquisitive daughter (she learn to ask for a card with a perfume scent after the first two were handed to her).

circus_cars
Here is a hint of the Barnum Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden; more about the circus in a future post (or two or three).

What I would Blog about if I had time to Blog

Passover has been, well, a bit of a distraction for me. And blogging seems to have fallen to low priority, after cooking, sleeping, working, entertaining my daughter, washing dishes, baking potato kugel with my eldest son, brownies with my middle son, a nut jam cake with my daughter after she found out I already made a sponge cake without her.

So here is a list of what I might blog about in the future, maybe:

  • Differences (and similarities) between Drupal and WordPress
  • My Questions about Drupal
  • How will Drupal 7 be different than Drupal 6
  • A new Nature Notes (a meme by Rambling Woods)
  • Barnum and Bailey Circus (may be in an upcoming Ruby Tuesday post)
  • Stuffed Squash for Passover
  • Slavery to Freedom Salad, updated with cooked radishes
  • Klara’s Radish with Umeboshi Paste Pickles (delicious! yum)
  • Replacing Grass with Chamomile
  • My Dill Germinated
  • Twitter for Insurance
  • Twitter for Bloggers
  • Twitter for Understanding Autism
  • How Mrs. S. posts about Reasons to Make Aliyah (moving to Israel) but Baila’s post about the Midras Ruins would certainly be a convincing factor. Mom in Israel’s visit to Poleg Nature Reserve also would be an incentive.
  • Synagogues in Far Rockaway (and how the young women in the White Shul wear black and I’m glad I live in Highland Park)
  • Any new drawing by my daugher for a new What Do You See post
  • My upcoming library talks with Eva Abreu at Highland Park Public Library, Edison Public Library and Franklin Township Public Library. See Eva’s Tour Schedule for more details and other featured speakers.

If I am organized enough, maybe I will post about Spring in New York City before 7 pm this evening. In case I don’t make it to that post, enjoy the rest of Pesach if you are celebrating. Everyone, take a few minutes to note any signs of spring in your neighborhood. If you are living in Australia and you happen to read this post, feel free to share signs of autumn.
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Today’s Flower: Magnolia

magnolia
My neighbor’s magnolia tree is in bloom.
magnolia with a dot

This magnolia flower has a black dot toward the top.

magnolia_fly
I enlarged the dot, and I discovered it is a fly. Or some kind of bug.

>magnolia sky
There are few more days left of Passover, so blogging will be light until next week. One of the names for Passover is “Holiday of the Spring.”

Daffodil for Pesach

Daffodil, March 2009
Daffodil, March 2009

Isn’t it considerate of the daffodils to bloom just in time for my final pre-Passover post?

Links to Peruse, Ponder, Inquire, Invigorate

Ruby Tuesday Tulip

My neighbor's red tulip, March 2009
My neighbor's red tulip, March 2009

Do you ever feel like you really should be doing X (whatever your X may be), but instead you take out a few minutes to put together a post for Ruby Tuesday? I really should be getting ready for Passover, but I know I won’t have time next week (I’m taking my daughter to the circus on Monday, and on Tuesday I must get ready for the last days of Passover). Maybe I’ll have circus pics in two weeks? We’ll see.

Pictured is the first red tulip in my neighbor’s garden. Two years ago he planted similar tulips, and last year I painted this watercolor in response to his lovely tulips:
girl_tulip

For more Ruby Tuesday posts:
rubyslippers

Today’s Flowers: Forsythia

Forsythia, March 2009
Forsythia, March 2009

Last month I was hard-pressed to find any flowers to post for Today’s Flowers. This past week I photographed so many on my block alone! Daffodils, anemones, some little pink ground cover, a little red tulip, vinca, and magnolia blooms. I saw a bleeding heart opening up a few blocks away. Can anyone identify the blue flowers on Friday’s post?

Pictured is a forsythia bloom taken last week in my backyard. Ilana-Davita showed forsythia in her Nature Notes post last week, and she writes a bit about forsythia, a flower known as a harbinger of spring.

More Today’s Flowers:
todays_flowers

What’s In My Cityscape?

cityscape

This edition of What Do You See is once again brought to you by my six-year-old daughter. So, what do you see?

Friday Has Arrived

blue_flowers

Update: Thank you to Judy for identifying the blue flowers as scilla.

On My Blog

Today’s Flowers: Daffodils

The Drupal Experiment
I plan to post more about Drupal in the coming months, and I hope to write about Drupal vs. WordPress. Non-technical readers, I hope you will read these posts, as it is helpful for me to know what you can or cannot understand. Perhaps I will also post about an installed WordPress blog like my own and one hosted on WordPress.com, like that of Ilana-Davita.

Passover is Fun
I especially enjoyed the comments of Melissa (who is celebrating Passover for the first time) and of Mojo (who relates his one Pesach experience).

A Photo of Three Bowls of My Pottery
(how I long to get back to throwing on the wheel: someday!)

Landscape Workshop

Nature Notes: Germination

Four Cups in Watercolor

Scheduled for Saturday night: Another What Do You See post, featuring a cityscape by my daughter.

Elsewhere in the Universe

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