This bridge leads over the Raritan River into Highland Park from New Brunswick. It is hard to believe that in the 18th century one had to take a ferry to cross over the river. The bridge was named the Lincoln Highway Bridge in 1914 according to Jeanne Kolva, a local expert historian. You can find a timeline of when all the Highland Park bridges were built here.
I liked this shot of the bridge a little better than the top photo (do you see graffiti as art or as pollution or ?), but no water in this shot.
Last week I took a trip down to the Native Plant Reserve (NPR) in Highland Park. Here is the willow amsonia in bloom. I recognize the flower from years ago when I put together a guessing game of native plants from NPR.
I think I should do these Nature Notes posts every other week; I need one week to come up with an idea and take photos, and the next week to put it together in a post. Or maybe I should just take it one week at a time and rely on inspiration.
It’s great when the plants have a sign, like this red switch grass.
This one is called spiderwort; good name for a plant with spidery-like leaves.
I had a hard time getting a good shot of the buttercups. If I had my other lens, the macro lens, it would have been easier, because these are tiny and close to the ground.
What’s going on in your area? Birds, flowers, animals, trees? Visit Michelle’s Nature Notes for more natural wonders.
Who can tell why I am posting white flowers for a Ruby Tuesday post? The answer is very red.
In honor of memorial day, here are three pics from our local parade down Raritan Avenue. The motorcyclist is so un-me (the clothes, the motorcycle, the whole look), but I liked the photo and wanted to share it.
My friend is the leader of this Girl Scout troop. I used to march when I was a Cub Scout Leader.
To me, this picture says “Memorial Day.” We have so much to thank for, living in this country because of those who fought for our freedoms. May those who lose their lives fighting for freedom be remembered and cherished.
For more photos with a little red or a lot of red:
I used a plugin called WordPress Gallery Slideshow to create this slideshow of the annual Highland Park Street Fair on May 17, 2009. There was also a 5K Run in the morning that ran close to my home; you can see one tired friend who did a great job of running pictured in his lime green t-shirt in the slideshow. The run was in memory of Riki Jacobs, a Highland Park resident and social justice advocate who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
One advantage to slideshows as opposed to posts of individual pictures is that sometimes you don’t have a lot to say about each photo, but you have a lot of photos to show. See if you can find the photo of me squinting at my daughter who has taken the picture. Raritan Avenue was crowded and diverse, as it always is on Street Fair day.
I liked the booth of paint your own bags the best. For $3/for a plain white canvas bag, kids painted the bags with acrylic paints. More on the paint your own bags booth in a coming “Guess what it will be” post soon.
I had a very busy day on Friday (did work for two clients and I cooked), so I didn’t have time to put up my weekly review. So why not put it up on Saturday night? Enjoy.
On My Blog
Social Media Networking at Central NJ Libraries: I did my first presentation to the Edison Public Library on “Twitter, Blogs and Websites” this past week. As I can say I was very nervous beforehand, afterward I admit I had a wonderful time! Part of it was the supportive group of people with whom I was speaking, and part of it was the great responsive audience.
Upcoming events in Highland Park/Edison: Thursday night I will be speaking at the Highland Park Public Library. On Tuesday night, related to Israel Independence Day, Rick Black will be reading poetry at the Highland Park Public Library. And Wednesday is the annual walk around the block by RPRY in Edison for Yom Ha’atzmaut, so I suspect I will be taking pictures of children wearing blue and white and waving Israeli flags.
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
My thoughts and condolences go out to Melissa of Sunbonnet Cottage who lost her dear sister this past week.
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
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.
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.
Landscape in crayons, markers and a bit of watercolor on paper
On Sunday my daughter and I had the pleasure of attending a Yoga and Art Workshop with Jill Caporlingua. You can see my post about a workshop Jill conducted last year. You sign up your child for the workshops with Jill, but if you are one of the parents who stay (and not all parents do), you can see the adults are having a wonderful time as well.
Jill showed the group a landscape by Vincent Van Gogh as an inspiration for the children to create their own landscapes. My daughter created a cityscape, and I plan to show it as my next “What Do You See” post. Then she said “and parents feel free to do your own.” I happily took a piece of paper and created the above scene. My daughter wanted to help out, and she added her own embellishments to the painting. I wonder if you can figure out what parts she contributed?
My daughter got out early from school on Tuesday (parent-teacher conferences) so we spent an hour in Donaldson Park, a large county park on the edge of the Raritan River. I took a lot of photos, and I wanted to share a few.
Tree identification time! Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? It is growing right by the little pond in the park, and it doesn’t look very tall. The red buds attracted my eye.
Update: according to my local tree expert, the tree is probably a red maple. She said Middlesex County planted quite a few of those near the little “pond.”
