Do you live in a small town? Do you find that more people are shopping in malls or online, so the stores in your little town are not what they used to be?
I photographed these begonias on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park last month. They remind that while we have some pretty planted flowers through volunteers and through state tax money, we still have empty stores and too many hair and nail salons. Not enough stores that one can really use. We do have a great toy store, but the bookstores disappeared, the bike shop went away, a fish shop closed, and not enough new, interesting stores move in.
To participate in Ruby Tuesday, post a photo (or more) with a little red or a LOT of red. Then visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/ to submit your link.
Setting up an art show is not as easy as it looks.
Jill pulls the wire to hook up a painting.
Or maybe you are thinking, who says I ever thought this was easy?
My daughter and I helped Jill with the set up on Wednesday afternoon. My daughter took this photo of me holding a portrait of her.
My daughter is so proud of her ballerina painting.
Jill was at the library setting up on Thursday night and for several hours on Friday. I’ve gotten emails on the progress; and I will gladly be supplying the lemonade in memory of Kiersten.
This past week we (my daughter, my middle son, and I) spent some time at Jill‘s. We all painted. Jill spent a lot of time with my daughter; this was her second art lesson with Jill. My middle son has been taking classes with Jill for about one year. I finally finished my broccoli painting (see my broccoli drawing), which I started months ago:
Here’s the ballerina that my daughter painted:
I finished my broccoli painting before my daughter finished hers, so I did this sketch:
This is my son’s artwork:
My son is excited about surrealism (Jill taught him about Salvador Dali). What do you see in his painting?
My Middle Son and I are going to be in an art show at the Highland Park Public Library in September 2008. You are all most cordially invited to attend the opening on Sunday, September 7 from 2-5 pm (did I just invite way too many people, Jill?).
Here’s a piece I chose to be in the show; not one I did with Jill, but it is my favorite oil painting:
I’m afraid this image doesn’t do the painting justice; it’s much nicer to view in person, especially when the subject himself is sitting right under the painting, buried in one of his books.
"See that woman walking down the street
Don't you know she brought me my beets
She brought me beets,
She brought me beets,
Yeah, we got some beets."
When my daughter was six months old, we had a family crisis. I won’t go into the details, in order to protect family members who aren’t anxious to tell the whole wide world all about our lives. However, there were many friends, acquaintances, and community members who helped us, as well as two superb New Jersey surgeons who performed two separate operations on two different patients.
I would like to highlight one person in particular. At the beginning of the crisis, she discovered through a friend that I liked beets. So every week before Shabbat she brought us a different dish containing beets; some had pickles, some had onions, some lemon, some potatoes. But it really wasn’t the beet dishes themselves that struck the chord for me; it was her understanding that our crisis did not end in a few weeks. Indeed, it was difficult for almost six months. But she brought us beets for at least four months, and then she said: it’s time for me to help another family. That was more than fine with me; I was happy to let our mitzvah lady help another family. I want to stress how thankful I was that she got the lengthiness of the situation and how it went on beyond the first few weeks of help. Getting that extra piece, that meant a lot to me.
She now lives somewhere in Jerusalem; on our last visit, we saw her daughter, and through her daughter I thanked her once again. But for someone who understood difficulty and pain, it’s always good to thank her again.
My neighbor grew these hibiscus flowers right next to my backyard so I could photograph them for Ruby Tuesday. Right? This is not the neighbor with the potted red plants, the one who paints the Jersey Shore. This is the neighbor who cooks with influences of North African, Persian and French cuisine. I have nice neighbors.
My kids like bagels. So we spend time going to bagel shops.
If any of you grew up within 600 miles of New York City, you may know that New York is well known for its bagels. And bagels are often associated with folks of those parts as a “Jewish” food.
Well, it may or may not surprise you to know that in the early days of the State of Israel, the 1950s – 1970s, it was very difficult if not impossible to find a bagel in the Jewish State. I was first in Israel in 1980, and I cannot remember eating bagel while there. I remember pizza, especially Richie’s pizza. But not bagels. Pita, fresh rolls, yes, but I don’t remember bagels.
It was a nice surprise on this past trip to Israel (my fifth time visiting) that we enjoyed not just one but two bagel shops in the city of Jerusalem. At left my son is happily chomping on a poppy seed bagel from Bonkers Bagel in the Old City.
Below you will see my daughter munching a pizza bagel at Holy Bagel on Rechov Yaffo:
How did these bagels shops rate? Hey, they were happy. And that makes mommy happy.
However, the bagel story in our home town of Highland Park, New Jersey is a bit of a sadder tale. We used to have this wonderful bagel shop just over the border in Edison on Rte. 27. They served delicious fresh bagels, and I remember buying the egg salad bagel with tomato and red onion when my son was a mere babe. However, at some point that bagel store departed, and a new one opened in Highland Park. The new bagel shop wasn’t nearly as good as the old one, both for reasons that the bagels weren’t as good and the service was, well, lousy. The new bagel shop changed owners and then closed completely. There is a Bagel Dish Cafe here in Highland Park, but alas, it is not kosher.
Now when we want bagels in Highland Park, we go to: Dunkin’ Donuts!
I should tell you the best part of our Dunkin’ Donuts is great service. Part of the way they give great service is they yell at you if you are chatting online, and it’s your turn to give your order. They keep the line moving fast, and the people behind the counter remember you. And what you ordered last time. The friendly service is quite nice. Personally, my favorite is the multigrain bagel, because of the oatmeal and sunflower seeds on top.
During the school year some teenage boys ran a service where you could order bagels from Teaneck. I don’t know much about the service or about the Teaneck bagels, but as my son will be going to school in Teaneck in September, I expect I might ask him to buy a few bagels for us.
Years ago when my husband and I were dating we used to go to a nice bagel shop on 72nd Street on the West Side in Manhattan. They served bagels, coffee, orange juice and scrambled eggs for one price, and under the glass on the tables were comic strips. Whatever it was called, it probably is no longer there.
In Brookline, Massachusetts (I grew up in nearby Newton) at Kupel’s Bagels on Harvard Street you could get green bagels on St. Patrick’s Day. Probably still can.
Any decent bagel shops where you live?
If you haven’t had enough photos of bagel shops in Jerusalem, visit Dina.
Some of you enjoyed seeing my portrait posted, so here’s another one. If you’ll click on the photo, you’ll see the boy that I’m missing. I dropped him off yesterday so he could head off to camp for a month. He’s sure he’ll love it (Camp Stone), but I’m sure I’ll miss him. He’s my creative youngster, the one who was in the local teen film festival (shh, he’s only 11). On an aside, Michelle Reasso is back part-time at the Highland Park Public Library, so hopefully, there will be a new teen film festival this winter.
The photo was taken in the mirrored elevators of the King’s Hotel in Jerusalem. At some point, I will do a post on their “swimming pool” (they don’t really have one, it’s not the ritziest place in town), but it will be a fun post about an interesting city element with a Paris connection.
While I was driving my son from Highland Park, New Jersey to Teaneck, New Jersey, I asked my boy to take a few photos. Not because there is great scenery on the New Jersey Turnpike. It’s more like a nightmarish view, what gives New Jersey a bad name. I haven’t even looked at the photos yet; they are still in my camera, but maybe I’ll get up the guts to post a few, and submit something to Sky Watch Friday? As a contrast to all the beautiful sky photos from around the world one can find there.
Lion of Zion said he posted for a year about his trip to Israel, so I feel better about doing so here. Stay tuned for more postings about food in Israel, as Lion of Zion raised the topic of restaurants.
And just to add yet one more topic to this eclectic post, if anyone has any good thoughts on alternative energy research, would love to hear.
Can you buy produce from local farmers easily? What do farmers grow in your area?
Every Friday in the summer (June to November) we have a farmers’ market in Highland Park. It is fun to go and see fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. This Friday I bought some mixed lettuce greens and two cucumbers. I ate one of the cucumbers as soon as I got home.
Regarding the recent tomatoes and salmonella fiasco, Yardsnacker theorizes that workers not washing hands is too blame. His theory makes a lot of sense to me. I trust the local farmers much more than what is in our supermarkets. However, I do not think that everyone growing their own tomatoes is the solution. Many people live in apartments. Growing any vegetables takes time, energy and knowledge. Tomatoes require lots of sun. That said, if you do want to try vegetable gardening, tomatoes are among the easiest to grow. I always put plenty of compost in my soil before planting my tomatoes. Composting is free, if you know how to make compost out of your vegetable scraps and garden waste.
