Yesterday we (my daughter, my eldest son, a group of volunteers, and I) picked garlic mustard weed at the Native Plant Reserve in Highland Park, New Jersey. Since our mustard weed demonstrator had red in his shirt, I can use this photo as a Ruby Tuesday post. More on yesterday’s invasive weed picking.
I will be very busy tomorrow preparing for Shavuot, a Jewish holiday in which one traditionally brings flowers into one’s home. I won’t be picking buttercups, though, but I wanted to share these pretty yellow buttercups from the Native Plant Reserve with you.
For more posts with a little or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
From the title, perhaps you were expecting something biblical? Or about American history? Sorry to disappoint, but this is a post of my son’s latest episode of Motor Wars. Enjoy.
Blossoms on N. 8th Avenue in Highland Park, New Jersey
Next week on Thursday, April 22 from 6 to 9 pm there will be an Earth Day Extravaganza and a health fair at the Highland Park High School.
Also, stand up comedian Benji Lovitt reports he will be in Whippany, New Jersey on April 18: “Because the Middle East is funny.”
Last night my husband and I attended our first college application planning meeting along with a roomful of other parents at my son’s school. College? Wasn’t he just born yesterday?
Tree blossoms reflected in a window of building on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park, NJ
Photo was taken a few minutes before the photo of tree blossoms on the previous post, despite the protestations of my three children, who wanted me to leave my camera in the car. Life of a mom.
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“Weekend Reflections” rules are simple:
1) Post a photograph taken by you that contains a visual reflection.
2) After James posts his Weekend Reflections photo, add your name, country and link to MckLinky
3) Be sure that your link goes directly to your Weekend Reflections post.
4) Link Weekend Reflections to your post so other will know where to go if they want to join
5) Comment on other Weekend Reflections participants’ blogs.
Feel free to be creative. Remember this meme is for any type of reflection photographs.This meme runs Friday 11 am EST through 11pm Sunday, so feel free to link your post anytime within that time frame. Join the fun!
Fallen Branches from Storm Behind Blooming Crocuses
One usually doesn’t think of the rain as being dangerous. As a parent, one often says to kids: “What? Are you going to melt?”
Sadly, the storm this past weekend in New Jersey and in New York ended in tragedy. The winds were ferocious, and some areas were harder hit than others. Numerous people died from being hit by falling trees, including two men (who leave behind mourning families) who were walking home from synagogue late Saturday afternoon in Teaneck, New Jersey.
In Highland Park we were fortunate to suffer only property damage: below is the remains tree that fell on a house near my own. Others had car windows smashed by trees or a fence downed by the wind. Compared to losing one’s life, it is mostly a discussion of who has insurance coverage.
And here you can see where it cut into the house it fell upon:
I decided to do a little research and discovered that one can study nearby trees to detect if they are unhealthy. Last year friend had noted that a tree overhanging our backyard had leaves on one side but not on the other; this is a sign of the tree’s ill health. My husband and I are happy that we informed our neighbors who own the tree, and they took care of the situation.
Some links for more information on hazardous trees:
Patrick, the racer in my son’s four part film series, reaches Ruin Rui in this final episode. To see episodes I, II, and III, visit YouTube. This was one of the films featured in the Highland Park Teen Film Festival in early February. He also wrote a film that was produced by an eighth grader (my son is a seventh grader) with various teen actors and one librarian actress, but it is not (yet) online.
I’ve been spending a lot of time uploading videos; last week I set up a video for a client on a site not yet public, and today I uploaded two teen films to the Highland Park Public Library Teen Film page (Ite’s Adventure and Baby Troubles). There are a lot of details with converting films to the proper web format then getting them online without errors, especially if they are large files, which films often are.
My son tells me in this final episode the bowling pins are attacking Patrick the racer, but in the end he prevails. The scene takes place right next to my herb garden, which is currently still covered in snow, but the snow is melting.
This was my favorite dance at my daughter’s ballet recital (not counting the ballet, tap and jazz dances she performed, of course). It seemed like a fitting ballet for this time of year; on Sunday Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Purim, and dressing up in costume is part of the tradition.
Bow of Dancer Waiting Her Turn to Go on Stage
My daughter’s dance rehearsal and show was last week. Lots of girls from ages 3 to teenagers performed ballet, tap and jazz. I love the costumes – they make the performances all the more fun. These girls, a group younger than my daughter, had polka dot outfits.
