Jew Wishes mentioned Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian (review now offline, sadly), a book I highly recommend, especially if you want to learn about Iran. Roya is a good storyteller.
This particular wet display was taken of a brook streaming under a bridge in Johnson Park, which is on the border of Highland Park and Piscataway, New Jersey.
It’s been wet, wet, wet here in New Jersey. My garden is happy.
I am trying to detect which kind of lily this is. See Wikipedia for the varieties of lilies. I have others that seem to be day lilies; they bloom on and off throughout the summer. This one blooms once per bud, then it usually gets knocked over and that’s it for the season. My guess: it is some kind of Asiatic lily, because of the leaves. The stem looks like these Asiatic Lilies.
My Daughter's Pink Strawberry Frosted with Colored Sprinkles Doughnut
If your birthday is in the summer, you get to celebrate your birthday early in school. I brought an assortment of strawberry-frosted and chocolate-frosted doughnuts to my daughter’s first grade class this week to celebrate. The kids thought it hilarious that I was photographing a doughnut (don’t any of them have mommies that blog? I guess not).
So this means only a few weeks until the Fairy Birthday Party. Anyone have ideas for a fairy-themed party? Can you tell me how to make a wand with 20 or so little girls? Fairy games or stories? Fairy prizes (I couldn’t find anything fitting at Oriental Trading).
For more Summer Stock Sunday photos, visit Robin’s Around the Island.
Michelle at Rambling Woods writes: “I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What is going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk….. look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? …take a deep breath…What do you smell?”
Each month I post a listing of birds sightings in Highland Park. I don’t do the bird sightings; I just set up the page way back in 2001 and post the data. This month I noticed a lot more X’s in the May column. Joanne Williams, who gathers the data from other local birdwatchers, explained to me:
Lots of birds come here to breed in the summer and some just fly through to points farther north. It is one of the reasons that the World Series of Birding (yes, there is such an event) is held in New Jersey in May.
I have been seeing a lot of gray birds in our backyard. It turns out these are called gray catbirds. Michelle sent me this link about catbirds. And if you look at Joanne’s list, you will see that catbirds don’t show up in Highland Park until late April. Here are some photos I took of the gray catbirds:
Do you see the little brown patch near the tail? The bird is not all gray.
I photographed this house on 5th Avenue in New York City with Mary’s Window Views meme in mind. Hardly looks like a house, does it?
Here is more of the house. I believe this is the Harry F. Sinclair House, which was built in 1898 for stockbroker and banker Isaac Fletcher. The architect is Charles Pierrepont Henry (C.P.H.) Gilbert; the name does not ring a bell for me among the greats of American architecture. I wonder what it looks like inside?
For more window views, visit:
Oh, and here it is in sepia, with a bit of blue sky:
Imabima has hosted 
