SOOC Sunday

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

~Plato

Here are a couple of shots out the window of the JetBlue aircraft that carried us down to Florida for a few days vacation.

Jan at Murrieta365 is the host of SOOC Sunday. Go over to her blog and take a look at the other participants.

maryt/theteach

My World Tuesday

Although this shot is not very clear (I took it from the passenger seat in a car going 60 mph.) I thought I'd post it to show you how our state, New York, tries to hide those ugly cell towers.

This "fake" tree is on the Hutchinson River Parkway just before you turn off for 684. We pass it all the time we drive upstate. When we first saw it we laughed out loud.

Need I say more?

I'm in Florida as we speak. I think I'll have a look around and see how the state of Florida handles its cell towers...

Thanks to the My World Team:

Klaus | Sandy | Ivar | Wren | Fishing Guy | Louise

maryt/theteach

In Memory of Mom

Little Angel

St. Mary's Cemetery, Flushing, NY

SOOC Sunday

Jan hosts this meme in which you must post a photo that hasn't been edited in any way.

In architecture a corbel (or console) is a piece of stone (the ones above are wood) jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic times. Corbels can also be called brackets. These on this building in the village of Whitestone are quite plain.

This shot came right out of my new point-and-shoot digital camera, Canon SX110 IS. I used my 10x zoom from street level.

Go over and visit Jan at Murrieta365 to see other participants.

maryt/theteach

Angel in Calvary Cemetery

My World Tuesday

My Japanese Maple

The Neighbor's Back Yard

The Other Neighbor's House and Beyond

It snowed about an inch or two over the weekend. I took photos from my second floor to give you an idea of what My World looks like from above.

That's My World for this Tuesday.

Thanks to the My World Team:

Klaus | Sandy | Ivar | Wren | Fishing Guy | Louise

SOOC Sunday

A macro shot of Phalaenopsis (Blume 1825) which is a genus of approximately 60 species of orchids (family Orchidaceae). The abbreviation in the horticultural trade is Phal. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids.

Phalaenopsis are among the most popular orchids sold as potted plants owing to the ease of propagation and flowering under artificial conditions. They were among the first tropical orchids in Victorian collections. Since the advent of the tetrapoloid hybrid Phalaenopsis Doris, they have become extremely easy to grow and flower in the home, as long as some care is taken to provide them with conditions that approximate their native habitats. Their production has become a commercial industry.

maryt/theteach

Monochrome Monday on Wednesday

The grave of a young girl in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, N.Y. Unfortunately the statue has not stayed safe from vandalism.

maryt/theteach

My World Tuesday

This is Oakland Lake in Bayside, Queens and it looked beautiful this particular day at the end of Autumn. I haven't been over there recently but I am eager to visit when we've had a good snow. I think it will be lovely, of course cold, and very quiet when that happens.

Lots of Canadian geese and ducks were here the last time I came. I wonder how may of them stayed or flew off to warmer climes.

Oakland Lake is a 15,000-year-old spring-fed glacial kettle pond located in Alley Pond Park. The lake, once known as Mill Pond, became known as Oakland Lake, named for the 19th century estate on this site called “The Oaks” for the many oak trees in the area.

In 1988 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation designated the Oakland Lake area as freshwater wetlands, buttressing the Oakland Lake Committee’s efforts to protect the lake. Where the lake once was home to plentiful stocks of trout, white perch, and pickerel, today the lake is stocked with catfish, sunfish, and carp. The marsh supports many birds, including rails, bitterns, and herons. Part of the original forest remains and Parks has worked to regenerate other areas with Tulip (Liriodendron tulipfera), Beech (Fagus grandifolia), and oaks (Quercus spp.) trees.

That's My World for this Tuesday.

Thanks to the My World Team:

Klaus | Sandy | Ivar | Wren | Fishing Guy | Louise

Orange Judd's grave

A classically dressed female figure raises her clenched fist to heaven over the grave of Orange Judd. It is more usual to see such a figure raising a finger that points heavenward suggesting that the dead has gone to heaven. But in this case it might be that the female figure represents the anger of the Judd family at losing 3 children soon after childbirth.

Judd served in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, was an agriculturist and scientist. His grave is located at Flushing Cemetery, Queens, N.Y.

maryt/theteach

Funerary wreath

SOOC Sunday

A very intricate gate for a very small backyard.

Go see Jan at Murrieta365 for other SOOC Sunday participants.

maryt/theteach

Postmortem

My walk through Flushing cemetery in Queens was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We drove a few miles to the place and entered through the front gate. It was a very overcast day and only after I had taken many photos did I realize that it would have been better to visit on a sunny day.

It was quiet and empty, a Friday, just a week after the holidays when people might have visited to place Christmas flowers. I stayed in the older part of the cemetery (it had opened in 1853 for the residents of Flushing village which had been decimated by a cholera epidemic). The stones and statuary here would be much more detailed and decorative. The newer, present-day parts of the place contained very simple markers which is the style these days.

As I walked among the graves I began to linger to read what had been written on the headstones. The dates, the sentiments. Angels were in abundance and so were draped urns that suggested deep grief and mortality. I became aware that here I was, walking on hallowed ground, such ground that held the remains of people who had had real lives, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. I felt comfortable in this peaceful place.

The figure above while she has no wings is probably an angel. In one hand she holds a cut lily and in the other a plucked rose. They are meant to represent the fragility of life and the early severance of a life in bloom.

maryt/theteach

My World Tuesday

This is what's painted on the side of a bus that visited my campus recently to encourage students and teachers to donate blood.The cartoon figures look like Fisher-Price's Little People, don't they? The period between December 22 and January 17 is considered a critical period in which to give blood.

SOOC Sunday

Jan hosts SOOC Sunday at her blog Murrieta365

My SIL is from a small island off the coast of Sicily called Panarea. She has this icon hanging on the wall of her garage.

The Trinacria, the symbol of Sicily

The Trinacria, an ancient symbol of Sicily, is a triangle that evokes the physical form of the island. It represents a mythological figure with three legs, known in Greek as Triske'eles (three legged ) or in Latin as Triquetra ( with three points/vertexes ). Therefore the name Trinacria originated from this aspect with three points which gave, probably during the Hellenic era, the strange and characteristic symbology of this gorgon figure with three legs, even adopted on some coins during the Greek domination and later becoming the official symbol of the island. Scholars agree that it is an ancient icon from the Middle East, probably representing the god Baal or the Sun, in its triple form of God of Spring, Summer and Winter. It was also supposed that it represented the Moon, presenting sometimes the crescent instead of the legs.

In the center is the head of Medusa with wings and snakes.

maryt/theteach

Sepia Angel