Old Woman on a Bicycle

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

Gayle Alstrom — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:25:51 +0000

I couldn’t quite make up my mind which photo to use, so I present 3 for your consideration, representing 3 activities that I consider escaping: reading, going to the beach, and window shopping where I can’t afford to buy anything. The latter escaping into fantasy, although reading can also be escaping into fantasy depending on what one is reading.

Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris.

On the beach in Playa del Rey, California. Notice how the lifeguard house is painted.

Expensive Designer Shops on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, California

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

Gayle Alstrom — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:59:32 +0000

An Aeonium (I think but am not positive), which is a variety of cactus–close up. (photo taken in Los Angeles 2010)

Turtle Shell. (God must go for patterns since he put so many of them in nature)

Hoy es Cinco de Mayo

Gayle Alstrom — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:20:29 +0000

I was trying to think up a special post for Cinco de Mayo, but all I could think of was food. I will find any excuse to eat Mexican. So, I attached some recipes. After all Cinco de Mayo is only one day a year, and it gives one an excuse for eating one’s heart out. It might be fun to visit a Mexican restaurant, especially if you live in Manhattan.

Your Basic Margarita

Salt, for rimming the glass (optional)
Ice
1 1/2 ounces tequila (blanco, 100 percent agave)
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce Cointreau (not Triple Sec)

Mexican Chocolate Crackle Biscuits–Click on photo to find recipe

Chile con Queso: Click on photo for recipe.

Skinny Taco Dip–Click on photo for recipe.

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

Gayle Alstrom — Fri, 03 May 2013 23:12:14 +0000

These are photos I took from my flight to Los Angeles from Newark in 2010. I went to Los Angeles for my 50th high school reunion. I graduated from University High in West Los Angeles, January of 1960.

Los Angeles Freeways just east of LAX.

I took this photo when I was leaving L.A. It’s the coast line just south of LAX.

The Hollywood Freeway with downtown Los Angeles in the far distance. You can see a little of the Hollywood Bowl–about two-third’s down on far right. This was a very normal smoggy day in L.A. It was really much less clear than this. I used photo software to try to make it more clear.

Debra O’Quinn, My Cousin, Wins Nursing Award

Gayle Alstrom — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:58:02 +0000

Debbie Zimmerman O’Quinn

Just received an email my cousin, Dorothy Zimmerman Myers, who lives in Derby, Kansas (a suburb of Wichita, where I was born) regarding her daughter Debra. I am so thrilled by Debra’s great honor that it brought tears to my eyes. I’m so proud to have a relative who is helping veterans. Debra is a psychiatric nurse for the VA Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. I think a wonderful nurse is a great thing to be.

This is Dorothy’s email:

“The Nurse Manager for our PTSD in-patient program announced that “Our very own Debra O’Quinn has been awarded the Federal Veterans Administration Annual Secretary’s Award in Nursing Excellence for all of Eastern Kansas VA Healthcare System! And…not only that, Ms. O’Quinn has also received the Annual Secretary’s Award in Nursing Excellence for all of VISN 15 (which includes all of Wichita, Kansas City, Topeka, Leavenworth, Columbia, Poplar Bluff, St. Louis, and Marion, Illinois!!)”…She is now a nominee for the prestigious National Secretary’s Award for Nursing Excellence, which if selected, she will be flown to Washington, D.C. to be given the national award…at the White House”.

Click on Photo to Visit (and maybe join or make a donation) the Veterans of Foreign Wars site.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Culture

Gayle Alstrom — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:04:33 +0000

How Mexican culture is being reincarnated in Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York, USA

Street Singers from Mexico

Store Window on Port Richmond Ave., Staten Island

Many Mexican restaurants along Port Richmond Avenue, but for a good one stay in Manhattan.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

Gayle Alstrom — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:06:26 +0000

Man on the FDR Boardwalk in Staten Island (2007)

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
Buddha

The Greenbelt in Staten Island, NY

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. Rabindranath Tagore

The Greenbelt in Staten Island, NY

REACH FOR THE SKY!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

Gayle Alstrom — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:15:17 +0000

Self-Portrait (1982) North Beach, San Francisco. [I knitted that sweater]

Self-Portrait –2012 – Staten Island, NY

Blue Heron Park, Staten Island, NY– This Morning at 7:30 am

Gayle Alstrom — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:45:49 +0000

Update: 4/18/13: Two eggs now in Heron’s nest. web cam from the Cornell Lab.
Update: 4/15/13 at 2/54 p.m. Just saw a blue heron lay an egg live on the web cam from the Cornell Lab. It looked just like the egg pictured below and the ones I saw around the lake. I don’t know how they got lost from the nest. Very distressing.

Spring Pond at Blue Heron Park, Staten Island, NY. Early morning. I saw some blue herons but they were too far away for me to get a good shot, so I started walking closer, but they flew away before I could get close.

Early this morning I visited Blue Heron Park in Staten Island. I hadn’t been there since Hurricane Sandy. Like all other areas that are considered Staten Island’s Greenbelt areas, the trees were greatly thinned out and many on their sides, but still the most beautiful place in Staten Island, that I know of. I think the park service should clear out the fallen trees and bush to make room for new growth.

Damage done by Hurricane Sandy

This is a Blue Heron egg on the edge of Spring Pond at Blue Heron Park. That is water reflecting the clouds and trees above. There were more eggs around and in the water.

This is the mating season.

In my previous post is a web cam showing blue herons preening themselves to get ready for mating. [At least this was what they were up to yesterday.] What upset me today was seeing eggs on the ground and in Spring Pond. I figure they must have either fallen or been blown out of a blue heron’s nest. I’m not sure they are blue heron eggs, except that they are so big. There are also lots of ducks around Spring Pond. I don’t really know what blue heron or duck’s eggs look like.]

Ducks just waking up

Spring Pond at Blue Heron Park, Staten Island, NY, USA

WATCH LIVE–Blue Herons Courting

Gayle Alstrom — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:33:13 +0000

Watch on video cam, blue herons courting. Exciting. Presently (5:30 p.m.) they are preening themselves to get ready to impress.

cornellherons on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Watch live streaming video from cornellherons2 at livestream.com