Is your family enjoying the Olympics? We sure are!
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Posted in Snapshot
Tagged Humor, Olympics, Olympics Activites, Photo, Photograhy, Television Viewing
Posted in Community, Holidays, Seasons, Snapshot
Tagged 4th of July, Flag Photography, Fourth of July, Holiday, Independence Day, July 4th, July Fourth, Patriotic, Photography, USA
We’ve had some lovely birds greet us this spring, more than in recent memory. They feast on our seed — bars of Birdola songbird and gold finch feed that fit in a wire-cage bird feeder (though you can make your own feed, too. A recipe follows.)
Our visitors this year include the blue Western Scrub-Jay, the very cheery House Finch, and a young Titmouse. Which creatures are visiting you?
This is a really easy bird feeder to make:
Pinecone Bird Feeder
You’ll need:
• Pinecone (you can substitute a toilet-paper tube)
• 2′–3′ of string
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, peanut or other nut butter, suet, or lard
• 1/4 cup cornmeal or oatmeal
• 2 1/2 cups mixture of birdseed (e.g., sunflower and millet; check your local nursery for suggestions), chopped nuts, and dried fruit
• Mixing bowl
• Plate, shallow dish, or pie tin
• Spoon or butter knife
Tie the string around one end of the pinecone.
In mixing bowl, combine peanut butter or other spread with meal.
Spread that mixture over the pinecone with the knife or spoon.
Pour the birdseed and feed ingredients onto the plate. Roll the pinecone in the seeds.
Hang from a tree branch or window eave.
Photos: Susan Sachs Lipman
Posted in Deck Garden, Nature, Porch Swing, Seasons, Snapshot, The Great Outdoors
Tagged American Robin, Backyard Birding, Bird Feeder, Birdfeeder, Birding, Birds, Habitat Gardening, Make Bird Feeder, Make Your Own Bird Food, Marin Birds, Mill Valley, Nature, Nature Activities, Nature Crafts, Northern California Birds, Pinecone Bird Feeder, Spring, Western Scrub Jay
My love for painted advertising signs on the sides of brick buildings is well documented here. It’s not unusual for me to yell “Stop the car!” or slow my family on a walk to capture one with a camera. More commonplace in earlier decades, they used blank brick canvasses to sell everything from mining equipment to toothpaste. I love coming upon them on country roadsides and in city alleyways. This bright one near St. Johnsbury, Vermont, was no doubt repainted and lovingly refurbished to its old-timey feel. I don’t think the site is a general store any longer.
I’ve since learned that Occident Flour was produced by the Russell-Miller Milling Company in the midwest from 1894-the early 1950s. It was sold to the Peavey Company in 1962 and acquired by ConAgra in 1982. That trajectory, along with newer advertising methods, partially explains the loss of painted signs for individual concerns.
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman, Graphic from Occident Flour
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Posted in Butter and Egg, Design, Home Ec., Lost Arts, Nostalgia, Odes, Recipes, Road Trip, Snapshot, To Market, Vanishing Breed, Vintage
Tagged Advertising, Architecture, Billboards, Ghost sign, Ghost signs, History, Occident Flour, Painted Sign, Painted Signs, Photography, Vermont, Vintage Advertising
I tend to be happy most months and seasons, and completely enjoy the continuity and mystery of the turning year. That said, there is just something a little extra-special about October, which starts tomorrow here and which some of you are already enjoying. What are some items on your Happy October list? Here’s mine:
Crisp air
Pumpkins in fields, farms and stands
Long nights
Scarecrows
Curling up with books and tea
Bountiful harvests
The slant of sunlight
Apples and cider
Riotously colored leaves
Fall movies
Meals with friends
Sweaters and socks
Gloves, mittens and hats
Leaves crunching underfoot
Birds in flight, migrating
Fireplace fires
Stock, johnny jump-ups and even mums
High school football
The smell of bays, oaks and wood duff
The prospect of Halloween
Children in costumes
Picking up sewing projects
Being at rest
Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman
Posted in Nature, Odes, Seasons, Snapshot, The Great Outdoors
Tagged Autumn, Autumn Leaves, Fall, Fall Leaves, Flower Photography, Halloween, Harvest, Nature Photography, October, Photography, Seasons
I don’t know about you, but for me mailboxes and the mail they contain are a source of delight. Even, and perhaps especially, in the age of e-mail and junk mail, it’s a wonderful treat to receive a hand-written note or a postcard from an exotic place that someone took the time to write.
As a bonus, in the town where I live, these sweet mailboxes are somewhat typical. Because many houses are on hills, groups of mailboxes sit on the street above or below. Many are decorated personally and whimsically and it’s delightful to come upon a painted or glittery or otherwise personal one while on a walk or ride. (And, yes, ours depicts a 50s auto flame-job – not quite sweet but not menacing either.)
In an act reminiscent of writing to pen pals around the globe as a child, my dear friend Elise from New Zealand (whom I met online) and I have been exchanging weekly postcards across the internet ethers. As it happens, we just exchanged photos of our actual mailboxes, or letterboxes.
Have you seen and photographed something unusual, whimsical, beautiful, or otherwise interesting in your travels? Has anything surprised you or caused you to pause? Or have you simply experienced a small, lovely moment that you wanted to capture? If so, I hope you’ll share with us by leaving a comment with a link to your photo. I look forward to seeing it!
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman
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Tagged Letter Writing, Letterbox, Letters, Mailbox, Mailboxes, Mill Valley, New Zealand, Pen Pals, Postcards Between Poles
With July 4th and the height of summer approaching, it seemed a good time to focus on bright, flavorful, colorful, summer-invoking, mouthwatering watermelon, painted and real.
I hope you have a terrific holiday (if you celebrate) or otherwise enjoyable weekend.
Have you seen and photographed something unusual, whimsical, beautiful, or otherwise interesting in your travels? Has anything surprised you or caused you to pause? Or have you simply experienced a small, lovely moment that you wanted to capture? If so, I hope you’ll share with us by leaving a comment with a link to your photo. I look forward to seeing it!
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman
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Tagged Food, July 4th, Murals, Photography, Picnics, Watermelon
My family has attended the Sonoma-Marin Fair for as long as we’ve been in this area, nearly 20 years. We’ve visited many other county fairs and even the wonderful California State Fair, but this local, medium-sized one remains our favorite. We love visiting the animals, and the food and craft exhibits, riding our favorite rides. We slowed down a little on the games, not because they’re not fun, but because we already have a ton of stuffed animals. Our new favorite event is a relatively new addition — the Pig Race. The Hambone Express, an outfit out of Arkansas, races little pigs in groups of four around a small track, announcing their names, which are all puns on famous people — Christina Hogulera, Lindsay Loham. Good country fun, this fair never fails to signal the start of our summer.
I hope you’re enjoying your summer fun!
Have you seen and photographed something unusual, whimsical, beautiful, or otherwise interesting in your travels? Has anything surprised you or caused you to pause? Or have you simply experienced a small, lovely moment that you wanted to capture? If so, I hope you’ll share with us by leaving a comment with a link to your photo. I look forward to seeing it!
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman
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I have photographed our lovely fair a lot. Last year I did a 3-part series:
Sonoma-Marin Fair: The Animals
Sonoma-Marin Fair: The Food
Sonoma-Marin Fair: The Rides and Games
Posted in Butter and Egg, Community, Field Trip, Snapshot
Tagged County Fairs, Fairs, Marin, Petaluma, Photography, Pig Race, Sonoma, Sonoma-Marin Fair, This Moment
Did you have a pen pal while you were growing up? Or do you have one now? I had several, and I loved writing to them and receiving their letters. I had long-time pen pals in Japan, Fiji, Switzerland, France, Lake Tahoe, CA, and Scranton, PA, among other places.
Now, this was before the internet, which lets us send instantaneous video-embedded messages around the globe. While some may still revel in the simple act of putting pen to paper and writing out thoughts in longhand, then licking and stamping an envelope (perhaps even embellishing with stickers, doodads, or sealing wax), there are others for whom this sounds as quaint and efficient as rolling a message into a bottle and letting it float out to sea.
Elise and I met online, as it happens. I was immediately drawn to her beautiful, and often whimsical, photography, and the playful way she portrayed her and her family’s life in New Zealand. She was drawn to my message of slowing down and observing life’s small moments. She proposed a blog in which we sent electronic photos and postcards across the globe (and across seasons) to one another once a week, following a simple theme that we alternated choosing, and adding a short message.
The result is Postcards Between Poles.
The photos for the diptychs are taken the week they’re sent. The postcards often are, as well, though we allow for a little stretching of time where they’re concerned.
As Elise writes on the blog:
A postcard is a glimpse into the life of someone we know or a stranger. The image on the front and writing on the back cleverly capture a moment in history that tells a story.
I find that receiving delightful electronic missives does replicate some of the surprise and joy of receiving a letter from an exotic place. I hope you likewise enjoy coming with us on the continuing journey of Postcards Between Poles. Did you, or do you now, enjoy having a pen pal?
These are just a few of the postcards we’ve exchanged over the months.
Cape Palliser, Wairarapa, by Elise
Tibetan Prayer Flags, by Elise
Rainbow Laden, by Suz
Spring has Sprung, by Elise
Granary Burying Ground, by Suz
San Francisco Storefront, by Suz
Posted in Community, Design, Lost Arts, Reading, Snapshot
Tagged Blogs, International Correspondence, Letter Writing, New Zealand, Pen Friends, Pen Pals, Photography, Postcards, Postcards Between Poles
Blame it on the gray day outside — today’s Photo Friday called for an infusion, and a profusion, of bright tulips. These candy-colored specimens were spotted last week at my local market. What an eye-popping delight!
I hope you’re enjoying your local season and its flowers!
Have you seen and photographed something unusual, whimsical, beautiful, or otherwise interesting in your travels? Has anything surprised you or caused you to pause? Or have you simply experienced a small, lovely moment that you wanted to capture? If so, I hope you’ll share with us by leaving a comment with a link to your photo. I look forward to seeing it!
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman
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