View allAll Photos Tagged stoop
A lot of the buildings in my neighborhood (my offishul proper neighborhood as defined by the City is Old North, but my neighborhood as defined by reality is the Near North Side) are very old. Nearly all of them come very close to the sidewalk, if not right up to it.
So we have stoops, which is good. They are nice for socializing and relaxing and cooling yourself on a hot day. A street with stoops is a street with a physical environment conducive to knowing your neighbors.
Some of our stoops are nice stone, like this one. There were some active quarries in this area's past, which explains some of the nice stone stoops, and also explains some of the wonderful, distinctive, huge stone lintels which crown the windows of many Near North Side buildings.
My dad lived in Hyde Park for a while when he was a kid (you know, shortly after famed city planner Harland Bartholomew officially declared this area a bonafide "slum"), and one of his memories of the neighborhood is of sitting on the big stone curlicues on the sides of stairs like these, and pretending that he was a cowboy and the stone was his horse.
My house now has a stoop, although the previous owners of this place pulled off the building's original giant stone steps and replaced them with concrete. SIGH. But I like my stoop. I like sitting on my stoop and talking to my neighbors when they happen to walk by. I like it when I am sitting on my stoop and talking to my neighbors, and my cat Swan feels compelled to participate in the neighborhood discussion, so he sticks his tiny arms out the mail slot and bellows--inside life and outside life mix together in a weird but wonderful way.
Stoops are definitely a good thing.
I figured a close-up was needed.
Plants from the bottom right and moving lock wise to the next container and back: Nasturtium, Yerli Pembe (Pink Tomatoes from Turkey), Genovese basil, basil, 'Japanese Trifele Tomato', Purslane, Serrano Chili Peppers, Earliana tomato, Japanese Trifele Tomato,Poona Kheera Cucumber, Jalepeno Chili Peppers, Rosa Bianca Eggplant
I snagged this from a blog and I bet it came from a magazine...I'll post that information if I run across it again!
Jackie and I walked Ruby in the lovely sunshine and so the images today are of the blossom a feather a Goldfinch and we were entertained by a group of 3 or 4 Buzzards soaring and playing on the wind.
Humility
"Congratulations! You just won! What are you going to do now? ... I'm going to Disneyland." This is a classic Disneyland commercial that most people have heard before. You know, whenever someone does something outstanding, they're what they're going to do next, and they would reply that they're going to Disneyland.
The proper question is, what else is there to do? No one is going to play trumpets for you and have the whole world bow. You'll get a bit of recognition no matter what you succeed at, but you can't expect too much. Disneyland happened to believe the best thing for someone to do once they've succeeded at something is to go to Disneyland. Lao Tzu would agree.Humility means doing your job with detachment from the outcome. It means to commit yourself from moment to moment, all that it takes. Success happens every moment you do this; it's not something that only happens when you have no more to do. Actually, that's the time that you've stopped succeeding, and, of course, the time to go to Disneyland. The Master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. Because he believes in himself, he doesn't try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn't need others' approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him....http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/ethics.htm