a front door, a message, and a yard, in support of ukraine and the pollinators
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one of the reasons i love walking so much
is for the surprises waiting to be discovered along the way
when walking through the neighborhood
i travel with eyes wide open
people are so creatively expressive
flower pot art
a snake in the grass
smiling and made of latex, upon closer inspection
a front yard mini vineyard
a tiny village
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“this world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
-henry david thoreau
ann arbor pride fest 2023
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so happy to live in a city that takes pride in all people and celebrates everyone.
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“festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity,
they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being.
in short, they make cities better places to live.”
-david binder
main street is soooooooo close to reopening…
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“main street is almost alright.”
-robert venturi, american architect
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photo credit: ann arbor townies
on my walk downtown-
live jazz
delightful garden
peaceful space-
all in one place
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” city is more than just a place in space it is a drama in time.”
-patrick geddes
“Thank you for being so passionate and proactive about your community!” the response letter states. “When you’re old enough, you should consider working for the city to continue making it a great place to live. Sincerely, City Sidewalk Repair Program.”
Dahlia, the daughter of Kelly and Matt, said in her note to the ‘Sidewalk People” last week that she was devastated when she saw the slab was marked for replacement.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” she wrote. “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Anyone else who wants to say hi to the heart now can find it along the east side of Seventh Street across from Waterworks Park between Murray Court and Washington Street.
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“kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.”
-blaise pascal
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source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor news
“Dear Sidewalk People.”
That’s how 9-year-old Dahlia started her handwritten note placed under a rock along a city sidewalk hoping to get the attention of Ann Arbor’s crews slated to replace the slab she holds dear due to a distinctive feature.
This sidewalk has a heart.
“There is a heart in this block, and as me and my mom were walking home from school, we saw that there was an ‘R’ on the block that the heart is on,” reads the girl’s note, placed next to where she made a heart-shaped chalk outline around a small cavity in the slab the city has marked with an R to replace.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” wrote Dahlia, “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Her father confirmed his daughter indeed says “hi, heart” every time she passes it. When she heard the city was going to replace the slab with the heart, Dahlia said she was devastated and cried.
“So can you please leave it or at least cut around the heart, for me to pick up on my way to school,” she wrote, ending her note by thanking the city’s repair crews for their work to keep sidewalks safe and encouraging them to give her note an extra read so it makes sense.
A spokesperson for the city’s public services unit did not have an immediate response on whether the sidewalk slab could be saved or whether the heart-shaped part could be salvaged for Dahlia to take.
While Dahlia really wanted to keep the heart sidewalk, her father said the family understands the need to fix it so people don’t trip and has talked with her about it.
“We compared it to the Halloween pumpkin she really loved and wanted to keep,” he said. “We told her we could keep it, but we could watch how when a pumpkin dies it helps nature by becoming part of something new.”
In that case, they put the pumpkin in their garden and Dahlia visited it every day and watched it decay, and in the spring she watched as flowers sprung up. She got to see her pumpkin again in the form of flowers.
As for her well-crafted sidewalk note, her father said while only 9, Dahlia is an amazing writer and gives him and his wife daily gems of wisdom worthy of the wisest, aged writers.
“sometimes the people who walk softly make the deepest impressions…”
-nitya prakash
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source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor
imagine my delight
when discovering this spring baby giraffe
in the woods near my home
i had no idea that they were native to michigan.
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“however much you know giraffes, to see one in the wild for the first time feels prehistoric.”
-jane goodall
downtown snowman, safe and sound
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“snowfall rouses your inner child to dream and play once more.”
-angie weiland-crosby
another day, another rally!
big gretch
our governor
and
pete buttigieg
transportation secretary/new michigander
come to campus
to inspire and rally the troops.
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“we can’t slow up because of our love for democracy and our love for america.”
-dr. martin luther king, jr.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 