Scioto River fire crews

 Fire Department training exercises. Scioto Park. Dublin Ohio. April 24th.

 Athens Fire Department not using the Hocking River

Bowling Green State University State Fire School

day before Easter art museum

 Cleveland Art Museum and lagoon

 Severance Hall (home of Cleveland Orchestra)

Shinto art exhibit inside building, grump old Japanese guy outside

 Karma, greyhound princess

common loon in lagoon, spent more time under water than above, and stayed away from humans around the lagoon path, very few humans walking about

very close to walking path, a successful fishing horned grebe, who did a lot of diving too

 horned grebe in breeding plumage

day before Easter at the greenhouse

 on top of car

 not a bird, but a cactus top

 magnolia

 tulips

orchids, calla lily

coming across random foto shoots

'Twas cold and rainy this morning; a little colder and it would have been snow which would have been a little messier, but more comfortable. It also being Holy Saturday, not that many people milling about. I wanted to take a few pictures, and found people doing foto shoots at Rockefeller Greenhouse, and the art museum's lagoon.

sakura 2019

In Japan viewing cherry blossoms (sakura) and having a picnic under them is a joyful cultural tradition. The blossoms are beautiful and transient, as is life. People wait for the weather forecast as the blossoms open from the south and progress northward. Here in Cleveland, every year the weather can be eccentric. To-day, Holy Thursday was a great time.

 noon hour Thursday 18 April

[2017 click]  [2016 click]

sewer district is doing work on the creek adjacent

 Yoshino cherry

some people play, some take pictures, and some are sent by park management to muck about

Alfombra 2019

Semana Santa is Spanish for Holy Week.  [click2015] [click2017]  It is the sixth year for La Sagrada Familia Cleveland to create Alfombras de Semana Santa (Carpets of Holy Week). Sacred Heart Lorain has been following the Meso-American custom for about twenty years. Here in the cold north, flowers are replaced with painted sawdust. Religious vignettes are portrayed, and the transitory nature of life and man's creation is shown by their destruction under foot on Black Friday.

Before the alfombra is laid down a cartouche is drawn, which will be filled with colored sawdust.

 colored sawdust is laid down in sections

 

 

 San Óscar Romero

Father Robert Reidy looks onto the stage where the children are shown the materials the alfombras are made from. Perhaps future artists are being introduced to the form.

 walking among the unfinished carpets

Miriam Hernandez, catechist at La Sagrada Familia, is creating a version of an eastern rite iconic representation of Jesus in a style representative of eastern Anatolia and Levantine Christianity. Her alfombra is a tribute to the suffering of Middle Eastern Christians.

Beating guns

The 35th of 37th stop of the Beating Guns Tour came to Pilgrim Congregational Cleveland on Tuesday of Holy Week.

And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into spades: nation shall not take sword against nation: neither shall they learn war any more. — Micah iv. 3.

And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war. — Isaias ii. 4.

 sawing guns into pieces

 to be heated red hot, and hammered on an anvil to be formed into garden tools

Some gun nuts would not like this picture. The long gun is the same model that was used at Sandy Hook Connecticut to kill teachers and small children. 

Shane Claiborne (of Red Letter Christians), and Michael Martin (a Mennonite pastor and blacksmith) 

Some bibles were printed with Jesus's words in red, hence Red Letter Christians. Some people believe those words are more important than what else is preached by others, and institutions.

 "How can you be pro-life and be pro-gun?", asks Claiborne. He noticed in Philadelphia the death toll guns brought. Before, and during his speech a slide show runs with other messages and pictures. I heard him speak, and he did not sound like Philadelphia. I read he is from Tennessee. He was sincere and accurate, but he is an Evangelical, and Evangelical style is just not palatable for me. I liked what he said, but the forced enthusiasm is uncomfortable.

Martin spoke little, i would of liked to hear him. Local people who were touched by gun violence spoke. Some of the people were from Black Lives Matter. There was singing, only "Down by the Riverside" was familiar, and it was sung as everyone processed outside. Outside there was more testimonies. People were invited to come up and hammer the cut and heated steel. Eventually Martin would make a garden implement from the metal.