2025 Miscellany #15 — foto safari

romantic, nostalgic, idealised mural of a long gone amusement park on Lakeshore Blvd. Cleveland

Euclid O.

A building was demolished in Cleveland, on Superior. Two advertising signs were painted on the building next to it. Rothkopf Brothers had eleven stores in the 1930s.

VeloSano bicyclists on East Blvd. Cleveland 

Origin story of Mezcal on a building in downtown Cleveland.

faint rainbow on the Italian fountain in the Cultural Gardens

The Asian [read Chinese] lantern promotion at the zoo has ended.  One walkway had large sea animals in a stained glass like presentation.  Thought it was well done.  Overall, after a few years they are running out of ideas. another walkway that looked good was an ancient Egyptian.  The zodiac animals were almost like shrine sculptures, also looking good, and dragons were plentiful.

What used to be called Newburgh is called Slavic Village.  Most of the Slavs are gone.  The area has had major economic deprivation, and vandalism. There is a yearly weekend art event called "Rooms to Let".  The first few years, houses that were to be demolished were open for artists to create something.  People were allowed to see the finish works. Now it has shifted to the area around Our Lady of Lourdes, in the former Czech hub of town.  Broadway & East 55th were like the central business center for Newburgh. Most of the store fronts are vacant, apartments are vacant, many houses are in bad repair. Over one store window was this panel, the only with a Slavonic (probably) theme, could be Czech.

ruderal plants

Broad-leaved Sweet Pea

Friday, the crew is now back to four members, and we walked part of the Red Line Greenway Cleveland. The local metroparks cleaned up along the electric light passenger train line, and some industrial buildings, and a railroad line, a few years ago. It is meant as a bicycle route.  

The vegetation consists of ruderal plants. Several were in bloom, and it looked garden like. The Latin word for rubble is rudera. These plants some call invasive species, and weeds. I heard a biology professor call them opportunistic plants. They colonise disturbed and marginal ground. Sometimes that means after a landslide, an avalanche, a fire. Sometimes among industrial rubble, construction or other land turning activity, and of course abandoned industrial areas. They also grow in sodden ground, and next to train tracks. Sometimes after a few years, they may be replaced by native plants.

 

Some of these plants attract pollinators. And now monarch butterflies are migrating south. They have an ecological purpose.

Butterfly Milkweed

False Sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides, Smooth Oxeye 

Japanese knotweed

Phragmites australis, the Common Reed

 Yellow toadflax, Butter & Eggs

2025 Miscellany #14 — bird sightings & other stuff

 Parrot spotted on Storer (west side Cleveburgh), painted by Ariel Vergez.

Toucan  on the same wall (west side Cleveburgh)

Possible Raven on Walton (also a west sider), by Ariel Vergez

seen on West 25th Cleveland O.

west side Cleveland, near St. Rocco's

S. Ursula & S. Angela

Usually Saint is abbreviated as St.,  here it is S., with the lettering style i first read as Sangria. It currently is in the rear atrium of  Villa Angela St Joseph. Before the merger the Ursulines had Villa Angela Academy. This glass was created by Sr. Lucia Vasko OSU. She was schooled at Villa Angela, and was an art teacher there. The window was part of the Ursuline Sisters' old Motherhouse.

St. Michael's seen from Walton & Twinkie Lane.

St. Michael's is visible from many spots. The cross from the taller spire [click] was removed in 2009. Here they are seen above an electrical substation.

Perun surveys German style beer stand at Cuyahoga fairgrounds.

Sims Park Euclid is about to open a new walk with signs, benches, native plants.

red headed woodpecker at Sims

Canadian geese coming in from the lake at Sims.

Perun

Perun

I have written before on the naming of dogs. Some like to give their hound an impressive name. They I have written before on the naming of dogs. Some like to give their hound an impressive name.  They have named them after pagan gods.  I have met dogs named Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Zeus, Loki, and Huitzilopochtli.  Perun was the chief god of all the Slavonic peoples, and some of the Baltic peoples called him Perkunas, he was known to the Finns, and among some of the Scandinavians he replaced Thor.  He had the same function of Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, and Indra for other peoples.  Perun was a sky god of thunder, lightning, and war.  Perun fell before Christianity's advance. The last Europeans to still have Per(k)un(as) were the Lithuanians.

Now i have welcomed a City Dog from the Cleveland Kennel. They tell me he is partly Labrador retriever.  He is a pup in the middle of his first year.  He is now — Perun, awe in his majesty, tremble in his presence, fear his displeasure.

a plate on a car in the parking lot

We were warmly treated by Cleveland Kennel staff and City Dogs Cleveland. Perun is an exuberant, happy pup. Perun has a sweet disposition, and is alert.  Karma is tolerant with his antics.

2025 Miscellany #13 — Cleveland

Terminal Tower, once only second in height to the Empire State Bldg., is Cleveland's most recognisable secular building. It is visible from many spots of the city, and fotos engaging an alignment with or through other objects can be shot. This is through Wendy's Bridge on Whiskey island. 

St. Michael's or St. Theodosius is the most easily recognisable building in Cleveland. May 28th last year, roofers caught the building on fire. The large central dome w burned so badly, it had to be removed. Now there is a temporary cap in its stead. In this foto one of the smaller domes is in the parking lot.

There is a stretch of Interstate 90 on the west side where in succession one can see St. Patrick's, St. Stephen's, St. Colman's, and St. Ignatius of Antioch are visible. St. Stephen's  is the only one on a residential side street. Here is a view from West 52nd. [also click]

some construction on Euclid Beach 

School is starting up, and athletics are there before classes start.

Sculpture portraying dog in motion catching a frisbee disc. I think it was installed last December. I do not know the sculptor, but i have seen his work elsewhere, and can't remember where.

This is new this year on Cleveland's Lorain Avenue. The building houses a small French café. Perhaps this is a Gallic coq, i have to ask Marianne. 

Perhaps, the only tricolour in Cleveland is in front of a shop on Detroit.

2025 Miscellany #12 — Northeast Ohio

Octopus sighting, west side Cleveland, saloon and restaurant.

Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park.  Nelson Twp. Portage Co. O. 

These ledges were a result of the Wisconsin Glaciation. That ice movement also excavated the Great Lakes.

Within the park a new addition, bridge over Sylvan Creek Gorge. A section is glass, perhaps the first day it was see through, smudges and water condensation have made it cloudy. Other parts are slotted with narrow gaps, and visibility is there.

Lake View Beach. Lorain. O. on a day Lake Erie was inhospitable.

French crusader mount on carousel Sheffield. O. carnival

The big sheep ahead of four small sheep advertising mattresses, west side Cleveland.

April 14th. Ascension Episcopal. Oldest congregation in Lakewood O, marking Lent in their 150th year.

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

David Deming. Superman Group. 2025. Cleveland. 

Man of (stainless) steel, born on the planet Krypton. He was an alien to this world, an undocumented immigrant who believed in truth and justice. He maintains a rigid moral code to do good. He believes in Democracy, and fought Fascism. In America in the late 1930s, this was possible; but now America has fascism in the highest places. Future episodes could be film noir.

Joanne Carter Siegel (Lois Lane), illustrator Joe Shuster, writer Jerry Siegel (bronze)

Joe and Jerry met in the neighborhood high school, Glenville.

click1, click2, click3, click4 

   Drawing of the cover of Action Comics #1, April 18, 1938.

inside the telephone booth

New to Rocky River Metropark. a giant wood duck, already popular with small children to climb.

For some years, people have clothed cement geese on their lawns and porches. These large skeletons were sold to decorate for Hallowe'en, some are getting the same type of seasonal sartorial changes.