snow creature in the yard

oh heavy snow, bury me tonight

superbowl sunday, seneca park

I get depressed during the month of February.  I miss the sunlight, the warmth, the outdoor activities and adventures, the colors.  I can hardly even stand to walk around outside to take pictures.  I constantly try to find ways to fool myself into another state of mind– cooking, watching tv, reading travel books, eating spicy foods from warmer climates… 

Tonight I’ve decided to attempt to embrace the rest of this month– or at least make a list of some of the things that will help me to think about it in a more positive light:

1. Having an excuse to hibernate and be ultra-lazy

2. A fresh blanket of snow (and potential snow days, snowmen, and sledding)

3. The abundance of hot drinks

4. Cooking with the frozen tomatoes, blueberries, and pesto I prepared during the summer

5. Indoor swimming pools/whirlpools/saunas at the gym

6. Homemade valentine cards and chocolate

7. It’s Black History Month (a 6th grade student scolded me with this information when I was complaining about how lousy the month of February is.. which one of us is the adult?? I forgot.)

8. The joys of the entire year to look forward to once this crappy month is over

This sock monkey was impersonating me in my home.

 

golden light in february

A great weekend of ROCK

The Airborne Toxic Event/Calexico show is at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, 501 W. Main St.  Tickets are $25 and up, but if you buy a $33 ticket it includes admission to Phantasmagorical at Headliners on Sunday.

Phantasmagorical is benefit for local musician Jason Noble (Rachel’s, Shipping News, and Rodan) who was diagnosed with cancer last year. Wax Fang, D.W. Box, Second Story Man, and other bands are donating their talents to help raise money to defray Noble’s medical costs. The benefit starts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and admission is $10 unless you take advantage of the Calexico show deal. To attend both shows call 502-587-8681 for tickets (use the promo code NOBLE).

pale the

a pretty pickle turns 1

 

 

the last years of sheppard square

I work closely with many families who live in the Sheppard Square housing projects in Smoketown, near downtown Louisville.  The housing authority of Louisville  plans to demolish the outdated, inadequate buildings in the next couple of years and replace it with mixed income properties through a HOPE IV grant.  We’ve seen this happen before with the Clarksdale Housing projects and the Cotter and Lang Homes.  While the living conditions in Sheppard Square are not the best (there’s still a big blue tarp on the roof of one of the buildings from the Ice Storm last January) and I am optimistic about the plan, I do fear for the future of the families who live in Sheppard Square. Where will they go?  How deeply with this disrupt their lives?  Smoketown has its problems, but there are many positive aspects to the close-knit community.  Who will get to stay? Who gets pushed out? Guess we have to just wait and see.  I wanted to take some pictures to document the way things are now before they’re gone.

Here’s a Courier-Journal article about Sheppard Square 

Here’s a really fantastic article on Str8 Legit, a positive force in the middle of Sheppard Square

highway 150 to paoli