Milkweed

My Marvelous Meadow Milkweed..........in Massachusetts.

Musée des Beaux-Arts. Rouen France

Human statue at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Looking Out My Window This Morning

Life on the street

This is Boogs Andy and Bongo, three gentlemen who spend the day conversing under the truck eating bridge in Northampton. Beneath their outward appearance , they are a delightful group , quick on the draw with a joke and up to date on current events. It was a pleasure talking with them.

If A Tree Falls

Yesterday I photographed author Jennifer Amy Rose and her two daughters for her soon to be published book "If A Tree Falls". They were delightful.

If A Tree Falls: a family's quest to hear and be heard

by Jennifer Amy Rose

forthcoming, in May 2010, by The Feminist Press

After her first baby fails the newborn hearing test, Jennifer discovers a family tree riddled with deafness. When her second child is born profoundly deaf, Jennifer is forced to come to grips with the realities of raising deaf children in a world of sound and her own feelings of being unheard as a child. Thrown into the unfamiliar world of deaf politics, Jennifer and her husband find themselves overwhelmed by choices.

In an effort to understand how her daughters will cope, Jennifer embarks on an imaginative genealogical journey. She recreates, in beautiful and startling detail, moments in the lives of her two deaf great-aunts, Nellie and Bayla, who lived in a small Shtetl in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s. In this other time and place,Jennifer finds solace through establishing a connection with Nellie and Bayla's mother, Pearl, who had none of the modern options available to Jennifer and her husband.

Struggling with nagging insecurities due to a fragile relationship with her own hard of hearing mother and pressing worries of being able to sustain a healthy connection to her children, Jennifer learns, through the delights and triumphs of raising her girls and her growing connection to her own ancestry, how to let go of old grievances and how to be present and joyful in motherhood.

Where We Went: GoNOMAD Staff Travels in 2009. A year end overview

Here is a link to Where We Went: GoNOMAD Staff Travels in 2009 Check it out.

Tom Petty tribute, a benefit concert for the NoHo arson victims

Jim Armenti , Jose Ayerve , and Ray Mason perform at " Don't do Me Like That" , a Tom Petty tribute concert at the Iron Horse Music Hall for the victims of the Northampton arson fires.

Photo of suspect arrested in Northampton arson fires

This is Anthony P. Baye who was arrested in connection with the Northampton arson fires being brought into the Hampshire county court house this morning. for more info on this story go to Northampton Media.com

Northampton Arson fires memorial

Bernadette Giblin, Who's late husband was the nephew of Paul Yeskie Sr, speaks at a candle light vigil held at the first church downtown Saturday to memorialize
Paul Yeskie Sr. and Paul Yeski Jr. who died in their home on Fair street that was set ablaze in one of the arson fires that struck Northampton last weekend. Below is Gineen Cooper. For more coverage of last nights vigil go to Northampton Media.com. There will be more photos up soon.

Community Meeting on Northampton Arson.

Yesterdays meeting about the arson fires was packed with over 500 residents from all over Northampton. People are scared, looking for answers and someway to protect themselves. As the mayor said this was not a meeting to solve this crime. They could not reveal information that might compromise the investigation and for all we knew, the person might be there in audience. This meeting had to happen and did give the community a sense of togetherness but the real nuts and bolts work of setting up phone trees a neighbor hood watch etc will have to be done ward by ward. DeloresMishon, who lost her uncle, Paul Yeskie, and her cousin, Paul Yeskie Jr, at the 17 Fair Street fire was one of the residents who spoke last night as did Naomi Cairns,10 Highland Avenue, who's Hawley Street home was burned in 2007, only to become a victim again in this recent rash of arson. For the full story on last nights meeting and more photos go to Northampton Media.com