↓
 

words and images

🇺🇦✏️✒️📚📔🌜dreamer 🌕 thinker 🌕 aspirant📱📷🚴‍♀️🏕🍄🌻

Menu
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Letters
  • Photography
  • Poems & Stories
  • About Diane Schirf
  • Site Map

Tag Archives: Hyde Park

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Signs of the times, part 4: Barbershop poles

words and images Posted on April 3, 2021 by dlschirfApril 4, 2021

I have a lot of favorite commercial signs, so I’ll break them up into manageable categories starting with barbershop poles.

Once upon a time, the working barbershop pole was a common, universal sign. Someone on Pleasant Ave. in Hamburg had one in front of his house. There may have been one at South Shore Plaza; I suspect my dad went to both places. Now they’re almost rarer than a hen’s tooth.

I get excited when I see a barber pole in working order. The first one up is the Varsity Barber Shop in Ann Arbor. The 2012 photo was missing the location data, but I figured it out from the Michigan colors. Varsity is still open.

Varsity Barber Shop, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The next one is from Arcade Barbers in Nickels Arcade, Ann Arbor, possibly my favorite shopping area anywhere. The shop started in 1917.

Untitled

This one is from a couple blocks from me on a stretch of 55th Street with many tiny basement salons/barbershops. I was excited when this pole appeared and remain surprised it hasn’t been vandalized.

Untitled
Untitled

Finally, here’s what happens when you can’t bother with a pole or don’t have a place to hang it.

Untitled

As an aside, I looked up barber poles on eBay many years ago and found some for hundreds of dollars. Now I see several on Amazon for under $100. Have they made a comeback, or have they never been out of style (or a reasonable price range)?

Posted in Blog, Photography, Signs | Tagged Ann Arbor, Hyde Park, Michigan, photo, signs | 1 Reply

February chill

February 7, 2021

This year, the weather cooled off in February instead of January, but so far I’ve seen only a faint wisp of sea smoke once. Even though it is mostly above 0ºF, it’s cold enough outside, with frequent fits of snow.

Untitled
February 11, 2021 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography, Weather Tagged Chicago, Great Lakes, Hyde Park, Lake Michigan, photo, Promontory Point, weather Reply

Lessons and Carols at Rockefeller Chapel, 2020 style

Normally I’d have taken a couple of Amtrak trains to Pennsylvania for Christmas, but 2020 isn’t normal so here I am in Chicago. Normally if I were in Chicago I’d attend Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve at Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. But it’s 2020, so here we are. I lit my own candle.

December 26, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Chicago, Life, Video Tagged Chicago, holiday, Hyde Park, life, music, video Reply

Google Maps most viewed photos

Every now and then I get an email updating me on my Google Maps photo statistics. As of today, these photos have 10,000+ views. The surprises? The chicken and the nondescript view of Lincoln Park Zoo’s south lagoon. That so many people are looking at Beaubien Woods. And that the photo of the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls didn’t make the cut as of today. Not looking like it will for a long time.

Untitled
Amnicon Falls State Park, Wisconsin: 14,802 views
Untitled
Beaubien Woods, Illinois: 17,361views
Untitled
Garden of the Gods at Shawnee National Forest, Illinois: 18,008 views
Untitled
Rock of Ages off Isle Royale National Park, Michigan: 18,257 views
Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan: 18,341 views
Untitled
Tytoona Cave near Tyrone and Altoona, Pennsylvania: 18,938 views
Untitled
Chellberg Farm, Indiana Dunes National Park: 22,212 views
Untitled
Beaubien Woods, Illinois: 29,821 views
Lincoln Park Zoo, Illinois: 29,976 views
Untitled
Fountain of Time by Lorado Taft, Chicago, Illinois: 49,474 views
Untitled
Black Partridge Woods, Illinois: 49,719 views
Untitled
Black Partridge Woods, Illinois: 67,286 views

Finally, at six figures:

Untitled
Old Hickory, Coudersport, Pennsylvania: 105,725 views
Untitled
I received this right after I posted
December 1, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Adventure, Blog, Photography Tagged Chicago, FPDCC, friend, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, Michigan state park, National Forest, National Park Service, Pennsylvania, photo, Wisconsin state park 2 Replies

Storm damage in Jackson Park

From the August 10 storms that swept through around 4 p.m. The Flamingo lost a dead tree and most of a live one.

August 10, 2020 storm
August 10, 2020 storm
9 photos
August 12, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Weather Tagged Chicago, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, photo, weather Reply

“White Way of Delight” in Jackson Park

While it may not be the equal of the “White Way of Delight” from Anne of Green Gables (a long avenue arched by blossoming apple trees), it will have to do. This is Jackson Park, east of Wooded Isle.

Untitled
East side of Jackson Park in Hyde Park
Chicago, Illinois
August 7, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, photo Reply

New wheels

I picked up my bike yesterday from GoodSpeed Cycles in Homewood. They did a great job with what they had (the wheels and tires available relatively quickly).

Untitled
My baby, ready to come home from the bike hospital
Untitled
I preferred the Bontrager tires I had, but these offer less resistance
Untitled
On the Metra Electric line
Untitled
Tucked in for the night, with both wheels locked
Untitled
Out for a first ride
July 3, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Life Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, life, photo Reply

Pollinator Week (2020)

words and images Posted on June 24, 2020 by dlschirfJune 23, 2022

I almost missed Pollinator Week. I think I’m going to make last year’s posts evergreen. Enjoy.

Untitled
Posted in Blog, Nature | Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife | Leave a reply

Follow-up to “Someone stole my wheels. Literally.”

words and images Posted on June 19, 2020 by dlschirfJune 22, 2020

J. took my bike to GoodSpeed Cycles in Homewood, where I met him after taking Metra for the first time in months. You’re supposed to wear a mask on the train. Most people did. Some, however, sported them on their chins. I’ve never known chins to spew droplets, but there are many things I’ve never known.

I’m getting new but different wheels and new but different tires, WTB ThickSlicks without tread. This will be . . . different. I also asked for new pedals since I knocked off a reflector a while ago. The woman at GoodSpeed is throwing in a new magnet for the speedometer. She didn’t see any problem with fixing the bike. It’ll take up to a couple of weeks to get the parts in (shortages thanks to COVID-19, which is why I’m getting new but different wheels — they’re what’s available). This is setting me back more than half the original cost of the bike, but it’s not optional for me.

Like me, the woman at GoodSpeed isn’t shocked by the theft of the wheels but by the idea the thief replaced them (with bad ones). I’m still gobsmacked by that. As an aside, the imposter front wheel is bent. No wonder someone needed new wheels.

Untitled
What’s left of my baby

As an aside, I found what I am sure are my wheels and tires on a bike in the Flamingo’s bike room, but that may be a story for another day.

Posted in Blog, Life | Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, life, photo | Leave a reply

Spring sunrise over Promontory Point

Untitled
June 5, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Video, Weather Tagged Chicago, Great Lakes, Hyde Park, Lake Michigan, photo, Promontory Point, sunrise, video, weather Reply

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Recent Posts

  • Future of artificial limbs (prosthetics)
  • Hodge, 2001 – 2013 (cat)
  • “Far more happier” (The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes)
  • Pileated woodpecker pair at Sapsucker Woods
  • Eternal flame waterfall at Chestnut Ridge

Top Posts & Pages

  • Top 10 reasons Commander Riker walks with his head tilted
  • Book review: Zitkala-Sa: American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings
  • Memories of South Shore Plaza, Hamburg, New York
  • Wopsononock Mountain, or Wopsy, in Blair County, Pennsylvania
  • Book review: Women in Love
  • Relics: The newsstand
  • Book review: Henry and June
  • Book Reviews
  • Sunset from Coffee Creek Park in Chesterton, Indiana
  • Horseshoe Curve National Historic Site, Tytoona Natural Area Cave Preserve

Archives

Other realms

  • BookCrossing
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • LibraryThing
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Good viewing

  • Art of John Taft
  • bensozia
  • Bill of the Birds (no longer updated)
  • BrontëBlog
  • Edge
  • Karen Winters Fine Art
  • Mental Floss
  • Musical Assumptions
  • National Geographic News
  • Orange Crate Art
  • Sexy Archaeology
  • The Creative Journey
  • The Introvert's Corner
  • The Pen Addict
  • The Raucous Royals
  • Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
  • Woodclinched
  • World-O-Crap

BOINC Stats

Copyright © 1996–2023 Diane Schirf. Photographs and writing mine unless noted.
↑
 

Loading Comments...