One great thing about a gravel driveway is you can hear them coming.

This afternoon, Claes and I were chilling at home in East Cleveland, minding our own business, when we heard that crunch of rocks under heavy tires. Then the slam of a car door, and heavy feet on the front porch... another drive-by had arrived. It's been happening regularly since we started renovating the house on Roxbury, late last Summer.... especially on a beautiful day like today.

Welcome to The Star Market and Cafe! What would make you walk, ride and drive out of your way and stop here? When? Why? Now is the time for Star Neighborhood Development to reinvent a blighted urban convenient store into a community asset. But how? That depends on you. What will you support here?

All species, all races, everywhere, we all must eat, frequently, so we humans may as well eat well. I prefer to eat at home, food I prepare,  of ingredients I know, in a kitchen I trust... there are few restaurants in the world that make me happier than homemade. But I certainly turn to experts for advice on food selection and preparation, and many of my favorite books - the ones I read over and over, and can't do without  - are cookbooks. I find all types interesting... international, ethnic, historical, regional... and consider many required reading. I'd be interesting for other foodie realneo members who share an interest in cooking to share their favorite cookbooks... some of mine are the header for today...

As we begin a new Spring - a new beginning - what are you doing to green your republic?

Here are some images of the neighborhoods known as Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn Centre.

Months of embrace from rock hard frozen earth doesn’t distract them,  carpets of last falls brown leaves don’t hold them down – a little thawing and a bit more sunshine and up they bound.

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed strange Clevelandesque slogans posted on billboards around town, with the attribution "Mind of Cleveland". I remember wondering if this was another Cleveland+hype campaign... or about AIDS prevention... and planned to google it later...

Every spring daffodils announce renewal…the earth has been dormant during winter but is coming alive as the sun moves towards our northern axis. 

Like fine furniture, these new serpentine pipe bike racks are wrapped to prevent scratching.   I thought the serpentine bike rack sculpture - complete with pillow cases - set against the Breuer linear-designed façade of the Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts addition was a nice juxtaposition. 

Outside San Juan on the way to the Botanical Gardens

The view from my window on the world at the Brooklyn Branch library--Saturday, March 22

Here are the individuals who negotiated the MEDCON deal in secret for us.  They are the team that represented all of us here on Realneo and everyone else all across Cuyahoga County.

THIS IS OUR TEAM!

What do their physiognomies suggest?

We never were able to see the other team, Mr. Chris Kennedy's team, because the game was played in secret.

I wonder what the physiognomies of Mr. Kennedy and his team would have suggested to us?

 

I visited the Arcelor Mittal Cleveland Works this afternoon to take a a look.   The sun came out making the scene fairly photogenic.  I began to take photos from the public way.

 

Getting messages through to someone you can't see - someone far away - can be quirky.  
A colored piece of cloth seems to do the trick in the thin air of Tibet.   Clearly, the message recipient is not color blind,  because the flags are POW! POW! Color.