"La nuit porte conseil" is French for "sleep on it".  It means, think about it overnight and don’t make a decision until tomorrow… often good advice! The photo is this saying on the door of a Broom closet in Herald Square (New York). –Mama Lisa

Gian Carlo Macchi wrote to me about Santa Lucia in Italy.  He also shared these photos from the Santa Lucia celebration in Arzago d’Adda, Lombardy (about 30 km from Bergamo and 30 km from Milan).  Santa Lucia (St. Lucy) was born in Syracuse, Sicily around 283 and died in 303 AD. The myth is that...

I love this photo that Valerie Mellema took of La Pedrera in Barcelona, Spain.  She used Photoshop and a different picture of a log to make the texture in the sky.  It looks like a fantastical place in a kids book.  It could be fun to show this pic to a child and have them...

Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is home to about 1600 people who live in floating houses.  Most of them make their living through fishing. Here’s a photo of Fruit vendors in the floating village on Ha long Bay. Thanks to Purabi Khisa Tandra for sharing these photos! Mama Lisa

This fantastic photo was taken in Jamaa el Fna Square in Morocco by Monique Palomares on a visit to the city of Marrakech last year.  The square looks like a market, but it’s actually filled with outdoor restaurants.  The tall tower in the background, with the light on top, is the Koutoubia Mosque. The name of...

Last week we went Geocaching with my daughter and two of her friends.  Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt.   You look for hidden containers, called geocaches with the help of a GPS device.  In our case, we used an iPhone to find the treasure. On our search, we passed the knotted tree in the...

Yesterday I went ice skating in Rockefeller Center, below the famous Christmas Tree in New York City.  My daughter and I were there for a birthday party.  While skating, we heard news on the rink that some guy went down on his knees on the ice and proposed to his lady below the Christmas...

    Rockefeller Center, December 2010

Collecting shells, rocks and beach glass on the shore, it was a beautiful day!  

 The main entrance to a shrine in Japan. “The kanji on the stone on the left side says ‘Hirohata Hachiman Jinja’.” -Shintaro Yesterday, we posted some photos of Japan from Shintaro Tominaga, including the one above.  It shows the entrance to a shrine. The kanji text on the stone near the entrance says, “Hirohata Hachiman Jinja’”. ...

Here are some photos from Japan with descriptions from Shintaro Tominaga . The rice paddy near the river. One month later. “A heron in the river called ‘Ohtsu-gawa’ is trying to hunt a small fish in the water.”    Bamboo “The main entrance to the shrine. The kanji on the stone on the left side...

Here are some photos of Washington DC thanks to Ray Lee.  It’s Cherry Blossom Season, so it’s a great time to visit D.C. The Washington Monument. The Jefferson Monument. Cherry Blossoms. Many thanks to Ray Lee for sharing these photos with us!  Check out the Official National Cherry Blossom Festival site for info about special events in...

We don’t have many buds on our trees here in New York yet.  It’s just rain, rain, rain.  So I found these photos from Japan by Ayako Egawa particularly uplifting this week.  Japanese apricot flowers, Ume. Crocuses Ayako wrote, “Mimosa is in full bloom around here.” Ayako wrote, “I totally agree that these little flowers are...

Dedy Dowo sent me these lovely photos of children in Indonesia!              Many thanks to Dedy Dowo and all the children and their families for sharing these photos!

Today and tomorrow, November 1st and 2nd, are the Day of the Dead. It’s celebrated in Mexico. Family and friends get together to remember those who have died. People also make alters to the dead and visit the graves of their loved ones. We went to a Mexican restaurant this evening and saw an...

We took a walk today in Walt Whitman’s woods in West Hills, on Long Island, east of New York City.  I highly recommend taking an autumnal hike or stroll if you can.  Then you may feel the truth in Whitman’s line, "As to me I know of nothing else but miracles". There’s much beauty out...

I learned this week that Indonesia has tens of thousands of islands.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Indonesia has 13,670 islands, over half of which are inhabited.  Wikipedia puts the number over 17,000.  The truth is that the number of islands continuously changes due to seismic activity in the area. Indonesia is the fourth most populous...

Now’s a good time to keep this proverb in mind… if you’re going to take a walk on the beach or near a river… you may want to check a high tide chart… because… Time and tide wait for no man. My husband and I almost learned this lesson the hard way today.  We were taking...

I blogged recently about how Del Dallimore has been collecting Gambian children’s songs on YouTube. Del took these photos below of scarecrows in the rice fields of Brufut, Gambia.  I thought it was interesting how they look different from those here in the US.  The scarecrows in Gambia are made out of plastic bags. Del said, "They...