I was in New York last week and got home last night to piles of mail, hundreds of email messages and 152 blog posts to read (you were busy while I was away.) Oh, and to hear them tell it, the three best behaved children in the world.

I thought I’d be all caught up today but find the Family Fun Fest schedule and a soccer game over hill and dale after school will impeded a post even tomorrow. Certainly by Wednesday.

These images are stand alone pieces from a shop we visited. It is a pretty easy do-it-yourself. Most of the bulbs are not wired, but just looped over the grate from which they are suspended. The ones that are lit are wired directly into a box which rests on top of the grate and does not need to be hidden because it’s an industrial jumble already. There were about a dozen different kinds of bulbs. Figuring out which ones are burned out might take some concentration.

I asked permission to take the photo and was denied. The enchanting sales person then mumbled, “But I don’t have any control over what you do on the sidewalk,” and turned to straighten some stock. I like people like that.