Back to Nature

It is good to escape from the hot city and go back to look at nature.
Here a friend's garden on Long Island.



She collects all sorts of things -- including garden furniture........



In due course of time, the said furniture blends in with its surroundings.......


..... as it lives in the woods.



This almost-vanished chair is actually one of a pair of ours.
We were thinking of having it stripped and painted and all sorts of complicated things .
At the moment we are letting it enjoy its ten year country vacation.

File under Batty and Bizarre/ ABC Wednesday

This is the second letter of Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesdays.
This young lady with a notice on her forehead lives on West Broadway heading south from Spring Street.



This poor dead bicycle lives just north of Houston Street. It has been decorated beautifully and almost rises to the level of art.



Just across the street from the bicycle is an Egyptian cafe which was closed early on Sunday morning.
When I took the next two photos, I didn't realise how much reflection was going to appear in them.
Hm.........very mysterious and spooky indeed.



Gods of ancient Egypt and a tower block of not very interesting apartments - something to do with housing for NYU I think.



Artifacts and reflections in a tobacco shop window on West Broadway.



A metal gate to a townhouse in Chelsea.
This image is from the silent movie they made of H.G. Wells' First Man on the Moon. Someone - not sure who - shot a bolt in to eye of ( I think) the man in the moon.
Obviously, not a useful or comforable thing to do
It looks a bit scary anyway, and, no doubt, led to trouble.



Reflections in a hot dog truck parked by South Street Seaport on Sunday morning.
Yes, we had a most energetic bike ride!



Eventually we sat and looked across the East River at Brooklyn.
I'm not quite sure if Brooklyn is batty and bizarre but it does begin with B........

Monday Morning

Something cheery for the beginning of the week.
Photographed at the Green Market at Union Square on Saturday.
There were lots of bees buzzing around attracted to the stunning yellow.



We took white lilies and peaches home. The flowers are almost overwhelmingly sweet smelling.
Sadly, the peaches look better than they taste. Sob, sob: they are not Moroccan peaches which were so tasty and wonderful you could buy kilos of them and stew them and make peach crumble and enjoy the juice dripping over your fingers as you worked with them. Oh well.



It seems to be artichoke and new potato season.
We didn't get artichokes because R. said it was too much work eating them for what you got.
I should have insisted.
I will get them next week...........

More Shadows and How We Spend our Time

You can tell I have too much time on my hands.......or else am avoiding doing important stuff.
Three photographs of a balsa wood plane!!!!



But the light falls so slantily wonderfully in the evenings.
Very good for "Shadow Shot Sunday" see Hey Harriet for details.



We throw the plane round the apartment a lot. A harmless diversion. So called 'creative' people like doing time-wasting things like that. And looking out of the window.........You name it. I do it. Except not TV because that really wastes time.
All those commecials for awful diseases one hadn't even thought about worrying about before.
Any way.........
Question: What's your best/worst thing to do when you are meant to be doing something else?



The work table covered with print outs of images ready to be organized into ...........something.
They are juggled and shuffled like packs of playing cards.......
Random juxtapositions sometimes lead to something interesting. Maybe.

Clement Moore Park and Musings on Blogging

Yesterday afternoon, having sat pretty much all day at the computer writing, I decided to go for a walk. When we had the dog we went for four walks a day in all weathers.
Now we just go for exercise or to take photos.
We went down 21st Street to 10th Avenue to Clement Moore Park. Clement Moore was the clergyman who wrote "T'was the Night Before Christmas". Some people dispute this, but I choose to think he did.



We went into the Park which Robert had never done before since he had always had the dog with him. I was looking for shadows for "Shadow Shot Sunday" - and, of course, the sun kept going in........and then coming out again.
Having a blog and participating in various blog events makes one look at things in a slightly different way, which is a bit like having an art project at school or doing exercises. You wouldn't necessarily have thought of it yourself, but it's good for you.



I have been thinking about blogging and why people do it. It's a bit like a glorified extension of a diary.
Bloggers love to record things.
Question: How many of you bloggers out there wrote diaries as young people?
The good thing about blogs - or the ones I read anyway - is you get the glimpses into other people's worlds but without the miserable soul searching that accompanied most of our adolescent outpourings.



Since blogs are public, we edit like mad which is probably a good thing.
Someone suggested that instead of reading magazines she now reads blogs.
I can quite understand why, because you can visit and see pictures from like minded people. It's like having a personalized magazine, and you can contact the authors and they often write back.



This scary door is right by the park.

I have added (see below) some of the cool collages Tracey of Hey Harriet made from various Shadow Shot Sundays.
These seem to exemplify for me what blogging should be all about. She is very technically gifted.
Anyway, she has combined efforts from people all over the world who are having fun doing the same thing.
Added together they seem even more fun than when seen individually.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Awards and Things

This is the first time I have ever posted an award on my blog. (I have had other ones - boast , boast - but was too dim to know how to post them).

Jennifer of Art Words Life both gave me this one.
THANK YOU!.....and told me how you post it! (Drag onto desktop and then post same as you do a photo.)
It's incredibly hard to single out people to give awards to since I go to lots of blogs for all sorts of reasons and enjoy all of them, as one does one's friends - for their quirks and individual views of the world.



One of the fun things about the blogosphere is that it allows us to have friends round the world.
So I'm handing this award on to:
M.Kate in Malaya whose blog La Vie Est Belle takes us to very exotic places indeed.
Louise of This is My Patch in England who know everything about gardening.
Tracey of Hey Harriet in Australia who thinks as I do on many things and organizes the very excellent "Shadow Shot Sundays".
Maryam in Morocco who has about a zillion awards already but deserves them since she has a super blog.
Britt-Arnhild in Norway who is a loyal blogging friend and uplifting spirit.
Maria in Austria of Let the Good Times Roll who walks through the hills outside Vienna whose lovely dog recovered from a viper bite.
And finally, Marja of Dutch Corner in New Zealand who writes lovely inspiring stories.
Now you have to chose 7 of your blogging chums to hand it on to and tell them.



This is a picture I took in the spring in the downstairs cafe at the Neue Galerie. I think it has a dab of the Hoppers about it.

Escape from the City

It has been unbearably hot and muggy. A good time to get out of the city.
On Tuesday I went to a party at a friend's house on Long Island.
As well as being a very nice person, she has a swimming pool, three dogs and three granddaughters.
Sadie, a friend's toddler, was there too and was most interested in the dogs.



I haven't the least idea who lives in this very traditional house in Tappan, north of the city.
But it struck me as the ideal American house from the beginning of the last century. A bit like the one our children grew up in on Long Island.



While walking the dog, I admired the shadowy greens with light filtering through the trees.

Amazing Skies All Over the Place

I think we are back to "A" in Mrs.Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday. I hope we are. If we are not, then these "AMAZING" clouds will just have to float into the blogosphere under their own steam...........
When you live in a house with no windows (the medina of Marrakech) and your courtyard is open to the sky, you spend a lot of time looking upwards.



When you stand on the roof you notice first the clouds and then the huge numbers of ariels which are not pretty.
Studying the sky is a useful and peaceful occupation.



Another shot from the courtyard looking up.



This is from the day in December when the bus had a little accident (no one hurt!) between Marrakech and Essouira, looking out across the stony desert.



Six o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve looking East from the battlements of Essouira.



Back to recent New York. Last Saturday looking across the Hudson River at New York from New Jersey, just when the bus had emerged from the tunnel.



Last of all Sunday afternoon from the Red and Tan bus -about to descend into the tunnel.

A Birthday in Blogland

When we translate blogland into real life, good things happen.
It was talented Constance's birthday - she of the enchanting blog Rochambeau.
And, lo and behold, in this topsy turvy world, I got presents too. Here a beautiful little purse marked "Memories" to keep very precious things.
I think bloggers like to make records of things.
And a medallion with bees - bees are very industrious. I wish I was. This will inspire me.



And here is the birthday girl enthroned with her birthday hat on. She is holding a very exotic plant called a heliotrope Karen and the others bought in the flower district. Constance looks very queenly.

And since it is Constance's birthday, Susanna, Karen and Isabel record the event from one side and me from the other.
Bloggers must bore everyone with their incessant shutterbugging. But we do love it so.



Because it was a birthday we had to eat and drink........a lot.
Mimosas.........salad ( haha we are trying to be virtuous) and then...........



Desserts and lots of them. Isabel's mother in law made a Portuguese almond tart. Celeste brought a chocolate cake.
There were berries from Union Square green market.
A very happy day in blogland.
Wish you could have joined us!

Shadow Shot Sunday

Very late in the day to join Hey Harriet's Shadow shot Sunday!
And Robert's photos not mine.
The first two a ceiling light in our apartment.



The kids call it the flying ironing board.
It has little plastic panels to put in it to make different colors.........



The other day we rented a car to go to the beach.
It was an amazingly jolly blue.
The tail light was very red.



The Frank Gehry building has reflections rather than shadows........but oh well........