Bits and Pieces

Waiting for the bus opposite London Terrace

I notice it all wobbly and upside down in the puddle

who knew what cool stuff was hanging out in there

a time of year when you have to skip over the puddles at the corners

or stand in them in new red welly-boots.

a good time of year to haunt the flower shop where

 they're busy making arrangements

 I tweaked the color of this one while waiting

 for a blast of color to take home.

Trees

22nd Street was shut off so the trees could be trimmed.

an exciting piece of machinery (if you like machinery) and a chap up a tree

 by the old Empire Diner, now called The Highliner. The food is better.

Another person up a tree

then, lo and behold, just west of 10th Avenue, Lego up a tree. This is an artsy neighborhood. Perhaps this was someone's art project.Seems a bit wasteful to leave it in the tree, but not for me to say. 

The reflections of the bare branches are the best bit in this person's project. While I understand that people have strong feelings about things (we all either do or should) it would be horrid if everyone shouted them all at once. Waking up, thinking and rejecting fear have got me quite tuckered out already

so the cabbages (posing as cabbage roses) were a welcome respite in the tree pit by the corner of 9th Avenue. Pity about the chips wrapper but what can you do?

Rain at Dusk

After the snow, the rain.

Five o'clock: dog, cell phone camera. $5 umbrella

Only a little bit of snow left (lower right).

Chelsea hotel in the background.

Another dog going for a walk too.

Sparkles...

and a pink sidewalk.

My Life as a Spy

The snow is still coming down

so the Empire State Building appears rather dim.

I enjoy looking out of the window and wonder if

 the green umbrella signifies anything...

or whether it is merely a green umbrella.

These two men almost certainly have nothing to do with one another

any more than this chap coming back from RiteAid ( I can tell from the bag)

has to do with the man in the knit cap....but you never know.

People and Not People

One thing about living in the city is that you run

 into a lot of people whether you like them or not.....

all fit and cheery in Old Navy

waiting to cross the road on 6th Avenue

repainting the white  crossing lines (the thing the guy on

 the right is holding is the street equivilant of a blow-dryer)....

walking past a truck on 23rd Street

and endlessly doing things to leaky windows.

So, after a bit, it all gets too much....

and one turns to inanimate objects like a door on 20th Street

a nice austere window on the same road

with the rusty urn by the rectory

or even the shadows falling on the Kissam House in Huntington,  Long Island....

ps Am reading Anatole Broyard's 1993 Greenwich Village memoir Kafka was the Rage --such a vivid evocation of the post World War II art scene in New York. Highly recommended.

Downtown

City Hall (seen below)  is quite near the Social Security office at 26 Federal Plaza

where I spent a happy morning yesterday, and remembered waiting there in 1979 when I only had a green card and needed to get a permit to visit my mother in England. That was the memorable occasion upon which, when I asked if there was a bathroom was told, "Yes, but an alien took the key." 

downtown has more fire escapes than round here

which makes for lots of stripes.

Then on to the jollity of Chinatown

where we anticipate the arrival of the very excellent dumplings

at Excellent Dumpling on Lafyette Street. Here fried vegetable dumplings. I also recommend the scallion pancakes. Lunch for two: $12.75.

The painters take a pause in painting the poster for Incredibly Loud and Incredibly Close overlooking Canal Street. Reminds me of the eyes of Doctor T. J Eckleberg in The Great Gatsby.

A Day of Trains

Grand Central Station is grand indeed

much better than poor old Penn Station which has nothing to recommend it at all.

GrandCentral is all marble and people taking photos of it.

Then there are the grubby underneath bits where things actually get done.

We alight at Botanical Garden Station in bright sunlight and head for the Conservatory

 where a landing strip sits near the jungly water

and lo and behold the Statue of Liberty is reflected in the pool.

and through it all wend the trains to the junior set's delight.

And after that, gosh, a meet and greet with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Pretty heady stuff!

Winter Wardrobe/New York Fashion

As has so often been pointed out, New Yorkers, on the whole, shun colors.

See the chilly pigeons above near the West Side Highway

and the people waiting for the bus on 23rd Street.

However, there are always bold individualists  -- at the dog park 

near Macy's

 and inside Macy's itself.