Back to Reality

After the buccolic idyll at the Botanical Gardens

we return to real life which is full of people waiting for buses

tramping down 6th Avenue

and bagging groceries.

Fuel for these activities can be acquired on almost any street corner. My choice: top row, rightish, next to the muffins. Everything with too much butter. 

I'm not sure what the second-hand rabbit Queen of 23rd Street eats. 

Orchid Show at the Botanical Gardens

Outdoors it is March with spring beginning to clothe the trees.

The robin and his mate are busy about their important business.

We head for the conservatory

where ferns surround the pools

and luxuriate in the tropical misty air. 

This year's orchid show is stunning -- the very  best I've ever been to. You can read all about it here.

There were walls of flowers to pose in front of

all gasp-makingly lovely

each more lovely than the last (this one's a pansy orchid)

Chartreuse!

Ferns and orchids at once. Better and better!

Not sure what the pink thing is, but WOW anyway.

Such timid purple tips.....

Almost a relief to be back outside to admire the white blossoms.

Saturday on Instagram

The Instagram ap proves to be totally addictive.  I'm following several friends who make visual diaries and have discovered someone in Moscow ( still snowy) whose photos are mesmerizing. 

My friend Liisa from Finland has recorded a year in the life of a tree here

It's such fun.

Herewith: bird houses on 23rd Street

Subway station at the same place.

People heading to Queens..... this pair quite seperate

This pair very happy, I think.

In Queens you tend to look back to Manhattan

eat rather well

then end up in quite the wrong place owing to weekend subway work. Oh well!

Lunch in the Country....sort of

Chelsea Gardens on 23rd Street that I've walked past thousands of times

proves to have a wonderful interior courtyard with magnolias bursting to life

 and an art deco lounge right off an ocean liner.

It is warm enough to eat kegeree in the garden under the trees looking at cardinals. The tablecloth is vintage Marimeko and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I think the plates are Finnish.

This is an upside-down blueberry muffin made by me. The purple looks rather poisonous.

Very traditional pansies on a window sill

and the young cardinal on a silver birch under the fire escape.

What looks at first as if it might be a squirrel turns out to be a large well-nourished RAT.

Misty and Construction....

Those familiar with this blog will find this picture odd....

the fog has stolen the Empire State Building away!

Such misty mornings with towers disappearing all the time.

This blog is really about stuff that I see, not always pretty things nor the most depressing. Here some bold construction on the corner of 8th Avenue and 26th Street. Lots of huge machines, lots of noise...

lots of men art work and several gazillion permits posted to the wall. Good to see people in work.

The wild red arm pumps and pours liquid concrete.  The sun has now come out....and I'll start work on the little gardens round the trees.

Chelsea Sunday

A rather overcast morning with the West Side Highway closed off for the half-marathon.

We dog-park people stood and looked over the fence as all the impressive keen types ran and ran. Someone remarked that the first runner in Ancient Greece keeled over and died when he arrived in Marathon. So we just continued to look and admire and not risk anything.

After that off to the bagel shop to refuel.

It's always absurdly busy on a weekend morning. I should have known. I did know.  

So nothing for it but to amuse myself with the phone camera

and ponder the almost infinite possibilities.

22nd Street in Shades of Gray

Saturday morning, cool and bright

walk under the High Line where I could park the car if I had one.

On my way home, I'm pleased to see the waiter setting up the tables outside the Highliner Diner. The Highliner used to be The Empire Diner and it looks exactly the same except the food is a bit better.

Nice shiny windows with reflections

and white magnolia just bursting forth.

Tuesday in the Park with Frances

A beautiful, astounding sunny day

Go up to the seventies by subway to meet Frances, painter, knitter extrordinaire, Anglophile, all round interesting person. So we check out her neighborhood --here the Ansonia....

A bar with a  wonderful harp --it will be St. Patty's Day soon but we

go to the knitting shop opposite instead and start thinking green.

When we get to Central Park we discover that lots of people have got there before us...

but here's Frances looking elusive in her astounding (hand knit) sweater.

Daffs springing from fallen leaves

and the Lenten roses I'm addicted to.

The rose briars are a wonderful purply color

and the catkins dangle prettily before distant buildings.

They are out on the lake already

and having lunch beside it.

Imagine........

The temperature was about 70'F

Celebrity sightings for PBS types: Robert McNeill (McNeill-Lehrer Report)

walking by the lake.

Ken Burns sitting on a bench contemplating....