8th Avenue Street Fair

Always such fun when they block off the road and you get to walk down the middle of it.

The usual selection of not-very-interesting knock-off sheets and socks and sunglasses, but I always like the orchids. The woman on the extreme right (the hand)is holding a Japanese maple seedling which will make a most splendid tree.

The star of the street fair was MisterGoodstuff selling mixes of dance music.

His banner said SEXY SOUL OLDIES.

Want to know how to do the Wiggle?

Just follow along....

you'll soon get the hang of it.

 Here's one of the contestants in the talent contest.

Got Gretchen a dancing monkey outfit from  Agi whose crocheted creatures I've admired for ages.

Saw two fuzzy things that may well be dogs......

Observed the tigers and dogs and all sorts of other cool stuff you can win.

Instagram

I have been having lots of fun with Instagram a phone app where my handle is biffwix. It's sort of instant blogging without having to think of anything to say, and I get to see pictures of Russia and London and France --all super eye candy. And then there are the filters.....

The top two pictures manage to make the rail-yards outside Penn Station mildly romantic --that and the filth on the windows.

The other afternoon I went for a walk down 20th Street and took photos of windows. The filter 'Earlybird' makes everything sort of sepia-saga-ish.....hm.........

Ah, the mysteries behind lace curtains!

This, actually is the fade color thing on Iphoto.

When you go west of 10th Avenue the mood changes.

This is the world's first mobile skateboard/snack truck....so it says.

This is a much bolder filter --you don't really want sepia for black metal and red tail lights. So you can tint your photos to enhance something or other --a bit like putting on 'mood music'. And so we manipulate the world.....

Ferry From Williamsburg

The embarkation platform........

Manhattan on the other side.

East River water, almost clean enough to swim in, I think. Elly says not.

Brooklyn Bridge in the distance.

All the happy tourists aboard....

sunglasses needed.

Blue attire recommended.

Goodbye Brooklyn

Abstracty

Empire State Building

with its top chopped off.....

Smorgasberg, Brooklyn

Saturday was beautifully warm, so we headed to Brooklyn

where all the young people are as well as lots of food.

At Smorgasberg you can eat yourself silly in the open air. We had pizza and porchetta sandwiches.

The vendors were cheerful; the mini cheesecakes delicious.

These were so small that they couldn't possibly be fattening.

All sorts of other baked goods

then a teeny tiny exquisite  Moroccan pastilla from Nadia's Kitchen where I got to use my  few words of Arabic. 

Candy samples too....

and fish and Mexican food.

So after all that, nice to sit in the sun

and look at the river

and chat

and wait for the ferry.

More Spring and Some Buildings

Looking out of the window we see that the trees are greening out nicely

and that the huge red crane towers over the street.

The trees aren't fully in leaf but have that gauzy delicate look.

A pink dogwood on 22nd Street

  and more leaves on the same road.....

looking up in Union Square

in the same place.

Yesterday morning as I was walking the dog I saw a man about to grind the stump of a dead tree. Now it looks like a little tomb.

Yesterday I bought a nasturtium and a salvia for the tree pits outside the building and picked up a brochure for the green festival which we probably won't go to.

One of the three tree pits so far. Pansies very cheerful and the calendulas should grow and grow. Watch this spot!

Always something picturesque about construction --here in Union Square

here on 23rd Street where they always dig up the road on Saturdays....

We are off to Brooklyn to eat at some outdoor food festival. Should be fun!

PS My poem book is featured on Amazon's 'hot new releases' in poetry.