Summer in the City

Yup, it's yellow and in your face and move it, move it and UHaul too

but if you go up high you can see that it's time for summer duds

Having got the urban bit over with....

I proceed to Union Square where there are scallions

and pink fish

 and glorious peonies in incongruous Home Depot buckets

What to chose? scabious and foxglove? a butterfly bush?

delphiniums

daisies

and so on and so on

wrapped in blue plastic

I bought a nasturtium to plant out on the street.

More summer stuff here.....

Cake

An awful lot of rain lately

so cake needed (here at Bergamot on 9th Avenue)

as above

and at the Neue Galerie where there are so many pretty things

including these vases

peonies

and a plate with a ladybug.....not to mention the art.

Community Garden

Was lucky enough to be invited to have lunch in the community garden the other day -- about 2/3 of an acre of little well-tended plots with flowers and veggies.

There are two picnic tables and a pergola and some common spaces --it's just behind the church parking lot and reminds me a little of the small gardens you see beside the railway tracks in Poland.

It's the season for columbine and lilies

not to mention the roses and clematis

and the lush prom-dressiness of peonies

a bird bath and mint run amock

a rather dull but interesting colored columbine

something I can't name (dear readers, please advise).

Sage grows like a weed and looks pretty, sage and onion stuffing, fegato alla salvia, hmm much more sage than anyone could possibly cook with.

One little plot quite wild with poppies and roses. So a little heaven amidst concrete. I know there has been much too much about greenery in this blog lately, but it is MAY after all!

Sunday Afternoon on the High Line

Sunday afternoon and R. gets it into his head that he wants an ice cream --not any old ice cream but gelato. So we walk down to the Chelsea Market where there are a hundred billion people --  as I had said there would be and the line for said ice cream is much too long...

So we climb up to the High Line itself where there is a nice little cart but fewer flavors. Strawberry will suffice.

There were ice pops also

and a rather unusual form of lupin

the first flush of roses

the first outing of the sundress

then descending to the real world

down the steps to 23rd Street

where there were hotdogs and pretzels

and different (less swanky) kinds of icecream

not to mention the car-wash.

Urban Eye Candy/Sunday Morning

The flowers at the deli are aways pretty technicolor, but cheering nonetheless.

How come the coral bells on 22nd Street are blooming (albeit a white variety) and mine aren't?

One of my three tree pits with quite a pretty salvia, a left over 'mum, pansies for hammering, and calendula.

Roses on 20th Street

Also 20th Street.

Tried hammering a calendula that someone had picked and cast aside....not nearly so good as a pansy.

The photographer Susanna Gordon has written kind things about my poem book here. She is offering two copies as a giveaway......so.....

Gritty and Green

The other day I discovered that about forty nasty plastic giveaway magazine things had appeared on 23rd Street. Someone's art project? A prank? Best guess: they were moved from 7th Avenue when President Obama went to a fundraiser at the Rubin Museum......

Other than being a jolly, bright, photo-op, I wish they ould go away.

I think pay phone s may soon vanish since everyone in the universe seems to have a cell phone --or multiple cell phones.

Never pass up a good puddle.... 

Fellow street gardener Luis tending his project.

Time for a nap by the garden at 8th Avenue and 23rd Street.....

Green fix supplied on a wet day on Long Island....hosta

May Apples

Japanese maple and I'm afraid I forgot.....

Anyway, happy weekend.

Am off this evening to fellow blogger Francisca Matteoli's book party. How wonderful to write a book about fabulous, exotic hotels round the globe.