Last Day of the Year

A last few days for the Christmas tree

and green and red on the ESB.

Such pretty lights on Laura's balcony!

A last glimpse of Krispy Kreme holiday doughnuts

and tangerines

not to mention booze

and party dresses

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Winter Approaches

One of the first really snowy days of the season.

I walked up to Broadway

and headed to Union Square

where people were picking out trees

and dressed in festive costumes.

Snow dusted the holly

and the apples

It decorated almost everything.

It snowed in the early evening as shoppers hurried home 

It continued into the night.

Season's Greetings!

Well, the big fellow has arrived and is hawking Christmas trees outside Rite Aid on 9th Avenue.

He drives down from Alaska at Thanksgiving and heads home to get back to work on Christmas Eve.

All the little local shops and restaurants are getting decked out for the season. Here the French crepe place

here the deli. The little red Winterberries are a new one on me - and very pretty.

Even the vegetarian place is getting a little bit merry.

Ah! holly berries outside my favorite house on 21st St

and Buster's friend Oliver outside the now-closed and much lamented Empire Diner.

PS  Big excitement my book web site is finally up now four of my books are available on Kindle. To celebrate, I'm having a Kindle countdown on Ruth and Gisela (first edition was called A Fortunate Child). You can get it today for only $2.99 - after ten days it goes back up to $7.50

Thanksgiving Balloons from Above

A rather different vantage point for the Macy's Thanksgiving parade courtesy of my friend Jo Paley who lives very high up and can look down on 5th Avenue.

Jo took all the photos.

She looked down on Candy canes

and the Pillsbury doughboy

not to mention NYPD horses followed by

the trusty clean up crew!

Snoopy and Woodstock are my favorites.

Well done, Macy's

even if Spidey is a little scary!

Thanksgiving

This is a post to file under 'sometimes other places' (see blog sub head)

Also under memory and thankfulness.

 all photos courtesy of Claudia Schmid

Here is the cottage where I spent summer holidays long ago. I never went there in November but my daughter went recently. Ah, the wonders of Instagram!

Here it is straight on with different color paint than I recall and a different gate.

Here are some cows waiting to produce milk for clotted cream - at least I hope so.

Here is St. Winnow the other side of the Fowey River. We used to take the canoe there and wander in the churchyard.

Here is a beach on the north shore with a stream meandering through it - how perfect for feats of engineering!

How people are dwarfed by the wide Atlantic beach...

Blue

It has been a remarkably dry fall.

The skies are mostly blue and clear - all the better for plane spotting. Yesterday afternoon on 15th St.

and the other day in the early evening when the sun's rays hit the plane's belly.

Some pretty evening skies

and such clear day ones.

 This was taken this morning

and this one on Long Island on Monday - a pin oak with lots of leaves left.

The silver birches near our apartment are at that interim stages of only a few leaves.

Brooklyn on Saturday

and the ferry back to Manhattan.

Now a few random blue pics...

Poster person on 22nd Street

an egg plant on white paper that managed to seem blue by contrast

and some berries that are more blackish than blue-ish but I rather like them.

On a quite different note, my friend Frances' etsy shop FoakleyArts is up and running. She is the most astounding knitter and her hats and scarves are works of art in themselves -quite breathtaking in their complexity.

Seth Apter and The Mixed-Media Artist

It's always exciting when a friend's book comes out  - especially when people you know are featured in it.  Double excitement. So I rushed up to Barnes and Noble this morning and snapped up

the last remaining copy of the mixed-media artist: Art Tips, Tricks, Secrets and Dreams From Over 40 Amazing Artists by my chum Seth Apter. (North Light Books). Seth's infectious enthusiasm, gift for friendship, and acute attention to detail make this both a 'how to' book, a celebration of creativity, and...

the book features the work of Elizabeth Bunsen - one of the most creative people on the planet - who does magical things with all sorts of mundane objects -and

my husband, Robert Schmid, whose work is entirely different.

"Sleep" robertschmid.com

These are but two of the many artists who shared their work, techniques and dreams with Seth.  The book is such fun and so full of useful things and thoughts that it will make you rush out and do something wildly creative yourself. At least I hope so.

ps Seth will be signing copies of the book this evening FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15th at

 Ink Pad  7th Avenue at 13th St. See you there!