Friday, January 11, 2013

Contrasts


If you don't own a car and want to get to Long Island, you either rent one or go on the train.


We mostly take the train so we can read, knit, take bad photos out of the window and so on.


Queens, from the train, is spectacularly unpretty.


Though this lens brightens the colors.


This photo, in its messiness, seems to sum up the trees and little houses and clutter not to mention the overhead power lines -- of which there are several gazillion.


Back home I abandon the cell phone and pick up the actual camera...


which takes clearer pictures.


Clutter on the work table where I'm painting a birthday card using an old saucer to mix paint while reading and admiring the remains of my birthday bouquet. (Do astrolmaria (sp) last for ever?)



17 comments:

  1. Contrasts, the spice of life. ;-)

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  2. Hello Elizabeth:
    How dreary are the suburbs everywhere. And how first the railway and later the road, now often motorway, cut through them leaving them somehow even more isolated, unattractive and lacking in distinction than they might even once have been.

    But lives are cheered by the everyday objects which your camera at home portrays so very sharply and keenly.

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  3. Belatedly, happy birthday Elizabeth, especially if it got better on arrival! I always thought the drive to LI was
    more interesting, particularly feeling good about navigating departure from the Williamsburg Bridge and finding the Expressway! Now, for me too, it is by train, and the best thing to do is to take a good book!
    Margaret Forster is still my author of the moment but, alas, not all her books are easily found.

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  4. fab photos...you've captured the essence!!

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  5. You make Queens look so drearie (oh, sorry, I guess it is)

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  6. When was your Birthday ? Mine was the 4th.
    Happy Birthday !
    Yes, the flowers (astrolmaira?) do seem to last forever.
    When son was living with me, he would go shopping at Trader Joes, and usually bought a bouquet of them for me. They seemed to last forever. They now hold a special place in my heart.

    cheers, parsnip

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  7. Belated Happy Birthday wishes to you, dear Elizabeth!

    I do agree with your opinion of views from train windows as one leaves NYC. It seems to take forever to actually see a tree. Let alone a cow or a flower.

    Your "back home" close up photos are lovely. Of course, I do love that saucer with the bit of paint!

    Hoping to see you soon. xo

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  8. Dreary perhaps, but I take comfort in the knitting.

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  9. You still make a dull journey beautiful E.

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  10. Dreary and dull can still be artsy and that's how you made Queens look. Reminds me of small town rural Ohio at its grungiest.
    I much prefer train to driving any day.

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  11. I like the look of the overhead wires as you pass by
    cool shots

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  12. Maybe unpretty but interesting all the same.

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  13. Anywhere you want to take me Elizabeth is fine with me!
    Clever girl, you slipped a birthday in there!
    HAPPY (very) BELATED BIRTHDAY!

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  14. the suburbs are somehow very interesting...what goes in those houses...

    i had a driving challenge, to drive in nyc, did that and managed not to dent my friend's merc! however, you see so much more on trains, bus or when someone else is driving...

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  15. I really like the colors of the houses in your pic. I always mean to use my real camera but the phone is so handy for pictures. Your at home ones are so sharp and clear tho, I think I'll try getting it out a little more!

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  16. Alstroemeria a.k.a. Peruvian Lily last forever!

    Just discovered your blog, really enjoying reading it!

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I look forward to hearing from you!