Sunday, February 28, 2016

Vivian Swift: Author, Blogger and All Around Cool Person



Books, gardens, art, blogs, London, Morocco, witty people, friends...
How everything is wonderfully combined inVivian Swift's new book coming out on March 1st. 
Mine arrived in the mail last week because I'm mentioned in the acknowledgements (so is Buster!).
Lucky me! 



Kirkus review thinks the book is wonderful - as I do. I've known about the book for a while as Vivian has been working on it for ages. She is so very funny - and so very knowledgeable. So the book is a compendium of delights.




The two gardens mentioned in the book that I know very well and have blogged about are The Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh with its splendid blue walls and the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.


How I miss living in Morocco.  That aside


Vivian is obsessed with the same door I was years ago



Look how they have tweaked the colors.



Fish in the pond there.

Then the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.



How different the light is!


Vivian is very funny about the updated lunch room - and how it has changed. I exactly agree. It was wonderful years ago - but then so many things were. I'm getting ancient.


What an enviable gig - traveling and looking at gardens and writing about them too!  Not to mention the hard work of painting them then editing text and so forth.


I think this book would be a lovely present for anyone who likes any of the things mentioned in my first sentence.

Maybe spring will eventually get to New York - meanwhile I'm reading!



Friday, February 19, 2016

The New Whitney

We walked down The High Line to the new Whitney Museum on Wednesday. It has been open since last April and really it was pretty lazy of us not to have got there before.


Dramatic but dull views over the Hudson from the stunning building.



Inside lots of old favorites like Reginald Marsh's drunken sailors and good time girls.


Lots of newer things which make me glad I no longer write art reviews. The interior spaces are gorgeous and cathedral-like.


Dark clothes look rather good with all the white walls and plain floors.


The balls on the Christmas tree thing reflected the people. The white part looked like plastic insulation stuff.


So much to look at!


The painting Robert liked best.


A door to a terrace where you can look down on Gaansevort Street.


On Thursday we continued doing art type things.


This last photo taken without filter the other day at dusk. I'm rather pleased with it!




Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Columbus Circle




I had never been to a shopping mall in New York before - department stores, little stores, markets - bu never an actual mall. Anyway, recently went up to the shops at Columbus Circle and was very impressed by the view.



It was a fabulous photo op - very chic and crisp and urban.


See the taxis and the escalators and the people eating!


See Columbus up high and the wintry trees!


What vast Botero figures!


Very bold indeed. (There is female one on the right).


Lots of views of extra modern buildings


with a little bit of an old one in-between. And yes, I did buy an elegant cardigan and a top at the mall which was choc-full of expensive stuff and rather overwhelming.

So I looked semi presentable when I went toValley Stream to talk about bringing joy back into teaching writing to some poor tired teachers...


This last photo -quite different in mood - was taken on Valley Stream railroad station after said talk.