Local

The Empire State Building is on 5th Avenue and about 32nd Street.

Obviously it is the best known landmark in the city - I wonder what it was before that? I wonder what the most important landmark in Paris was before the Eiffel Tower? In London before Big Ben?

Anyway, we see the ESB in its many moods out of our sitting room window - here mysterious and swathed in cloud.

Here, last Sunday, looking oddly like a rocket ship emerging from very low clouds. Seen between the SVA theater and our building.

Here seen from a speeding taxi by Madison Square Park on Tuesday evening.

And another of the same... The red zeppelin like thing (upper right) is probably a reflection in the taxi window - or else it is a real zeppelin I hadn't noticed.

Most of the time I'm plodding round Chelsea with my faithful hound, Buster. This is the rectory of St.Peter's Church which is currently in a pretty dire state  - as is St. Peter's itself. A really wonderful article in the New York Times just before Christmas http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/nyregion/church-with-ties-to-famed-christmas-poem-is-in-need-of-repair.html

It's the church where Clement Moore worshiped and utterly Church of England inside - down to the pews, the hymn books..... and the mold. The rectory is probably worth a million billion dollars  - or would be if it was for sale on the open market. Let's hope they merely restore it.

Some nice billowy clouds on 20th Street yesterday

and on 9th Avenue.

A mural at the gas station on 8th avenue

and my treat of the week when I went to Tea  & Sympathy with Frances on Wednesday (which was bitterly cold) and we had an utterly English and delicious lunch...

Tea & Sympathy

This is the time of year when comfort food is in order - and comfort food usually means food you ate as a small child.
English food in the 1950's was spectacularly bland - but excellent in parts.
Take bubble and squeak - a  mixture of cabbage and left-over mashed potatoes - fried of course.
Bangers and mash...and so on.
Luckily I'm within walking distance of Tea & Sympathy

a wonderfully retro cafe where these things are to be had.

To be washed down with copious cups of tea and followed by custardy puddings to fend off the cold and replenish the calories used up walking there.

It's always very crowded which attests to its appeal. The decor a mishmash of things British

rather heavy on royal memorabilia - so I get to see the coronation mug I managed to smash on the very day I was given it.

Nikky Perry, the owner, can be relied upon to have lots of opinions vociferously aired - currently the fact that proper English Cadbury's chocolate is no longer to be sold in the US. See all about it in The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/nyregion/after-a-deal-british-chocolates-wont-cross-the-pond.html?ref=nyregion

Luckily the shop next door still has some in stock as well as sherbet fountains, Maynard's wine gums and large boxes of PG Tips and all the things much missed by us ex-pats.

A blessing indeed.

Rule Britannia

Had an England-in-New-York day on Tuesday. Walked down to Greenwich Avenue to Tea and Sympathy Nicky Perry's wonderfully tiny ode to English tea shops. I'm not sure this was ever a very accurate portrait of the Queen, but it's a charming picture.

Regard the decor: Sanderson table cloths --same as our drawing room loose covers, except smaller--teapots galore, Toby Jugs (upper right).

A William and Kate plate! Finger sandwiches (Coronation chicken, egg salad, cream cheese and cucumber.)

Frances had summer pudding

I had sticky toffee with Bird's Custard.....

Gosh, how well I remember all the knicknacks and geegaws of my childhood.....the coronation mug I broke on the very day I was given it...

Then on to buy staples at Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street: Marmite and Branson Pickle.

The cold case has sausages and pies (the best is pork and stilton). And look at all those sweeties: Crunchies and Flakes....

Rounded Shapes, Alas, and Evening Sights

A week of afternoon excursions. Here the waitress at Tea and Sympathy on Greenwich Avenue.

Sarah Laurence and I order tea and scones with cream. Yum.

We talk about books. 

Go to her site to see details of the Blogger Book Boost which seems a splendid idea.

All those long dark evenings to be filled with vicarious adventures.........

Here a chair in Tea and Sympathy -- a symphony in brown and sort of round. 

Here another symphony in brown. The pumpkin pie at City Bakery on 18th Street. More round shapes. I have a shot of hot chocolate -- the server thinks a whole cup would be too much. 

Even I have to agree.

To atone for my disgusting greed, I walk home both evenings.

The advantage of rain is that it reflects things.

Here 23rd Street opposite the Chelsea Hotel.

It might be quicker to bike.

Or hitch a ride on a truck on 8th Avenue.