'Tis the Season

for people to dress up in all sorts of jolly costumes...

like this Santa-ette selling yoghurt drinks on Penn Station.....

and a young man selling cosmetics in Macy's....

where I met this rather alarming, if cheerful, elf.

Part of Macy's Christmas grotto. Gloriously, astoundingly overwhelmingly red.

This elf in Union Square was selling home made chutneys.

Such simplicity at the Union Square cafe where they get things so exactly right

like the pumpkin cheescake. Yum.

After exactly the right amount to eat

I discover, amidst the paper-whites and cyclamen, an austerely perfect Lenten Rose.

My friend Susanna Gordon's father-in-law IS Santa

see her wonderful post here

Celebrate

An explosion of midsummer flowers on 26th Street.

For the first time, the Macy's fireworks were on the Hudson River.

Very lucky for us. So we went up onto the roof.

And took not-very-good pictures.

Fireworks much better seen by the naked eye.

That's New Jersey in the distance.

OOOOOOOOOOH! AHHHHHHHH!

At ten, the fireworks audience walked up 23rd Street heading for the subway.

The dog was astounded.

Tuesday: People around Town

Sisters shopping in Macy's.

A sundress with the subway map on it!

I really wanted to take a picture of the uptown doorman with his swanky uniform.

Then this character said," What about me?"

Everyone wants their photo taken in Central Park.

And after Central Park, Bergdorf Goodman's windows.

What impossible elegance.

How one can gaze and gaze.

Tourist Boom

Walking along 7th Avenue near Penn Station the other day

I was struck by the number of buses disgorging visitors.

New York nowadays is a pretty exciting place to be.

You can go for even more bus tours when you get here

and see all the sights and go shopping in Macy's.

No shortage of street snacks....

or cool people to look at.

At sunset the pink light throws long shadows.

23rd Street and 11th Avenue.

Shadow Shot Sunday/Spring Almost

Spring has sprung -- at least in Macy's Windows.

34th Street and 7th Avenue.

On Saturday afternoon I went looking for shadow to join Heyharriet and the gang.

Starbcks at 8th Avenue and 19th Street.

A pretty townhouse between 8th and 9th Avenues in Chelsea.

Down at Chelsea Market, they are re-doing the big space that used to be a florist.

Something exciting going on with the floor.

The macaroons at the new French patisserie on 23rd Street

are wearing spring dresses.

Clean and Bright/Shadow Shots

Morning sun hits the side of a building on 34th Street near Macy's.

For lots more Shadowshots go to HeyHarriet.

Old buildings reflected in the glass of new construction

 just off the North side of Union Square.

A left over  photo from Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

The sign in the window of the Excellent Dumpling House off Canal Street in Chinatown.

The best, fastest and most delicious scallion pancakes on the planet.

Pink Dreams

Still too cold to do much wandering about, but being trapped at home is dull.

 Macy's is one subway stop away. I have left over gift cards. 

There is bound to be pink.

And bottles of perfume shaped like curvaceous ladies. 

Inside the shop, she has changed into her gold dress and is offering us a tray full of samples.

Here she is again amidst the bustle of the make-up department where lovely young people smile.

Cheryl (left) thinks I would look better with a little Coralista blusher on my winter white face.

She is really cheery and funny and not the least snooty like some cosmetics divas.

I tell her a story from years ago.

My mother daringly puts on a little blue eye shadow to go out to dinner with some women friends.

No one remarks on it.

Eventually she says: What do you think of my eyeshadow?

Judy Forsyth: Oh, we think it quite lovely, and it would be even lovelier on both eyes. 

(I do not come from a sophisiticated tribe.) 

Cheryl laughs. I get the blusher and a free pashmina and a free double lip gloss.

On the way home I am waylaid by young men in purple hats.

A Walk and Some Busy Bakers

A walk down 9th Avenue where a shop has a nice silvery display.

For some reason silver is more appropriate in the winter. Perhaps because it echoes candles so well?

A very handsome cat hangs out in the vet's office dreaming of turkey.

Macy's (on the left) was meant to come at the end of the post. I won't be going there today.

 Too many people and too much exciting parade. 

It opens at four on Friday morning for die-hard shoppers who will get amazing bargains...

I won't be there then either.

This character was waiting for his owner outside the English shop.

He was very noisy. We saw the dog show on TV today and thought all the dogs were too primped and groomed.

I think dogs prefer to be muddy.

Time for a snack outside Sarabeth's in the Chelsea Market.

Inside Sarabeth's the bakers were exceedingly busy. So many pies to bake........

Zeitgeist (the spirit of the age) or SHOPPING

This is for Mrs.Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday.
This first picture is Macy's on 34th Street.
I went there yesterday to buy a swimsuit on sale.
Not a happy trip though the price was good. Blue and white polka dots.
When it's a lost cause, one might as well have fun.

File under zeitgeist "the spirit of the age" a German word.
The current obsessions seem to be celebrities and shopping - both of which I claim to despise and know about anyway.
Yes, I do buy things and yes, I do know the names of the Brangelina twins. Hmm.......



The second two pictures are of the interior of the Apple store on the corner of 14th Street and 9th Avenue.
Lots of people were lined up to buy iphones.
I'm sure these are a wonderful invention and perhaps, in due course of years, I'll get one.
At the moment I do not have a cell/mobile phone. Hooray!



The Apple building is beautifully renovated and the young staff uniformly energetic and engaging.
My laptop's keyboard's letters - particularly 'i' and 'e' have vanished from overuse.
Temptation abounds.........