Gritty and Green

The other day I discovered that about forty nasty plastic giveaway magazine things had appeared on 23rd Street. Someone's art project? A prank? Best guess: they were moved from 7th Avenue when President Obama went to a fundraiser at the Rubin Museum......

Other than being a jolly, bright, photo-op, I wish they ould go away.

I think pay phone s may soon vanish since everyone in the universe seems to have a cell phone --or multiple cell phones.

Never pass up a good puddle.... 

Fellow street gardener Luis tending his project.

Time for a nap by the garden at 8th Avenue and 23rd Street.....

Green fix supplied on a wet day on Long Island....hosta

May Apples

Japanese maple and I'm afraid I forgot.....

Anyway, happy weekend.

Am off this evening to fellow blogger Francisca Matteoli's book party. How wonderful to write a book about fabulous, exotic hotels round the globe.

Country in the City

As frequent readers of the blog will know, this is pretty much what the city looks like. Note the progress of the Freedom Tower (upper right). 

This is what the subway looks like rushing past.

So one needs to do quieter, less hard edged, stuff like baking

or wearing sun hats on the bus

 or walking on the High Line

or past the community garden

 and noting the jolly little bird on 23rd Street.

This is my latest triumph --one of the the tree pits outside our building. The nasturtium is doing wonderfully well and the pansies flourish.

One of the said pansies.

On Wednesday, Elizabeth Bunsen told me about a new craft possibility. This is what you do: get two pieces of paper, put the pansy between them. Take hammer and bash paper a bit.

My second experiment came out better than the first one. I intend to do more......

Happy Mother's Day

Bloggers Day Out

An utterly gray day when they had removed the top of the Empire State Building, so nothing to see from the roof when the artist Elizabeth Bunsen came for the day --and her first visit to NYC for many, many years. Fellow artist/bloggers Seth Apter and Susanna Gordon were there too.

Nothing for it but to head to ABC Carpet that glory-hole of the gorgeous and overpriced and visually wonderful. Karen Cole just visible behind the children's clothes.... 

and Lord Ganesh with his lovely real flowers

and funny little fabric purses to put presents in

and beads galore.

In the restaurant the flower arrangement was absurdly perfect

and the bread suitably sculptural

 photo and handmade book by Elizabeth Bunsen

and I drew in the book Elizabeth had created for her trip.

After lunch the weather had improved a bit and we reveled in the irises in Union Square.

Chelsea Walk

Our daughter  Claudia is visiting from London and took these  pictures in Chelsea yesterday afternoon. The Shrigley poster that everyone thinks was written specifically for them.....

a cyclist

the back of Chelsea Market

the Richard Meier Building

and a distant view of New Jersey.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Queen

To celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee I joined with lots of other ex-pats, and others with connections to Britain, to go to a lunch to raise money for the Victoria Nursing Home in Ossining, New York.  

One of the things British ladies do well is hats, so I felt sadly underdressed without even a fascinator.

So many splendid chapeaux.

Pale  spring green was a popular color.

The talk by Peter McGowan, a Yeoman Warder from the Tower of London --(yes, you know, a Beefeater!) was wonderfully entertaining. Most popular question: "Have you actually met the Queen?"

More hats on parade.

Even the Queen's contemporaries were beautifully dressed.

On a completely different note, and from a completely different part of my life, Maryam Montague's lovely new book Marrakesh by Design has just come out.

I spy Robert's drawings on page 141. Maryam will be in New York on May 16th signing copies of the book See details here.

Huntington, Long Island

Time to get out of the city and go to Hecksher Park

to do a little castle building and

observe the Canada geese

the ducks

the swan

 three heavily armored turtles

a delicate dogwood.

On the way back we saw the Shore Cinema wall being painted

and the trees coming into leaf.