High Line Update

 I hadn't been to The High Line for ages - mostly because when I go out for a walk I usually have the dog with me, and because the amazing popularity of the park has made it a major tourist attraction. I'm reminded of Yogi Berra's comment about something quite different -Nobody goes there any more - it's too crowded.
But I went this morning to check how Piet Oudolf's plantings initially from 2009 were holding up. (You can find all my High Line posts dating back to 2009 here).

Well, as ever, lots of charming contrasts

of shapes of foliage. However...

there is so much construction going on all around the High Line that the noise is astounding and, as someone wittily pointed out, one will soon need 'gro-lights' for the plantings.

These skeletons are about to become extremely expensive three and four bedroom apartments for masters and mistresses of the universe. Chelsea has been deemed family friendly and is a very nice place to live.

Needless to say, I quite liked it when it was sort of scruffy.

10th Avenue has all these amazing residential buildings.

so big they need industrial elevators for the workers.

Quite a nice contrast of  natural and industrial.

Moments of lyricism

and replenishment of plants.

Exquisite details

and cone flowers grown up near 16th St.

So, this morning's outing was very mixed. Yes, The High Line is wonderful, is wildly popular and has caused lots and lots of changes locally. A Garden Bridge is in the planning stages in London - I wonder how that will work out?

North Shore

The north shore of Long Island has pebbly beaches and a distant view of Connecticut.

This time of year the water is calm and beautifully warm and blissful for swimming.

The beach grasses are coarse and scratchy

intermingled with little patches of vetch.

More Black and White

I love taking pictures of people... but most people don't want their photo taken by a random person in a public place. One can hardly blame them.

So I resort to taking photos in very public places like the subway escalators...

Au Bon Pain on Penn Station.

and Penn Station itself...

For some reason black and white looks both romantic and gloomy - as in 'a rather colorless person' as against a 'colorful personality'. Anyway more and more building on 10th Avenue.

This hole in the hoarding allows you to glimpse what they're doing to the Lukoil Station that Vladimir Putin (!) opened only a few years ago - which is now being transformed into.....not sure what. Probably something artsy since it is right under the High Line.

Back to the subway with the ubiquitous cell phone - with me taking photos with mine.

Good to have a shoulder to lean on

or hands to hold.

I like this rather mysterious bicycle disappearing back into nature.

Fun with Flora

As you have probably gathered, I'm a keen urban gardener but my efforts are limited to the roof terrace and three 'tree pits' in front of the building.

Here are some petunias from the roof and some dill scraps. (The lemons are from the fruit chap on the corner!)

Here is a rose from the roof, much larger than life sized. (Not sure about the orange mini-vase - but light looks cool going through it!)

Again, much larger than life sized. The last violas.

We managed to grow sunflowers on the street this year. Rather brave and bold. However, they have huge root systems and rather overwhelm everything else.

 So I started harvesting and drying the seed heads  - and taking arty pictures.

All very wonderful until the seed heads developed a black mold - so I threw them out of the window.

Yesterday's roof gleanings - about life size (tiny scissors). The nasturtiums were hopelessly over and were pulled out. The blue thing is a salvia.

Gosh, what a thrilling post. Oh well.

Beach Days/Robert Moses

Cross the causeway across the Great South Bay

heading directly south. 

A huge amount of work was done over the winter, rebuilding the dunes that were battered by Hurricane Sandy almost two years ago. The newly planted dunes look rather unnatural and a sort of lagoon has been formed.

This divides the main beach from the ocean. The water in the lagoon bit was warm but a bit scummy. Needs flushing by the tides.

When the tide came in, kids on skim boards (in the middle) slid from the ocean to the puddle.

A helicopter doing important things - actually just routine, I think.

By midday the beach has filled up, the sky is a brilliant blue - and we headed home

to eat cherries and peaches.

Happy weekend.

Summer in the City

Lots and lots of new construction on the West Side.....

nowadays you can only just see the river...

Lots of workers busy in construction.

This building near the dog run seems to grow a new story every day.

A super giant truck to haul all these building materials around.

Nearer to home, the cosmos is blooming in  tree pit #3

The sunflowers that arrived by chance -  the seeds must have been thrown in by a passer by - have been much admired - and photographed. "Just like the South of France!" said someone - well, not exactly, but we try!  

Time to picnic on the roof terrace

drink fancy colored cocktails.

Looking south from the terrace when it's still light

and after dark.

Looking west on a rainy evening

and wondering whether orange glass is pretty or not...

Happy weekend.

Why I Write/Summer Reading

     In May, Cait O'Connor  invited me to join a group of other writer/bloggers including Pamela of The House of Edward in doing a post entitled Why I Write. I was flattered and interested...and distracted and thought I would get to it - in the end.

     In brief, I think I write for the same reason I read: to enter a window into another world.

Chelsea Physik Garden

 I've been thinking of wonderful summer reads - needless to say most set in England. I just finished Kate Atkinson's virtuoso Life After Life. I gobbled it up, loving every minute of it.

Wiltshire

 Several years ago, I felt rather the same about Rosamund Pilcher's The Shell Seekers, set in Cornwall.

Wiltshire

Jane Gardam's Old Filth Trilogy is a real delight - rich and visual and sensual and altogether astounding.

as above

And as for me - I try to recapture a now vanished world - of family and England and love and hardship. I have recently re-edited Ruth and Gisela which was originally published as A Fortunate Child. It's now available on Amazon's Kindle Direct which means you don't have to have an actual book and can download it in an instant.  Click here for details. A very kind review of the book on the super bookish blog A Work in Progress.

Another window in a very old house in Wiltshire, with the light slipping in sideways - like in old Dutch paintings.

Here is the house where part of  Ruth and Gisela is set. My grandparents' house in Faversham, Kent photographed in about 1952. I'm so glad most of the windows are open. The final photo is of a family celebration some years ago, because my story is about family and mothers and daughters.

Happy 4th of July