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

First Robert Moses Beach Day of the Year

Finally got to the south shore of Long Island early in the morning on an overcast day.

The sea was gray.

Very few people were there - a father and son were fishing.

The dunes were looking battered and ratty - much worse, oddly, than after hurricane Sandy. Parts were taped off for birds' nests.

Much more darker sand was visible than usual.

The beach itself was much altered - a much more pronounced difference than in previous years. Nice to have a sand bar an an inlet for paddling.

Big ridges in the sand.

Lori heading back towards where we had left the picnic things.

By the time we left in early afternoon, things were looking much more normal.

Community Garden

The community garden belongs to people who live in the Penn South complex which our building is right next to but not part of.

 I have lots of friends with little vegetable plots in there, so am allowed in for picnics once in a while - like entering Eden.  I usually stand with my nose to the chain link fence. 

Looking East you can see the Empire State Building.

Looking west you can see London Terrace.

Amazing how wild such a little space can get. Here some yellow cosmos.

some lettuce

and fallen cherry leaves under the tree.

Corn flowers and a butterfly.

Shasta daisies  and hosta under the pergola.

An odd little bust by the parsley.

The barbecue in the distance and in front a good place to read.

Fun in Black and White

So it's the summer solstice and everything is lovely and bright and breezy.

Obviously the moment to go mopey and gloomy and black and white.

Here is the Flatiron Building yesterday morning looking grim.

Here it is without any filters....

Empire State Building from pretty much the same spot I took the Flatiron Building from.

This morning, on the way back from the dog run, I stopped at Intelligensia for a cup of tea. You buy coffee/tea from the back of a charming mobile van and dogs can sit in the outdoor space outside what was, rather briefly, the Desmond Tutu Conference Center and is now The Highline Hotel.

Dogs hoping for crumbs.

All this in the grounds of the Episcopal Seminary where the church is modeled after Magdalen College in Oxford

there are wonderful old trees

sturdy doorways

and sunlit lawns.

I met a well maintained old truck on the way home.

Union Square

 I haunt Union Square in the same way some people might go to pubs or car showrooms or department stores.

I pursue the natural and seasonal and things that won't last long like... 

the slightly tired peonies with their debutantes-after-the-dance limpness...

  the pretty field daisies

and the last-of-the-season lilacs.

Such pretty chive flowers! A long conversation with the chive farmer while sheltering with Frances from a sudden downpour. I said I thought you had to remove the flower heads. He said you should break them apart and sprinkle them like confetti on salads. Who knew?

Which brings me to the currently super-popular edible flowers.

To be honest, they photograph better than they taste. (Thanks to Lisa Lewicki Hermanson for telling me how pretty things look shot through plastic!) Can't remember what this is.

Or this  - though you can eat it.

Nasturtiums are peppery and a little goes a long way.

Years ago there were sugared real violets - here pansies.

Photogenic cilantro

and more pansies.

A little pansy print approximately life-size.