Blooming Days

These are two from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, one of my absolute favorite places to spend a day. It's a small enough garden to walk all the grounds, but there are still plenty of quiet places tucked away in the shade to rest or just sit and watch the leaves.

I hadn't been there in high summer before, and although there weren't many flowering plants at their peak, the water lilies (above) and tea roses (below) made up for it in vibrant color.

Why did I spend so much of my life hating pink?

Saturday Sunset, 2nd Avenue

It's a few days old now, but an approaching twilight this past weekend stopped me in my tracks.


This was taken while walking down 2nd Ave., in the 50s, with my sister and her friend. I stopped almost every block to take another, as the clouds roiled and rolled over each other.

Brick and Response

I spotted this abandoned post office building the other day, and it seems an appropriate accompaniment to your deco diamonds.


It was on 3rd Ave. in Brooklyn, which is a funny street. It's resisted all attempts at gentrification, and remains stubbornly deserted among the pricey condos going up in neighboring Park Slope and Boerum Hill. Walking down it on a bright, white-hot day, you almost feel like you're wandering around in L.A. or something.

la post

as i was admiring the facade of this building, i was reminded that it is a home to one of your favorite federal organizations, the united states postal service.
the deco diamonds caught my eye and i had to take some snapshots quickly because yes, there was a bus to catch.

Monkey Man

This should look very familiar.


He and his acrobatic, mischievous brothers arrived in a surprise package sent many summers ago (along with some novelty erasers, I believe, and a pack of Marlboro Reds).

Sadly, all the contents have been lost over the years, but I've managed to keep track of this little orange scamp. He hangs out in my kitchen, but occasionally is well behaved enough to get an invitation to the dining room table, as he did the other morning.

The Teenage Years

Here Ruby is, in all her glory, 12 years after we found her on a dusty, dark shelf in a Rochester Home Depot.


Note the flower shoots. She is very happy in her Massachusetts home. I should try transplanting a piece here, though, and see how it does. She's certainly proved her tenacity.

Polar Where?

Speaking of things being out of place, look what I came across during my morning walk in Park Slope.

He was splayed out over the gate. Resting? Impaled? Depressed? He wouldn't say. It looked somewhat painful to me, but he pulled it off with style.