The World Examining Works

Snow Day with Dogs

 

The first snow this year (unless you count the freak mini-storm in October).

At seven in the morning it's still pretty dark.

The trees look mysterious

with the two men returning from walking their dog.

Our dog ( suitably booted against the ice-melt they throw down)

the dog's friend Enzo

a horribly chilly looking bench

and heading home with miserably icy hands.

 

 

 

 

Excursion

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All the photos were taken last Friday at Planting Fields Arboretum, Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Soup and Other Artistic Expressions

 

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Butternut squash is a particularly lovely color inside. Roast it for about half an hour, then it is easy to get out of its rind.

Mix it with sauteed onion....

and potato and maybe a carrot and some stock and a little bit of curry paste. Blend it.

A sprig of parsley or cilanto makes a good color contrast.

They are preparing for a new art show on 22nd Street. What reflections on a bright morning! The guy on the cell phone is missing it --but then he is having a very important conversation. Maybe he is.

The attendants from the Cerebral Palsy day-care help their charges onto the mini bus that takes them home.   

 

Ah, the delights of the bus! How important it is to have something to do...

...as the mysterious night unfolds outside the window.

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A Day

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First, the benison of flowers

then the train and a wintry sun

trying its very best to filter through everything including grimy Long Island Rail Road windows

The diner, of course, oddly comforting and picturesque.

Then the house with the red barn

the towering trees

bird houses galore

and the snow...

icing last year's azaelea leaves

 

 

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Untitled

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Swamped by Slush

 

 

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This is what it looks like round here this morning with the temperature hovering around 29'f.

Ice encases the twigs and it is truly not fit for flesh or fowl.

 

Other than that, I'm pretty cheerful.

Just read The Innocent Mrs.Duff by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding a thriller about an unpleasant man who marries a pretty young woman of inferior social status then tires of her.  First published in 1947. How it gallops along! Wonderful Americana.

More of the Same/Abstract and Eat

 

 

This snow thing is getting a bit dull,

hence a rather muted view out of the window.

This man-on-the-side-of-a-van on 22nd Street sums up my feelings exactly.

Nothing like sinking up to your ankles in slush to cheer you up.

So how come the garbage looks transcendental?

For Linda Sue some abstracty stuff...

...and more of the same.

Ah! the virtue of salad:

Avocado, pear, parmesan, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.....

and the comfort of cake.

 

 

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Dizzy

 

 

I spend quite a lot of time looking out of the window.

The afternoon is quite the best time of day when the light hits the Empire State Building. I still have not quite reconciled myself to the hideous building to its right...nor the almost-as-bad one to the left.

Yesterday, about five, I spied the new moon.

At about the same time the Leo House with its funny parapets manages to look romantic.

This morning I thought Choki might slip over on the rocks at the dog park.

This is The Empire State Building too --going up and up...

and an upsidedown cut-out person.

Fresh Direct, which delivers groceries to lazy people who do not like carrying heavy things, has decided we don't eat enough fruit. So far our freebies have consisted of three grapefruits, two Asian pears and three ordinary pears. What will they send next?

 

New

 

 

Ah, so much moralizing and philosophizing for the new year!

Bah! Humbug!...........

and yet

 

a crossroads

a journey with the colors washed out

and Queens seen palely from a Long Island Railroad train.

Susanna came in the other day with David Nesbitt from Canada and we took photos on the roof. I just looked at her blog with its much better photos than mine. Envy and admiration.  Robert says Susanna has a toaster-sized camera. She does and it takes super pictures.

How bloggers persist in recording things -- which I'm sure we all will in 2011.

Wishing all of you out there a splendid, healthy and madly creative new year.

 

 

Aftermath/ Tuesday

 

 

The unexpected blizzard was pretty dramatic

and the aftermath messy and slushy. 23rd Street and 8th Avenue.

Nice to stand up high and admire the view, while others picked their way gingerly through narrow crevasses.

I decide I had better buy some rubber Welly-boots. Immediately.

Penn Station a madhouse of people milling about -- waiting and waiting for trains.

The snow was melting a bit. I set off to Macys to look for said boots. (What was I thinking?) Gustave Dore's illustations of Dante's Inferno had nothing on the shoe department. Acquired boots elsewhere. $26.

 

Everyone else had their boots on already

and the blue sky was reflected in the puddles.

 

 

I was so sad to hear of Tessa Edwards' death. She painted, mothered, travelled,  blogged and supported grandmothers in Africa who live in awful poverty. She wrote me lovely letters and enjoyed my books. She sent me her own copy of a book about English landscape in literature -- a subject she knew was dear to my heart. I know she did similar thoughtful things for all her many friends in both the blogworld and real world. I had known she was ill for some time. Still it's shock, and I feel blessed and priviledged to have known her, however briefly.