The World Examining Works

Buildings from a Distance

I think I prefer things close up.

This is a view from the New Jersey side when you emerge from the Lincoln Tunnel  -- with bus window reflections and everything.

This is light being reflected off a very tall building near so called 'ground zero' which they are rebuilding astoundingly slowly. See below.

There is something pretty impressive about lots and lots of metal and heavy machinery.

The person who paints gray and yellow lines at the end of 23rd Street must have gone off for a break. Pretty cool drop-cloth.

Thursday Night

A mild evening

across from the Apple Store

 

where the bikers chat before roaring off into the night

in the triangle where 9th Avenue and 14th street intersect

salsa pumps from the speakers

and people dance

Other Places: A Writing Workshop in Morocco

 I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be teaching a writing workshop in conjunction with Angela Ritchie's ACE CAMPS at Maryam and Chris's enchanting Peacock Pavilions just outside Marrakesh early next spring  - February 19th- 26th to be precise - just when it's nasty and cold here and the blossoms are coming out there.......

 

 

This first picture is a collage of a window in the Bahia Palace, a camel bone mirror in the hall of our little house on derb Djedid,  the very same house where Blinky, the little cat below, was born.

Blinky now lives in the country at Peacock Pavilions.

I hope that the workshop at Peacock Pavilions, with its visits to Marrakesh itself and to Essouira on the Atlantic coast, will be a window into another world, a time for reflection and a door to greater creativity. I have lots of plans and ideas brewing.

Below is a collage of some of my memories of the two years I spent in the magical city.

 

Cats, art, fruit, flowers --above all else COLOR.

This is the house of a collector of Saharan artifacts.

 
 This is rue riad zitoune djedid (Olive House Road)

For more pictures and an account of Holly Becker's recent Decor8 design workshop at Peacock Pavilions

go here

My workshop is limited to ten participants. Four places remain open.

Please contact me at [email protected] for more details.

The House by the Water

A friend has bought a long abandoned house

with a path that leads directly to the water.

How wonderful.

The neglected greenhouses are a photographer's delight --

neglected stuff always is -- providing all you have to do is look at it rather than do anything about it.

The sky visible though a missing pane.

I'm reminded of Roethke's poem, Child on Top of a Greenhouse

The wind billowing out the seat of my britches,
My feet crackling splinters of glass and dried putty,
The half-grown chrysanthemums staring up like accusers,
Up through the streaked glass, flashing with sunlight,
A few white clouds all rushing eastward,
A line of elms plunging and tossing like horses,

And everyone, everyone pointing up and shouting!

Technicolor GreenMarket

It goes without saying that the fruit at Union Square is much better than the wilted stuff in the supermarket.

The calla lilies looked exquisite ( and expensive).

The skeins of wool, though unseasonal, beckoned.

The onions did their very best to look plastic.........but would be wonderful with all the other veggies in a stew cooked to perfection in le crueset.

 

The coleuses and zinnias dazzled.

 

These two flowers, whose names escape me, are in a plastic bag in the back of a taxi coming home with me.

Earthbound and Ethereal

Yesterday afternoon

Susanna and I shared the Napoleon above at Bergamot, having spent the morning failing to add stuff to this blog's sidebar. Typepad makes things infinitely more complicated than Blogger. Anyone got any idea why? Typepad has nicer designs. Blogger is easier to navigate in general.

It was a very large Napoleon.

Then

we wandered by the window of Rootstein mannequins where fairies awash in purple and pink gossamer wafted ........

Coming and Going

Yesterday, we were standing by the tree stump garden bemoaning the fact that recently four plants have been stolen. However, it had lasted eight weeks without incident which is amazing in itself. Buster was playing with Gander. Then who should appear?

When people look as amazing as this, I feel sure they want to be photographed.  Of course they were happy to pose. No point at all in looking fabulous if nobody notices.

I'm not sure where they they were off to. They could end up in a painting, but I don't think they will.

Some of these people might, though they look a bit lonely.

In the back ground you can see the shadow of the little house they built downtown near the water and now have carted off to New Jersey (I think). Everyone is very busy wandering about looking purposeful as they tend to do in New York where everyone is astoundingly important.

Monday

The two winners of the Jane and the Essex Serpent giveaway are Cynthia and Moe. The books will be sent out tomorrow. I spoke to Susanna this morning and asked her what picture she was putting up for her post.

She said, "Just a teacup."

I said, "I'm probably doing plums."

When I looked at her post I noticed that her teacup is sitting on top of a cloth with all sorts of paint on it -- as are my plums. Synchronicity? or merely the fact that random paint blotches are often better than the paintings themselves...... ?

Shadowshotsunday/Family Picnic

On the porch, by the swimming pool, the girls discover flags and prepare to dance.

For other shadowshots from around the world go here

Giveaway drawing tonight.

Lemons

Nothing much to say

except the afternoon sun 

falling through the blinds

made the lemons stripy

Go to Susanna's blog or the post below for the giveaway which closes on Sunday evening.