Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

We know how impetuous my sparrow Ounce is, especially near water, and I thought Robino might teach a few modeling methods..  You know it takes concentration and discipline to be a good model, and Robino has been mastering poses for months.  I was so excited when I saw the results of my experiment! However, you can imagine my surprise when I got a little closer and saw that both of them were distinctly damp!   It seems that Ounce has also taught Robino a thing or two. Robino and Ounce in te English Garden

Is there anything happier than a sunny spot on warm cement with a Brand New Box of 64 Crayons? Sunday Afternoon in the South Conservancy Garden, Central Park

Back in the day, when I had my way I’d rest my face in a flowery place. Softened with petals and sweetened with May I'd be  showered in Grace without leaving a trace. South Conservancy Garden, Central Park

I was attempting an escape from the phony fluorescent neon city life, and look what I found as a replacement?

New York Bluejay, 94th Street West of Madison Avenue

This is our Citibank Tree; it has tripled in size in two years.  The savings accounts, on the other hand, are barely staying alive and are living on borrowed water. Citibank Gift Tree, 2 years old

This desert icon was recently rediscovered in relief at the Engineers' Gate in Central Park.  This very representation is thought to have driven Artist Georgia O'Keeffe deep into the Southwestern United States in search of similar specimens. Stairway Entrance to Jogging Path at Engineers' Gate into Central Park

I see the time worn chairs of seated yesterdays:  Overstuffed and spilling springs, smelling of pipe-smoke and dinner. Morning aftershave with  pancakes, brown with syrup, wet with butter. A long walk with the trash to the alley with the lilac bushes. Lilacs! Oh the smell of lilacs! That was the day that nothing happened.  That was the day that was born at seven with scrambled eggs at noon; The day we mowed the lawn and pulled an early dandelion;  The day we saw the garden snake, and the sidewalk stayed warm from the sun;  The day with creamed peas and a bedtime story. That was the best of days.  

PlanterMan from Headquarters arrives to teach Recovering Urban Volunteer about the ins and outs of appropriate Tree-Bed Management PlanterMan Christian Fletcher assists Recovering Urban Volunteer

I love my new camera from Nikon But the thumb wheel’s so tight you can’t turn it on! I love the resolution and the pixel distribution But I must have a thumb I can count upon. I’m packing her up now with sorrow. We go back to J&R tomorrow. I know when we're done She'll find someone with Thumb I’m so grateful I had her to borrow!

We know about the three faces of Buddha, the three faces of Lord Shiva, the three faces of Eve & the Holy Trinity.  Seldom, however, are we allowed photographic access to the THREE FACES OF PARK AVENUE 1192 Park Avenue & 94th Street

Rain, rain, 90% chance; that’s a big chance to take without an anchor or a raft, That meager chance that hooks its grapples into your soul and drags you under. No rubber innertubes, no swimming for the shallow ropes, no wishing you were here. A death grip holding to those stringy dreams, those butchered hopes. I fought, hanging on with nail and tooth, bloody, My feet tearing heel ruts in the silty muddy bottom-feeding swamp. Obsessed while the hook bit into my throat, Tearing out my soul through shredded remnants, Wasting, wanting, wiping off the dirty brackish water, Playing it big. A slicing blow, and I was cut loose  Nothing A tugless war I, self constructed, half made up, left tattered on a fertile field, Tinged with elixir and pink, Soaked with the waiting sun, Tasting of honeysuckles.

I know, it’s dangerous to fall in love With that sunny leaf rolling out of its bud, With that just-so razor tipped green. How did it sneak behind the lines, becoming irreplaceable? That fragile, bendy, veiny, needy, wispy, happy thing? That little life on its twiggy wing?.  So far from Believe it or Not and Daring-Do, So far from Financial Planning, So close to my mending heart Full of its own wet and willow green.

I know, it’s dangerous to fall in love With that sunny leaf rolling out of its bud, With that just-so razor tipped green. How did it sneak behind the lines, becoming irreplaceable? That fragile, bendy, veiny, needy, wispy, happy thing? That little life on its twiggy wing?.  So far from Believe it or Not and Daring-Do, So far from Financial Planning, So close to my mending heart Full of its own wet and willow green.

It happened again this year!  I glanced aside and there they were, new and yellow with an unseen tinge of pink.  It’s impossible to truly catch these ethereal, yellow, flighty beings ~~ perennially skipping in and out of space and time, playing among the elemental realms.  But I had my iPhone and I tried. Look how they fly the instant they are born:  watching, searching, dancing.  Nothing escapes a yellow Columbine. Perennial Columbines: Window Box on East 94th Street

It's barely May, yet summer has glossed the sidewalk shade trees with perfect pint-sized leaves.  Here on East 94th Street this young sidewalk tree provides a perfect canopy for a chilly sunny afternoon. North side of East 94th Street off Park Avenue

First obtain a list of patients in residence at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  Select a name with a similar ethnicity to your own to minimize questions by badge-wearing personnel, especially those with stethoscopes. Walk with purpose to the appropriate room with a cover story at hand.  Nod nicely to the patient and head for the widow. Successful Visitor obtains chair near the Window.  Patient was asleep and therefore non-interfering   Visitor nods to Patient on way to the Window,  pretending to be a close relative and Hospital Volunteer Sailboat passing Hospital for Special Surgery on East River (taken by individual named Rita, who claimed to be an old-high-school-friend). Typical Patient View

I'll try to figure out Anphoto from this iPhone. Have the sweetest nurse among the most incredible staff

Gorgeously typical spring afternoon, facing Fifth Avenue from Central Park* *Note:  Your Discovering Beauty Blogger (me) is having hip surgery at 11 am.  I'll keep you posted!  Camera and Keyboard will be my iPhone, so don't be surprised if they are especially short posts!

Have you ever felt like this pink Magnolia, hiding all those lusty, giddy blossoms?  Pink and rampant, falling wherever they may?  May? It's May, it's May! Be happy, be gay! The heck with despair, Go have an affair! What happened to seizing the day? It's May! It's today! It's OK! Ole!   

As we know, Squiva has been in semi-seclusion for a few months now, so I went looking near a favorite daffodil patch behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Here I am!" said Squiva. "Over here. Watch me!" Well! I have never seen Squiva so enthusiastic.  It turns out that all winter long, Squiva has been practicing a circus act!  Squiva is balancing without a net on this high-wire fence. Squiva was so excited that the question of authorization for this shoot by the National Union of The Squirrel  did not even come up.