Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life!

Ounce Waits for the Light

2012-02-24T00:48:00.005-05:00

Ounce has learnt so much from watching traffic! Now we both must wait until the exactly correct time to cross the road.

Flung From Axon to Dendrite: on the nature of change

2012-02-23T01:01:00.005-05:00

Hop on, said the axon we'll find us a dendrite in no time.

Hesitating, I climbed abroad the whitish gluey tentacle. Sticky it was, no need to hang on. I found myself crawling easily along the slippery center track, toward the glittery end. I felt quite confident as I learnt to balance among the whiskery filaments.

As I drew closer to the narrow tip, I thought perhaps I ought to reconsider. I tried to slow down, and the strand began to oscillate and whip!

I held on as tightly as I could, but there was no hope. I made a last grasp for a filament, and Thwang! I was cast out into the sprinkling starlit space, tumbling and turning like a helpless asteroid.

My mind became a blank. My life passed before my eyes and disappeared completely! What was happening? The starlit sprinkles began to thin, and for a time I was suspended in a midnight vacuum blue.

Was I to float out hear forever--no past, no thoughts at all? slowly, I drifted. Time evaporated. I began to grow dim and quiet.

As though in a dream, the emptiness began to fill, one shimmer at a time. My eyes woke up and there in the far distance was a tiny, trunk-like element, swaying and bobbing like a pinkish, octopusian cobra, uncoiling closer and closer. 'I'm invisible aren't I?' I said to myself. 'I hardly exist! That weaving thing will never sniff me out!'

Closer! The tentacle grew fatter as it drew near. I tried to pretend I wasn't there, but it touched my ankle, hesitated and wrapped itself around my foot! It moved up to my waist and drew me in. I knew it was a dendrite; what else could it be? Snuffing and snarling, it pulled me deeper into the new space of shimmers and gave me a toss.

I must have fainted, because I woke up curled in a sunlit cove, with gold sand and green edges, rimmed with a clear blue sky and coral flowers.

Happy Flowers

2012-02-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

There is nothing cheerier than a couple of happy flowers from a Safavid Empire tiled wall--Iranian, from the new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Squiva Signorina

2012-02-19T00:51:00.002-05:00

Finally, I got a message from Squiva, who is back from the Coast. Nevertheless, Squiva was unavailable to spend much time owing to a previous modeling commitment. There is not too much time when you are at the top of your profession, and running an Academy to boot.

We did get to spend some time with one of one of Squiva's very close relations, who is in primary school. Meet Squiva Signorina, who was born uptown near Fifth Avenue. Signorina is showing exceptional talent as a young model. We snapped this shot during a short break from her tail lessons. Isn't she a cutie?

Squiva Signorina

Red Tail Circling

2012-02-18T00:28:00.002-05:00

Above the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ounce Considers Seizing the Day

2012-02-16T23:50:00.004-05:00

Shall I grab that day?

Let me think a minute.

Wait!

Gone.

Yanked away as though

It never had been born.

a Pensive Ounce Considers

Looking Down a Winter Lane in Central Park

2012-02-16T01:15:00.002-05:00

Wait! Over there on the left bank. Is something growing there? Is that a small green leaf poking up?

Nah. It's a simple trick of the eye. It's too early for a small green leaf. Nevertheless, I think we had better come back in a month or so...

Peculiar Twin Skyscrapers in Midtown

2012-02-13T23:03:00.000-05:00

Off view of double skyscraper taken from a bus. Yes, it is two skyscrapers, I am certain!

Squirrel Suspended in Maze

2012-02-12T23:55:00.006-05:00

Our poor squirrel Dusk, a close relative of Squiva, is suspended in a labyrinthian maze of directions for setting up and networking a new Mac Error--oops!! I mean Mac Air (of course I do). Up? Down? Call support? Wait for the new Router-That-Will-Handle-Everything-Both-WPA-&-WEP? "Will it tell me the route off of this limb I'm out on?" Oh my poor Dusk.

Hang on! Help might arrive! After all, didn't we pay $245 for 3 years of 24/7 help? Help! Where is my phone? Will somebody please call for support? It's getting dark soon, and I need to eat my nuts!

Marina Forstmann Day @ Pavel Zoubok Gallery ( 533 West 23rd )

2012-02-11T01:36:00.000-05:00

Ducks Swim Among the Harlem Icebergs

2012-02-09T01:23:00.002-05:00

Shhhhhh......Danger!!! VERY, very, Very, Very, very, v e r y, very, v e r y

THIN ICE...

Water Fowl in the Harlem Meer

Oona Osaka, July 29, 1991 -- February 6, 2012

2012-02-08T00:19:00.004-05:00

God Bless all creatures great and small, seen and unseen, living and non-living.

May we be happy, may we be joyful, may we be peaceful, may we be free.

Oona Osaka, July 29, 1991 -- February 6, 2012

Cycles of Life

2012-02-06T02:17:00.003-05:00

Earth and water, air and fire

Eat, drink, love, desire

Stop and think, the stakes are dire

Birth, death and a funeral pyre

Everyone knows it’s a losing game

Fame, fortune, it comes to the same

in the end, yet most of us happily aim

To seek, to love, to carry the flame.

Bounty on the Streets of Manhattan

2012-02-04T00:29:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness I no longer smoke! Think how many great tastes I can get right now for 1.99 a pound. The vitamins! The minerals! The heightened sense of possibilities! It's astonishing.

Sparrow Ounce Finds a New Winter Activity

2012-02-02T22:52:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since I spent much time with Ounce, and I wondered what was happening.. Well! It seems as though Ounce has taken up a new activity. It is winter, and therefore it is not a good time to go swimming. "Come on", said Ounce. "Let me show you the most fun thing to do.". Of course I followed along as best I could, while Ounce hopped and flew from tree to tree making an effort not to let me fall too far behind. Finally, I caught up, and there was Ounce, as happy as you please, watching traffic!

And if you have never tried it lately, it is totally fun, if you pay the correct sort of Ouncy attention.

Ounce Watches Traffic

Lonesome Railroad Whistle

2012-01-30T04:17:00.001-05:00

Does the whistle still blow along the railroad tracks?
Does the steam still whoosh around those iron wheels?
How I yearned for a stretched out yesterday,
A molecular rearrangement,
Drawn to the rails like an iron filing.
I didn’t know the ache of my itinerary.

Where is the frosted, yellow harvest remnant?
Where is the red sunset against that winter tree?
Where is the empty creek bed?
Where is the meaning of magenta?

The Station’s empty now, the crowds sucked into evening,
Craving the new neon, built with energy saving bulbs.
An undeciphered answer hiding in the wires.
Can we hear the songs of those without another spring,
Slipping into their new life, plunging into colors,
Bursting with new dimensions?

Politically Correct, in a Manhole Sort of Way

2012-01-27T23:05:00.000-05:00

HO HO HO,

I’m called a manhole even though,

It's inaccurate now

Since I’ve had to learn how

To let both men and women below.

Now I’m not just a cover

But also a lover;

(for every quid there’s a quo)

Cleopatra's Needle -- Comparing Haystacks

2012-01-27T01:11:00.004-05:00

Cleopatra's Needle, probably constructed in the 1200's BC, is almost 3000 years old. I am not even a 100! It's all a matter of scale. Here's Cleo's Needle keeping company with one of Central Park's signature lamposts.

Cleopatra's Needle and a Lampost

Reflection:: Trees and a Wavy Cleopatra's Needle

Witch Hazel in Central Park in January

2012-01-26T02:41:00.001-05:00

Look closer! Way in among the wrinkly petals are tiny yellow star flowers. Let me take you closer...


Central Park, January Witch Hazel

Miss Witch Hazel, Dressed in Ribbons

Dark, Cold Object Found in Entrance Way

2012-01-24T00:33:00.001-05:00

It was late that dreary afternoon when I finally got home. I walked into my sheltered entrance and something caught my eye! It was a dark, bluish, ballish sort of thing. As I crept closer to see what it possibly could be, it began to move! I jumped back, and when it had settled down, it revealed a beak and what looked like tail feathers! But what was it doing in my entrance way? There are many warmer doorways--just ask a homeless person.

Then it dawned on me; the answer was clear. My entrance way was color coordinated.

Pigeon Disturbed in a Doorway

Winter in New York

2012-01-23T02:05:00.002-05:00

Winter blowing--stiff, dry, rustling in the empty lot,

Vacant, covered with weeds,

Broken bottle scraps etched by the sandy summer rains.

Caps with cork, buried and dented

Mind splintering, rasped edges, frozen with footprints

White owl swivels, vanishing into a naked tree--

I know it’s snowing! Don’t tell me!

I’ve seen those shriveled twigs, barked by snow, white theatrics!

Grey midnights, star-stuffed skies

Mind shivering, sockets empty, iced with dreams

I’ve tasted snow already! Stinging, melty, dusty, smelling of wire,

Flakes clumping on the window screen. Yes,

I see the spring shadows, hunching over the branchy tips,

Curling, nipping at the buds

Mind cracking, strafed by morning, sniffing after spring.

Snowy Fire Escapes

2012-01-22T01:14:00.001-05:00

Almost tread-free New York City

Two Dogs and a Central Park Lamp

2012-01-21T00:09:00.000-05:00

These .two Happy Dogs rekindle their joyous friendship, while their owner- puppeteers pretend to manage the situation

Dancing in the Space-Time Continuum

2012-01-19T01:56:00.004-05:00

At certain times in a particular light, would-be solid substances begin to dance.

They are creating shadow ripples in the space-time continuum.

Sideways on purpose (owing to dance); bridle path

Red Twigs Among Pink Buildings

2012-01-16T23:39:00.003-05:00

When times get tough, the best thing to do is take out your magnifying glass...

Twigs Against Fifth Avenue

January Forsythia: New York

2012-01-16T01:52:00.000-05:00

Late winter meets early spring in Central Park near 96th Street

Sturdy Trunk Belays 10,000 Feather Twigs

2012-01-15T00:55:00.005-05:00

What responsibilities fall upon these sturdy limbs

Nourishing the fragile, hibernating twigs

Buoying up a traveling winter squirrel.

Hard trunks: rough, bent, creased and full of rings,
Spring hanging in the balance.

Conservancy Garden, Energized by Winter,

2012-01-14T00:30:00.003-05:00

Winter Garden: alive with beauty, minted in texture.

Innocent Prison-Building: Friday the 13th

2012-01-13T01:59:00.007-05:00

It was an odd sort of feeling in the air that day,

A crackle and a nip and so-you-say,

Then all of a sudden there appeared at my right,

A prison-like building, and try as I might,

I could not recall seeing that building before,

With its fires and its bars and the black double door.

The lights began to flicker on and off—it was a code!

I was certain it was beckoning to me, so I slowed--

It was then I heard the creaking and I saw the eye-like brass--

The double door cracked open and revealed a rasping mass—

It began to slink and slither out the bottom of the crack;

I was pinned to the sidewalk, afraid to turn my back!

I covered my eyes, and when I opened them the mass

Had disappeared completely and the brass was just brass!

The door was closing quickly, but something seemed screwy--

A form was on the landing that was furry, black and mewy.

Well I guess you know by now it was a messy little cat,

It turned around to look at me and then it just sat!

Nevertheless, the other day

I went back there and I have to say,

If I were you I’d stay away,

Those innocent doors enchant and betray.

Beech Tree at the Blue Hour --- Harlem Meer

2012-01-12T00:39:00.001-05:00

Dusk is such a subtle time

Did you know there are three different twilights? Here's Wikipedia's descriptions:

Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the geometric center of the sun reaches 6° below the horizon (civil dusk).

Nautical twilight is the time when the center of the sun is between 6° and 12° below the horizon. In general, nautical twilight ends when navigation via the horizon at sea is no longer possible.

Astronomical twilight is the time when the center of the sun is between 12° and 18° below the horizon. From the end of astronomical twilight in the evening to the beginning of astronomical twilight in the morning, the sky (away from urban light pollution) is dark enough for all astronomical observations.

Alien Attempts to Read a Book

2012-01-09T22:44:00.001-05:00

"Help! Help! Help! Is this the Interstellar Police?"
....
"A Translucent, cone-headed alien is attempting to sneak through our window and read a book!"
....
"Yes, a realbook!"
....
"I don't know why it doesn't get it online. How would I know?"

Surveillance at Local Library

Retriever, Golden

2012-01-09T00:41:00.005-05:00

How often I ponder, "Why am I not blonder?"
Though golden is nice, being blond would add spice
to my geist and my feist
(and add twice to my price).

I've nothing to lose, so sit here and muse,
my owner's out walking, and I sit here talking
to any believers in talking retrievers
who happen to notice my hues (or my blues).

Some Times

2012-01-08T01:29:00.013-05:00

Cycles!

Remember the windup times,
spinning honey and ribbons.and yellow birthday cakes,

white frosting, pink with candles,

a July watermelon and a sandbox with a spoon?

Sand!

Do you recall the racket days with beach nets and surfing,

and that starfish creeping in the sea urchin pool?

There was that day along the winter beach,

surf scampering in the inbound tide,

sinking wet into brown sand bubbling with clams,

dull in the overcast sky.

Do you wonder where the anchor is that gathers up these pulsing times?

That sparkler pink

Those sun burnt cheeks

That stinging windswept dreary day

awash with seaweed flowers?

Greywacke Arch, the Real Story

2012-01-07T00:37:00.012-05:00

Attention!

Danger! Misty Extracto Zone! Beware of Greywake Arch!

Officially this arch is named for the variety of Hudson Valley sandstone with which it is built, but this is a completely uninformed reading of the term Wacke! Look at the etymology...

Wacke noun

1. a kind of rock, boulder This is as far as the official definition goes. However, Wacke is (alternative spelling of)

2. Wacky.

And, Wacke is from Old High German waggo or wacko, probably cognate with Old High German wegan "to move" !

The Terrifying Truth is that we have a Grey Wacko Arch that causes things to not only Move but to slowly Disappear into one of the few remaining Misty Extracto Zones!

Look carefully at the photo. See those two innocent fuzzy=edged dogs? A few more trips under the arch, and the poor owner will emerge with two empty leashes.

Thank goodness we discovered it in time.

Day off for recovery from tail end of a cold!

2012-01-05T23:10:00.000-05:00

Night!

Squiva's Modelling Institute and Agency

2012-01-05T01:03:00.000-05:00

Remember I mentioned a few days ago that I had discovered another of Squiva's students on location, but as usual we needed to obtain clearance from the National Union of the Squirrel (NUTS) in order to post the candid shot. Indeed, this is one of Squiva's stars. Look at the tail mastery! Just the right amount of transparency in the fluff. Just the exactly correct curvature. And isn't it delightful to see how sleek and fat the students are this winter!

From what I hear, Squiva is opening up a branch office for his Institute, location undisclosed.

Meditation

2012-01-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

White Buddha meditates on wealth, power, and ceramic parquet in a small courtyard

Golden Winter Berries

2012-01-01T23:44:00.003-05:00

Golden Winter Berries, near Squiva's hangout South of the Metroplitan, Squiva appears to be on location. Florida perhaps? However, we ran across some of his students the other day. We're negotiating the rights to post the photos from the National Union of the Squirrel.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T01:43:00.002-05:00

Fireworks over the Reservoir, 2012

Taken with blurry iPhone; it's the thought!

Mudpuddle Architect

2011-12-30T23:28:00.004-05:00

Mudpuddle selecting the very best structures to reflect, in order to devise a fascinating architectural inspiration. For example, architect Frank Gehry has been known to walk nearby.

Central Park, near the Rambles - December 2012

Park Avenue: Christmas 2012

2011-12-30T02:08:00.003-05:00

Ok. I know, Whiteish and Yellow Christmas Lights don't exactly look like this to you and me, but have we truly considered how these same lights might look to a Cannon EOS? I thought not!

Looking South on Park Avenue from 92nd Street, 2012

Connections

2011-12-28T01:26:00.003-05:00

I hear the tangled memories, snagging through my mind,

Riding along the dry arroyos.

We knew each other once; I feel it in my chest,

I hear the fizzled echoes.

Rich red and golden passion singing through the wires,

Vanishing before my eyes

As if it never was.

ColoradoTelephone Pole, through the widow of a bus

Mystery Artist Enlivens South Wall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

2011-12-26T00:43:00.003-05:00

Many celebrated artists have difficulty fitting into the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum. One of our local rather famous artist requires a very large palette and a very expansive venue--much too much for either museum. However, our Artist has often been convinced to splash beauty on the more liberal outside walls. This temporal display was witnessed by many lucky New Yorkers as they passed by the South Wall of the Winter Metropolitan of a late afternoon..

Young Christmas Bird in a Berry Tree

2011-12-25T00:45:00.001-05:00

Shhh,

Listen, do you hear the quiet sounds of midnight?

The silent ringing of the bells?

Artists Near the Metropolitan Museum of Art

2011-12-24T00:29:00.000-05:00

Cheerful New York Artists selling their work to last minute shoppers on Fifth Avenue

I Dreamed of Fixing Everything

2011-12-23T01:02:00.005-05:00

There’s tar at the edge of the new asphalt road;

Cold in winter, soft and sticky in the summer sun

There’s nothing like a paved road/

I guess it takes a gravel, dusty, dirt-filled one to know the difference.

When I walk along my mental tar-edged road,

it’s December, dark, lights bubbling in the window evergreen,

me longing for a way to comprehend

my tired aching ribcage, frantic bloody cuticles.

Did I eat that other box of cookies, and what will I do for the money?

Dig into the old purse,

the cushions fed by drunken, snoring, singing, whining, biting, sniping parties?

How I dreamed of fixing everything.

I new I could!

(Throat aching, fingers hurting, luminescent cookies in the closet corner.)

I’ll wake up willing, armed and ready, mending broken pieces, gluing back the days of childhood.

Visiting the slant-roofed farmhouse,

grass high, hollow tree, full of whiskey.

Dinner at the table with the extra piece of plywood,

how I dreamed of home, carsick, staring at the fading countryside.

Yet what I see now is the gold-brown day, the rosy sunset evening, spinning stars,

a wooden floor worn down and soft,

a drumstick stuffed with bread and sage.

Southern Colorado, White Farmhouse, from a Bus

Winter Outfit Revealing Soft Windows and Fire Escapes

2011-12-22T02:08:00.001-05:00

Incredible Winter Tree on 3rd Avenue

Incredible Fall Tree on 3rd Avenue

The Exciting Life

2011-12-21T02:28:00.003-05:00

It’s as plain to me now as today is, you see,

But that didn’t happen until recently,

I did love A, with its spirit so free,

But the one I forgot to consider was me.

A loved the parties, the fame, the forays!

It was great for awhile, but in a few days

It was clear the enchantment was starting to wane,

That each of us danced to a different refrain.

Poor me, said I as I watched A Play,

And then one day, A just faded away!

I did get a note from an airport in Greece,

And somehow I knew A was happy at least,

And this gave me solace and left me in peace.

A taught me things I would never have known

About life, about love, about being alone.

I got used to it too, it was easy somehow

Just to travel around, just to live in the now.

It was the middle of the morning; I remember it was hot,

I was on my way to somewhere, when my sandal got caught,

On a twig I guess it was, near a narrow wading brook.

I was hot, and I was caught, and I thought I’d have a look.

The water made a happy sound, and danced around the pebbles.

(I can sit and watch for hours while a ripple finally settles).

It wasn’t a twig that got hold of me, but what it was I couldn’t see,

Help me! Help me! What could it be?

It’s almost noon and I’m hearing a tune,

And the singer is humming off key!

Oh My Gosh, I said as I started to shout

Could it be My B who is tugging at me?

Oh, my, said I (I was thankful you see),

It was B, My B who had caught hold of me,

And I finally figured it out.

Self Decorating Winter Solstice Tree

2011-12-20T01:12:00.001-05:00

Beautiful Winter Tree full of chilly day dreams, sweetened with winter honey, and decorated with small, patient, resting twigs.

London Plane North of the Reservoire

Roots

2011-12-19T03:06:00.000-05:00

Tree with unintended shadow consequences

an Opportunity Dilema

2011-12-17T02:34:00.005-05:00

I didn’t rob a bank, oh no, or sprinkle on the DDT,

I just selected A to call

When B would do as well, that’s all,

But B was raw around the edges, don’t you see?.

Now A has all the right relations,

A has tact in situations

Needing tricky adaptations.

I have certain expectations!

And I resent your accusations!

B would never do in certain semi-formal situations!

Oh, but my B,

I left B over near the spring, B loves the sound of water so,

B cares for the country folks, you know,

You'll be all right, I said You'll forget about me soon.
Yet, it's B I carry in my heart, humming the off-key tune,

Hill Top View of Harlem Meer: Then and Now

2011-12-15T01:27:00.000-05:00

This gorgeous view is from the Hill overlooking the Harlem Meer and the Conservancy Garden, Winter is setting in from the chilly tree tops to the earth below.

Harlem Meer from the Hill, December 2011

January Prediction.....

Hill Overlooking Harlem Meer, view #2

Snowballs in Winter

2011-12-14T01:24:00.009-05:00

My black cat named Shelter

Came into my palm on a cold winter evening

Not unlike this very day.

A little thing, born on the streets and starving.

An old German shepherd seemed to want a bite,

So home I went with Shelter.

That's just the way it happened.

I think it's in the nature of things

Hydrangeas with Winter Colors in the Conserevancy Gardens

Shadows and Red

2011-12-10T23:24:00.000-05:00

Going quietly among silent, reflecting things...

New York City Mountain Laurel

Kaleidoscope

2011-12-10T02:11:00.002-05:00

Perhaps you have been wondering, as so many have, where the colored bits of raw material for Kaleidoscopes originate. It so happens that there are Fall Kaleidoscope Bit Farms here and there, although they are almost never identified correctly. They are Master Mimics, and often confused for ordinary fall bouquets.

Craftily, our roaming photographer has located and captured on film a Bit Farm of notorious illusivity.

Same Time Last Year

2011-12-08T02:26:00.001-05:00

This day last year it was clear, cold, the sun was shining, and today was an unborn dream

Colorado Cottonwoods with Mailboxes

2011-12-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

Strange goings-on behind two blurry mailboxes

Blurry Mailboxes and Colorado Cottonwoods--November 2011

A Final Fall Flarup of Incredible Beauty

2011-12-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

Free!

Incredible Fall Beauty

Take one Free; Get the Second one F R E E !!

Red Barn in Colorado with its Poem

2011-12-05T00:14:00.005-05:00

It was the apple that stuck in my mind

under those eves of winter.

A small farm with a long chicken house and a few cows.

Frost on the hay, creaking floorboards

An apple after dinner from the winter barrel.

Up into the attic with a small bed left from his high school days.

There wasn’t any starting out, no big bang, no starting over

Just a melting in of circumstance,

A final evaporation in the cold.

Woman in the Middle

2011-12-03T23:14:00.006-05:00

Woman walking away from the sun near Ridgeview Way *

Crestone Colorado, Lara C.

* "...In later Theravada texts as well as in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, the Middle Way refers to the concept, enunciated in the Canon, of direct knowledge that transcends seemingly antithetical claims about existence." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way

Red Barn in Colorado

2011-12-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

Old red barn in the late fall sun, Southern Colorado.

Leaf Griffins of Central Park

2011-12-01T00:20:00.000-05:00

These two Griffin-like plant beings are locked in mortal combat over the policies for opening and closing their gates. Guess where!

Winter Aspen

2011-11-30T00:41:00.001-05:00

Winter Aspen Tangled in a Blue Southern Colorado Sky

Cottonwood Trees Along the Creek Bed

2011-11-28T00:31:00.005-05:00

Cold blue-white skies

Straw stalks bitten down in the harvested field.

The horse barely whinnies in the low sun.

I snuggle down within the frozen roots and watch the teeth chomping,

Milk-soft lips, hoofs stepping one by one, pressing in the earth;
I'm quick; I move out of range and continue my surveillance.

Warm brown eyes and a forelock of course.

A low toss of a mane,

Moist breath white as smoke in the cold,

A soft rumbling on the exhale.
No flies now, no swishing tails.

Chomp, pull, grind, chomp, chomp pull..

I smell wet melting frost on the yellow ground.

I almost hear the cottonwoods along the partly frozen creek,

The rusted iron wheel still used to set the sluice gate.

White snow patches on the blue mountains,

The evening star at last.

Southern Colorado

Attention Nova! Multi-Cyberverse

2011-11-23T23:45:00.002-05:00

Hello? Hello??

I may be cut off at any moment! Here's what has happened!

I was minding my own business on an off-brand bus going from Denver to Moffat Colorado, when we stopped in Fairplay (read South Park) for a rest stop. I got up, left the bus, purchased a coffee, and boarded again. Something seemed a little off, yes, but still it was familiar enough. Imagine my shock, when over to my left I spied a phantom shadow of another bus! I glanced toward the front of my bus, and there sat my sixth grade gym teacher with a famous particle physicist. Help! I yelled. Clearly unheard, I looked around in desperate dismay.

At last, up in the mid-center of my field of view, was a dim and fading Emergency Exit sign. I roused myself and lurched my way toward the dimming red sign. As I careened forward I spotted a second bus on a right bend in the road. I leaped through the fading door.

There I was pulling out of the Fairplay parking lot as though no time had passed! Yet as we went along, I caught a glimpse of a parallel disappearing bus in the forest to the left. Nothing was left behind but my high-speed Internet connection.

Fountain Nymphs Sacrificing Color

2011-11-22T00:58:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, in late evening, it seems as though black and white is a good idea....

North Conservancy Garden, late afternoon in Black and White

Red on Red in Rural Suburbia

2011-11-20T00:25:00.000-05:00

Deep purple-red house buried in orange-red leaves, with a mailbox

Portrait of a Beautiful Bicyclist in Central Park

2011-11-18T23:28:00.003-05:00

Fall Reflections

Bicyclist in Central Park, East Drive

Immutable Fall

2011-11-18T04:03:00.003-05:00

It's an overcast day, damp with fall, colored with possibilities!

Mission for the day:
a. Locate one Fall Leaf.
b. Find a Person.
c Give Person this incredible thing.

Individual in Black on Random Upstate Park Bench

2011-11-16T01:43:00.003-05:00

This impostor was captured in pixels by our clever photographer, who claimed to be simply taking photos of People with Purple Things in a Bag.. Cooperation was practically instantaneous. The actual mission was, as we know, to identify and catalogue those persons fleeing from The City to invade peaceful villages Upstate.

Person located on a bench near Bedford Hills

Reflections

2011-11-13T02:09:00.002-05:00

Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 2011

Transitions

2011-11-12T00:32:00.002-05:00

Norma phenomena are hard to get into focus these days, since this is a time of transitions: among seasons, time zones, day and night, mist, mirage and miracles

Red Sumac and a Chain Link Fence

2011-11-10T00:06:00.005-05:00

Our hidden Sumac is often perplexed

about what is important to contemplate next

Should I act innocent while I plan my escape,

Or wait for security plans to take shape?

Am I locked in or out?

Should I cower or shout?

Should I look for a file

or just sit here awhile?

Maybe I'll worry tomorrow instead.

It's late and I'm tired and ready for bed.

Fall Tree, Molten in the Sun

2011-11-09T00:22:00.006-05:00

I melted away today, as though it were an ordinary thing,
to lose track of all my edges.
It was on an inhale, I am certain,
and in a neutral sun of a day.

It so happens that I found an Unexpected Ticket,
kept safe for many years inside my inside pocket.
Off I went, rolling and skipping, borderless and giddy.
Imagine my surprise to find a stream-lit cave,
hidden in a shadow.

Yes! It was a spirit cave, full of painted faces, lessons learned and candy cotton,
ferris wheels and reasons, candy corn and water lilies,
moonlit paths (that’s where we met) and fresh blue midnights.
Yes, you were there, and one more time I felt the world on fire,
swollen with dreams.

Central Park North in Fall

Fall Flares in the Late Sun

2011-11-07T01:08:00.003-05:00

Suddenly it's a fall sun,
burning cold and golden in the late afternoon.

Trees smeared with hazy leaves,

pale blues and snapping satins,

gay November branches.

Going Home After a Long Walk

2011-11-04T01:17:00.003-04:00

They’re missing.
Those green hills and grey-edged clouds,
and the summer rain,
shuttered away and slatted with fall,
Thud.

Chrysanthemums and Admirer, 2011!

2011-11-02T23:44:00.001-04:00

One petal, two petal, three petal four.

The numbers are perfect, and so is the score.

Could there be a happier moment today

than watching these riotous colors at play?

A Past Unkempt and Fading

2011-10-31T00:28:00.005-04:00

It’s just a shadow after all, but

I had the sun, I knew the moon,

I owned a grey wall full of maps,

A hankering to travel.

I had a star one time, but I cannot recall the color.

Today crashed into me again,

with sweet wind and a sun-swept sidewalk,

stinging my hands like ice,

Sucking me out through a black day-hole,

Shifting into ecstasy.

Gems and Stems and Leaves on Trees and Limes and Rhymes

2011-10-30T00:45:00.003-04:00

Just focus! Focus is what people say

you should do when there’s too many to-do’s in play.

So today I focused on pizza and tea.

Yes I did! You may think I just wanted a rhyme,

it’s not true! I wanted a pizza, you see. The tea

was just something to go with the lime,

left over from shopping last month sometime.

So I tried very hard just to focus at all,

on a single event among billions this fall,

on one tree at a time, among millions trees.

With hundreds of branches on each one of them,
One leaf at a time among thousands of these.

I selected, at random, a beautiful gem,

full of rubies and gold with a silvery stem.

Conservancy Gardens Beauties: Owners, Dogs, Bouquets, and a Shy Mum

2011-10-28T01:12:00.002-04:00

Young Fall Mallard Female Dines in the Afternoon on Algae

2011-10-27T00:07:00.004-04:00

Pale by comparison to the male, I have heard said, but how is it possible to compare beauty with beauty?

Female Mallard Dines in the Harlem Meer

More information: Algae @ the Meer

Horse Chesnut Donates a Leaf

2011-10-24T23:21:00.001-04:00

Our young fall-colored tree is two years old! There's no doubt now that this tree is a Horse Chestnut. Look at the the leaf cluster donated to the young leaf-collecting girl. It's a Horse Chestnut for sure, and it's name is TrippleC.

TrippleC at two years old

TrippleC's first Central Park Autumn

A Galaxy of Chrysanthemums

2011-10-23T23:20:00.004-04:00

Amid the Milky Ways

A stem of sunrises

Muted Colors

2011-10-23T01:03:00.004-04:00

At first I saw nothing at all

Woman in Red

2011-10-21T23:27:00.000-04:00

Typical Young Woman multitasking on her way to the subway.

Amber Grains and Foxtail Grasses

2011-10-19T22:44:00.003-04:00

I love a half and half, and here's a beauty. A bouquet of Amber Hybrids floating in the sun.
http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Poaceae.htm (courtesy of our Horticultural Specialist Christian F.)

New Life From Old Bones

2011-10-19T00:08:00.008-04:00

Love leaves a quiet coal that smolders in your gut

Damped down and waiting for a wanton spark

Waiting to ignite your ribs and seer your heart

Burning wormholes through the warp and weft of minutes

shooting new life through leftover bones.

October Royalty: Monarch Butterfly in Central Park

2011-10-17T01:16:00.002-04:00

This single monarch was sited dining on Blue Salvia in the English Conservancy Garden. According to this week's Monarch Butterfly Migration update, "Temperatures across the north have been unusually warm. With an extended growing season, late-season monarchs have had time to complete the life cycle. Monarchs are still being seen, and often in large numbers"

The sighting was reported to the Annenberg Global Sighting webpage (with a photo...)!

Annenberg Learner Site- Journey nouth, A global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change

Monarch Butterfly dining on Blue Salvia in the English Conservancy Garden of Central Park.

Pushy Reservoir Bouquet

2011-10-14T23:34:00.000-04:00

I was minding my own business, aiming to shoot the reservoir path, when this pushy bouquet of flowers came out of nowhere, practically shoving the people into the water! Flowers have no manners anymore!

A New Yellow Tree, Fence Posts and MudPuddles

2011-10-13T23:57:00.006-04:00

I was swallowing the day whole, Inhaling the deep yellows and wet green, when I chanced upon a new yellow tree, near a set of tall, unattached, helter skelter fence posts. The posts were maybe twelve feet tall.

"What they intend to confine must be extremely big," I thought, and I drew closer.

I saw that New Tree was planted in what appeared to be an old fishing boot! Could it be that someone intends to use these posts not for a fence, but as a set of pilings meant to hold up a large waterproof basin? And just what sort of fauna is expected to dwell within this gigantic puddle?

Puddle? Puddle! Aha!

Clearly, this basin is meant for neither fauna nor flora, but is another classic Parks Department puddle eradication scheme! They will attempt to trap each mudpuddle and move it to a sort of mudpuddle reservation in the North End of the park.

What a relief. Firstly, the Parks Department will never capture the essence of the puddle, since they are confusing the puddle with the water. Secondly, even captured water will wait for a leak, vanish underground and find its way back home. There may be some collateral damage, but all- in- all I suspect our mudpuddles are safe for another season.

Reservoir Apples

2011-10-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it? This apple tree has appeared out of nowhere! I've been round and round the Central Park Reservoir a thousand times, and not a single apple! Is it the hurricane? Perhaps it took a small Earthquake? What a beautiful sight.

Columbus Day at the Metropoitan Museum of Art

2011-10-11T02:27:00.004-04:00

There it is again, the wild heart,

pulsing in its quiet nest.

I took a walk about the arteries,

checking on the valves,

firming up the infrastructure,

smoothing out the veins.

The hardware’s all in order,

running the latest version.

Nothing here to cause this stretchy wanting feeling

Or that longing shiver warming up the ribs.

Washing Away the Cares of This World

2011-10-09T01:45:00.003-04:00

Meet Sea, our newest water friend. We were walking along the East River preparing to cast bread into the waters to begin a new chapter in life, and out of nowhere came Sea! Sea loves to play Air Catch

Player 1 prepares to cast a slice over the rail. We have found that casting away the turmoils of life is so much more beneficial if it also nourishes the creatures of the Sky as well as the Earth.

Player 2 casts a piece of homemade bread into the waiting wings of Sea.

Daisy-rimmed Plane Tree

2011-10-06T21:45:00.000-04:00

There is no apparent reason to circle a London Planetree with daisies. Nor is there a good reason to amputate the trunk. Nevertheless, here is a thriving speciman representing just those behaviors!

Just below the surface of my mind

2011-10-06T00:12:00.008-04:00

There’s a current swimming just below the surface of my mind.
You feel it too, I know it!

Colored flashes stirred up and splashed in with pieces of today,
Splintered hopes and fractured memories
Tumbling with those brilliant sharded yesterdays.

Wasn’t it October when that red sparked letter vanished in a careless grate?
It was, I know it was!

Evaporating Buildings

2011-10-05T00:45:00.000-04:00

Many of you may have wondered, as I have, how it happens that buildings in large and small cities come and go with such relentless rapidity. Entire skyscrapers vanish overnight! Well! Our tenacious architectural photographer has discovered their secret.

It was late afternoon and an innocent mist appeared to settle quietly; as if on silent cat-feet, one might say. Slowly and imperceptibly a tall, newish building on the far left seemed to be disappearing. At first our photographer was simply captivated. And then she gasped. Could it be? Yes it could!

These buildings were evaporating overnight!!

And here we have the very, very first documentation of this improbable phenomena.

New York from Sheep's Meadow, evening

Shooting star wishes for another chance

2011-10-01T23:23:00.001-04:00

Shooting star wishes for another chance

To be a simple asteroid

Orbit after orbit

Time and time again

Don't Walk Reflecting Puddle

2011-09-30T23:48:00.002-04:00

Don't tread on me reflecting puddle

New: Elevator Buildings!

2011-09-30T00:25:00.002-04:00

As we all know, living in New York is especially expensive. Even in troubled times, space is extraordinarily pricey on the Upper East Side. For example, in August 2011 the average price per square foot on the Upper East Side was $1,358 (*).

Yes, that's per square foot.

It's clear why landowners are trying to scrape up any loose square feet where ever they can. At first, this respected building decided to eliminate elevators, since each one can take up to 100 Square Feet per floor.*

That plan had legal drawbacks, so the building decided to replace the entire lobby with an elevator!

No more stuffed chairs to vacuum, no more marble tile to polish, no more annoying plants to water or bad original art. No more brass! (Well, some brass on the elevator.) No more excessive doormen.

The only staff needed is one single doorman-elevator operator at a time.

Sure those renting relics from before conversion might be put out, but look how much lower the fees will be for the shareholders! No staff, no polish, no arguments, and a new 500 square foot apartment in the former lobby. A quick renovation and that's half a million dollars right there.

Well, it's simply brilliant.

*http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Upper_East_Side-New_York/5260/market-trends/

East River Seeker & Spirit Dog

2011-09-29T01:24:00.006-04:00

Person observing the East River waters of life. A small black Spirit Dog guards the location.

September 18, 2010