Autumn

Halloween is over with and the leaves are finally starting to fall.

IMG_8430

This pumpkin has a curious nose.

IMG_8843

One of the best bits of Halloween is getting candy… my daughter say they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted…oh my!

IMG_8419

The Winesap apples have finally arrived and are very crispy and tasty.

IMG_8448

I currently have an obsession with dried up dahlias…

IMG_8680

almost time to chuck them.

IMG_8795

A fallen leaf on 20th street.

IMG_8894

Stuff from a garden on Long Island

IMG_8897

and acorn cups.

IMG_8908

An arrangement of acorn cups and rosehips in a cup by my assistant (aged 3). Doesn’t it look like a weird clock-face in the acorn cup upper left?

IMG_8937

and the joy of fallen leaves…

A Surreal Week

The light has been extraordinarily clear and bright this week.

img_4420

A nice leaf on the windowsill.

img_4446

Same leaf on the windowsill with the light reflected off a new tall building blazes in from the north in the late afternoons.

img_4427

Our dim little counter gets lit up – had I known the light would fall there I would have arranged a better still life.. This is sort of brownish in honor of the meatloaf that is about to get made…

img_4476

Light on the High Line on election afternoon when I was beginning to feel wobbly.

img_4522-1

Last licks of flowers from my son’s garden the day after…

img_4524

Apprentice flower arranger.

So the week continued with lots and lots of walks and sights seen.

img_4538

A house to desire in Greenwich village

img_4540

and leaves in the gutter

img_4545

not to mention the hats on 5th Avenue

img_4549

and heaven in the New York Public Library…

img_4556

and an intimation of mortality.

img_4563

But the light! – and a man leaving.

img_4586

All this emotion and seeing things required a little respite in the form of Tea & Sympathy where we ate

img_4589

very stodgy puddings and drank tea.

img_4592On the way home I passed the Chelsea Hotel which is undergoing an extensive and much needed renovation – for good or ill. Anyway lots and lots of changes. I’d better get used to it.

February

Some various musing on a rather under appreciated month.

IMG_8134

This discarded looking glass just by PS 11 captured such a sharp image of the rather ugly buildings opposite. Blue plastic trash bags manage to look pretty in bright sunlight,

IMG_8307

This building in the east 60’s has maybe been on fire – or grown mold or been abandoned – or maybe all three. Deniz says it looks like buildings in Istanbul. The blackness is just like the abandoned Portuguese Consulate building in Essouira. Like almost everyone on the planet, I like mysterious buildings.

IMG_8311

The reason for this picture is the wonderful writing on the check. I did not set anything up as a still life. This is just what remained after I had eaten my pancakes and bacon and drunk my tea.

IMG_8346

Yesterday I walked home down the High Line and there was almost no one about – well of course there was someone taking photos who had color coordinated his jacket to look brownish like the buildings.

IMG_8352

See! No one at all!

IMG_8361

But some witch hazel with waving fronds. When I was a child some mothers put witch hazel on bruises. Not sure if it has any effect – maybe magic like Bandaids on invisible scratches.

IMG_8391

Well, one person in the distance…

IMG_8333

A full moon to dream on

IMG_7782

and a plastic castle to play with.

 

 

Chelsea Physic Garden

IMG_0718

What bliss it would be to overlook the garden! I hadn’t been there for many years and a visit was much overdue despite horrid cold changeable weather. The oldest botanical garden in England after the one at Oxford.

IMG_0704

I ended up buying a red plastic poncho from the little hut in the middle background of the picture. The poncho prevented me from getting drenched.

IMG_0699

This almost looks like the countryside – right in the middle of town. Cow parsley – so evocative of wet walks many years ago.

IMG_0698

Arum lilies evocative of church.

IMG_0690

Wicket fences which make me think of useful projects I’m entirely unlikely ever to do.

IMG_0714

The sky reflected in water

IMG_0713

and again.

IMG_0710

Such green

IMG_0709

and more green!

IMG_0721

And all so assiduously tended.