Bulbs

Brooklyn, NY

I have a picture to post but blogger won't let me do it. Manfunction of some sort.

What you would see if I could post it would be a little purple flower. A crocus.

The crocuses have started to peek their heads out of the soil. Just in time for it to snow again. The snow started falling an hour or so ago and I think when we wake up, there will be an inch or two on the ground.

Snow pants might be in order for tomorrow. The students at the Park might mistake me for a fashionista.

Ellen is having a great time exploring New York. I told her we're going to have to get a picture of the two of us to post on here this weekend. Me in snow pants, her showing off the bottles of Ribena she lugged over from Ireland.

Fuzzy Bloom

Brooklyn, NY



I had no idea that Japanese pussy willow would explode with little flowers. I wandered around the garden with my camera this afternoon when I needed to get some fresh air. Lots of desk time today, trying to get some projects closer to completion.

There's a special guest in the house. More about her in a later post. She's a loyal blog reader and is very good at taking a hint.

Tidal Wave

Brooklyn, NY

The wave is coming. This week or next week, the tsunami of work is going to crash down. That's what it feels like.

I did have a lovely respite this weekend on a trip to Boston. I went north to visit Michelle and her family. Michelle is one of my oldest friends, someone I first met when we were three-years-old, the same age her son is now.

I remember when we were in high school and it seemed cool at age 14 that we had known each other for 11 years! That was almost inconceivable. Now we have known each other 30+ years. That blows my mind.

Our mutual friend, Shokufeh, recently went back to our high school to speak at a career day. Apparently, the high schoolers she talked to had not even been born by the time we graduated.



Snowy funtime interlude over.

Back to work.

Snow Day

Brooklyn, NY

Hurray!!

For all the bike enthusiasts out there...

Brooklyn, NY




Barack Obama is your new bicycle.




Click on his name and keep clicking.

Snowy Mist

Brooklyn, NY

This photo is from earlier in the week, when the snow was still on the ground. The garden was deserted and a mist floated over the grass where the chill from the snow collided with the warming air.

Eerie but beautiful.

DI*T

Brooklyn, NY

I was riding the subway last week and was intrigued by one of the ads displayed inside the car.

Di*t

Di*t is a four letter word. It's the wrong way to think about food.

What letter is the asterisk replacing?

Maybe it's a result of spending three days a week at the garden. Maybe it's the article I read recently about the health benefits of eating soil...

I read the word as DIRT.

The advertising agency that came up with this campaign for Weight Watchers probably had something else in mind.

Why I Like Brooklyn

Brooklyn, NY

This morning I spent time photographing in the rain, trying to capture some images before the snow all melted away.

Crystals

Brooklyn, NY

It snowed all afternoon and evening, hushing the city.

I spent a while at the corner of 112th and Broadway looking at the snowflakes that had fallen on my black wool coat under a hand lens. The shapes never stop being amazing. I start thinking about the infinite possibilities of snowflake crystal configurations and feel overwhelmed. I wish I could see them all.

Tonight I spent a while reading about snowflakes on-line. The on-line snowflake guide is great. And it's possible to spend a lot of time designing virtual paper snowflakes too.

Nostalgia

Brooklyn, NY

Japanese game-show sadism is hard to resist. I was quite excited to find this on Youtube tonight. I remember seeing it on tv in Japan several years ago and telling people about it but they didn't believe me.

The premise is that these men (comedians and tv personalities) are in a library and no matter what happens, they shouldn't make noise.

Feeling Like a Person Again

Brooklyn, NY

I have been feeling normal for two whole days. It makes me want to skip around singing and doing cartwheels. Maybe that's the good side of feeling sick - the return to health and the celebration of being a complete person again.

Tomorrow I'm taking a group of kids to the woods in Upstate New York. It should be fun. We were hoping for a iced over pond to frolic on, but it's been too warm and we might not see any ice at all.

This past week I've gotten up-close and personal with a red-tailed hawk twice on the garden grounds. Every evening when I walk home through the empty garden, I've been scanning the trees for the hawk. There is a pair that lives in Prospect Park and nests every spring named Ralph and Alice. Maybe it's from that pair. Or one of their offspring.

Next weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. We've got birds of prey coming as special visitors for the kids in the park next Saturday, and then we are going to go outside and count!

Slogging through February

Brooklyn, NY

I made it out of bed yesterday. Big accomplishment! The occasion was going the garden for a big event. Helped kids pot eight-hundred lucky bamboo plants to take home.

Today I did laundry.

My body is totally beat.

Happy Lundi Gras.

Same Same

Brooklyn, NY

Isn't there a statute of limitations on the flu? Three days of missed work should be enough.