Urban poetry

A chain-link barrier hanging off one of the piers in the Hudson. I love the colors.

OK, that is just insane

Braving the chilly Hudson River in just a speedo, I mean. We've had very little weather that even qualifies as warm recently, and none of the heat and humidity that's typical for this time of year.

A foggy day in New York town

A picture of the Hudson from last winter: fog, a ferry, a gull soaring overhead.

Plus you can't even see New Jersey.

Urban poetry

I am better, but still struggling to catch up on all the daily chores that got put on hold while I was out of action. So I haven't posted much.

Here are two pictures from earlier this month, of Gansevoort Peninsula. It's the latest of the old piers on the Hudson to be repurposed for recreation, but instead of a park, they built a beach. You can't swim, but there's sand, and rocks for the river water to lap against with appropriately beachy sounds.

It's a little surreal, which I think these photos capture. Especially because although it was unseasonably warm the day I was there, it was still October!

Saugerties Lighthouse

The Saugerties Lighthouse.

The current lighthouse was built in 1869, and there were lightkeepers living there until the 1950's. The top floor is now a bed and breakfast, and I thought I would love to spend a night or two there, until I found out it was $525 a night, and there are no vacancies until next January.

I love that kid who ignored the big, beautiful river and claimed the muddy puddle instead.

Two more from Fort Tryon Park

These are from late November.

View from Fort Tryon Park

I'm going to try to catch up on some old pictures before school starts again. The skies here may look wintry, but this picture looking up the Hudson from Fort Tryon Park was taken on a rather mild day in October.

Sunday bird blogging

Another look at Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Henry Hudson Bridge, this time with a mallard.

Saturday reflections

Here's a lovely water reflection from Inwood Hill Park yesterday. This is Spuyten Duyvil Creek which, along with the Harlem River, separates Manhattan from the Bronx—this really is the northernmost tip of Manhattan Island. That's the Henry Hudson Bridge, and beyond it, the Hudson River.

The Palisades

Those cliffs on the west bank of the Hudson—seen here from Fort Tryon Park—are called the New Jersey Palisades. They don't look that high from the other side of the river, but if you're down in the water they do loom most impressively.

You can't see them that clearly in this picture, but they do resemble a row of columns, or a palisade fence. According to Wikipedia, “The Lenape called the cliffs ‘rocks that look like rows of trees,’ a phrase that became Weehawken, the name of a town in New Jersey that sits at the top of the cliffs across from Midtown Manhattan.”

That's not Weehawken (best known as the site of the duel that killed Alexander Hamilton) atop the cliffs in this picture; it's downriver, across from my neighborhood and it not nearly as nice a view as this.

George Washington slept here

The Washington Headquarters historic site overlooking the Hudson in Newburgh. The memorial stone is actually from the Civil War, erected by the Newburgh Guards in June 1860.

The structure on the left is called the Tower of Victory. It was built in 1887 to celebrate the centennial of the end of the Revolutionary War.

Views

The view from inside the museum, looking across the Hudson.

Rockefeller purchased several hundred acres of the New Jersey Palisades and donated it to the state just to preserve this view.

From the hotel archives

Pretend this is a sunrise instead of a sunset and it's a pretty way to start the day.