Urban poetry

Evening on the Upper East Side this week, as the long nights begin again.

I hesitate to say it because I've been wrong many times in the past several weeks, but I think I am finally better. I haven't coughed once today.

Evening in the Fellows Garden

Most of the garden is actually a huge lawn—this picture shows maybe a third of it—with a few trees, and beds of flowers on the perimeters. The walkway by the city wall (where the J.R.R. Tolkien table is) has beds of lavender that you can smell on the other side of the garden.

Evening in the Sacred Valley

I missed this picture earlier. We'd stopped in Urubamba (a town, not the river) to visit a ceramics studio on our way to the hotel in the Sacred Valley.

It was late afternoon/early evening and I was shooting straight into the setting sun, but I still like this picture. You can see two of the tuk-tuks that were the primary mode of transportation there.

One more silent night

Silent night

These are some of my favorite pictures -- evening streets in Quebec City.

Christmas concert

The crowd listening to the choir singing in front of city hall last night. That's the German Christmas market in the background. (It's funny how songs that drive me insane this time of year like Sleigh Ride are downright lovable when sung in French.)

We had a free evening, so theoretically I could have caught up on photos, but I was in a food coma and fell asleep shortly after coming back from the concert. After breakfast at the hotel we did a food walk through the Upper Town, sampling two kinds of crepes, pea soup, smoked salmon, hot spiced wine, and caribou, the fortified wine popular during the winter Carnaval in February. Then we had lunch (vegetable terrine, chicken in puff pastry, maple syrup pie.) Then we went to the Grand Marché where we had various cheeses with bread and croissants.

I did not eat dinner.

Toronto evening

I meant to post this earlier but somehow this week got away from me -- one last look at Toronto.

I'm going to Quebec City for Christmas, rounding out my Year of Seeing Canada. Next year, if all goes well, I will be crossing an ocean or two again.

Urban poetry

The UN at night, seen from First Avenue.

This is the Oscar Niemeyer-designed Secretariat Building, the iconic tower on the East River which is what everyone thinks of when you refer to the United Nations Building. Although the General Assembly, designed by Le Corbusier, is interesting seen from the street, it doesn't catch the eye like its tall neighbor.

I've just signed up to take the tour next week -- one of the many things I've always meant to do in New York but somehow never got around to.

Punta Arenas

I posted a few pictures of Punta Arenas while I was there, four months ago now, and I'm finally getting back to it.

Here's a look at the Strait of Magellan in the evening, as the sun prepared to sink behind the islands of Tierra del Fuego. I had walked -- briefly -- along the beach that afternoon, but it was too windy to be enjoyable.

And when I say it was windy in Punta Arenas, I mean the sort of wind that accompanies a really bad nor'easter or mild hurricane in New York, or a sail through the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica, not wind so much as a full body punch that can literally knock you over if you're not careful. I read somewhere that in the winter there are ropes along the city streets so people have something to hold on to against the winds.

I can testify that they'd be useful in the summer as well.

Goodnight, London

Evening in St James Square a few blocks from my hotel. The light was wonderful but I couldn't quite capture it without a better lens and a tripod.

Still, it's a nice atmospheric farewell to a brief but intense visit, reminding me of long walks in the chill of early dusk.