Sunday bird blogging

I really needed a long healing walk in the park this morning and I was lucky to get a perfect autumn day, with blue skies, crisp air, and crunchy leaves to stroll through. Migration's over, so the only birds were the common inhabitants -- cardinals, robins, titmice, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers -- but they were out in abundance.

This is the only blue jay I saw but it was both beautiful and cooperative, so here you are.

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town

I took this picture with my phone on my way to work yesterday. It made me smile, in a week in which I desperately needed all the smiles I could get.

It's a reminder that some things never change -- the Bronx is still up and the Battery down, and sailors still want to see Times Square.

Saturday reflections

The last in the series of reflection shots from West 51st Street, including a look at the photographer herself.

I try not to get into the photos, but they are reflections and sometimes I can't get the shot I want without getting in it.

Urban poetry

Shadows and light under the scaffolding on a sidewalk in Montreal.

I'm tempted to try to say something witty about how millions of American eyes are now turning longingly towards Canada, but I'm too heartsick and there's nothing funny about it.

Astronomy Tuesday

On the off chance that anyone browsing the Interwebs tonight would rather see a soothing picture instead of nail-biting electoral returns.

This is the Tarantula nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. You're welcome.

Image Credit and Copyright: Josep Drudis

Welcome to the working week

Another view from Hotel Life: office windows at night. I've always been fascinated by the glimpses of empty office buildings at night (of course now that we've flipped the clocks back, darkness comes long before most of us go home.)

Here are some city reflections framing brightly lit but vacant workplaces.

Sunday in the office

Dim and deserted -- the office on Sunday. I had to go in for the second week in a row, one more disruption in what has been a chaotic month.

But the good news is I'm going home tomorrow. Even better news is that the election will (we all hope and pray) be decisively over Tuesday. I'm looking forward to a life turned down several notches on the crazy dial.

Saturday reflections

More of the end of the beginning.

Urban poetry

This is fun -- and with only four days to go in this interminable election (and possibly only three days to go until I can move back into my apartment -- yay!) -- who couldn't use a little fun?

This is an art installation called The Beginning of the End by Rachel Valdés Camejo in Times Square. It's a short walkway of faceted mirrors that turn the lights into a crazy confetti.

Hotel life

Broadway, early in the morning, from my hotel room on the 57th floor.

My firm has offices around the world, and back when I did more hands-on software migrations I worked in all of them occasionally. Living in hotels for two or three weeks at a time while going to the office every day -- usually for very long days -- never felt like much fun, and there's a part of me that still feels like staying in hotels on vacation is playing serious hooky.

But I've never stayed in hotels in New York before this. Let me start by stipulating: they're incredibly expensive, and not remotely worth the cost. I've used discounts and miles and points whenever possible, of course, but still -- the idea that anyone pays the going rate who isn't an investment banker or an emir boggles the mind. This room over Broadway, for example, where I stayed the first week, was nicely furnished, but had reading lights I couldn't figure out how to turn on and a vague smell of rancid potpourri. And yes, all that can be yours for just over $500 a night, morning coffee not included.

Astronomy Tuesday

I need simplicity right now. And this is perfect.

A composite image, of a side of Saturn we never see from Earth -- the North Pole, and the edge of night -- from Cassini.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute

Welcome to the working week

Here's another sunrise.

I took this from the hotel I stayed in last week, where the rooms were compact, but there were views of the river and I saw tugs and ferries and cruise ships sailing by.

This, unfortunately, is the view from the hotel I'm in now. At least I'm not spending a lot of time looking out the window.