Geometries

Nothing special about the view from my rear windows -- I seldom observe any murders or romances or, for that matter, humans -- except the way that the angle of the sun sometimes makes these odd geometries out of the fire escapes and their shadows.

Digital abstracts

Part of the great fun of digital photography is the ability to turn images into something else by cropping and rotating and distorting. I often end up deleting 90% of an image and keeping only a face, an object, a corner.

So this picture from last weekend becomes a splash of color I'd love to be able to paint on a canvas but lack the skills to create. And I spend yet another afternoon lost in Photoshop instead of doing my chores.























The source: the reflected rear end of a Canada goose swimming in Central Park.

Bird Blogging

Here's another picture from the park Sunday, a common grackle showing off its most uncommon coloring amid the wintry neutrals, like Lady Gaga at an Amish prayer meeting.

I love the names of birds almost as much as I love the birds themselves: kestrels, towhees, vireos. No one borrows those names for anything else; they mean what they mean. Their birds own them.

And then there are grackles. Grackle. It sounds like a symptom that you'd describe to your doctor: "And when I wake up in the morning I have this awful grackle." Or a new product at Home Depot, a combination of grout and spackle, something that you'd want to be very careful not to inhale or get on your bare skin. But it means a beautiful iridescent blackbird, and that's all it means, and it's such a blunt lumpy name I don't think anyone will ever be rushing to borrow it.

Spring Break, Manhattan style

No one really believes that winter is over. Just because it's officially the first weekend of spring and it's sunny and warm doesn't mean that two or three more mean blizzards aren't heading our way.

I thought I ought to spend the afternoon in Central Park conducting a more thorough investigation.

Robins? Check.

Crocuses? Check.

White winter skin uncovered and on display? Check.

Since it was only in the sixties -- nice for strolling in the park with several million of your friends and neighbors, but not exactly sunbathing weather -- I think the crowds and the bathing suits were just a reflection of what a miserable cold winter it's been. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to want to be outside.

Arroyo Seco, 1981 (Another Travel Flashback)

Because I so wish I were there, or somewhere like it, today.

Spring must be coming after all

You would think my apartment was dark and cool enough to make any root vegetable happy, but apparently this onion that was on my kitchen counter (maybe for a week, I swear) couldn't resist the urge to sprout anyway.

Another picture not taken in Cozumel

In case there were any doubts.

March supposedly comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb. How about if it comes in like a reindeer?

Manhattan on Acid, Part 2

Another set of reflections from the Trump International Hotel.

I especially love the blue and brown panes on the right. It would make a beautiful quilt.

Manhattan on Acid

Actually just a slice of the Upper West Side, reflected in the glass wall of the Trump International Hotel.

Wildlife, New York version

Manhattan is actually one of the best bird-watching spots in the country, Central Park being an attractive rest stop during those long migrations over hundreds of miles of relentless urban sprawl.

Even in Midtown, miles away from the park, I get interesting birds in the trees outside my bedroom window. In addition to the ubiquitous house sparrows and starlings, there are crows and mourning doves on my fire escape from time to time, with the occasional blue jay and cardinal and, once, a mockingbird.

Today, a cardinal in the trees, too far away for my limited zoom, and a little blurry, but a nice burst of color in the winter browns. Notice the trees are starting to bud, even though we're only halfway through February, with snow on the ground and more due Tuesday.

Arroyo Seco 1981 (Travel Flashback)

Here are two pictures from a camping trip in Arroyo Seco, California, in 1981. I was inspired to dig them out after a dispute among friends as to when the trip actually occurred and who was there, and I liked them so much I had the negatives scanned so I would have digital versions. (ScanCafe, if you're interested. Easy, fast, good.)


Typically, I remember this trip clearly after almost thirty years, when so much of last week is already a blur: the mist on the lake in the morning, the very large snake that slid right under my legs when I was sitting on the ground reading, the borrowed tent that we failed to erect and ended up using as a ground cloth.

And, apparently, it really was as beautiful there as I remember.

Non-Travels with Kathleen, 2010 Edition

Hint: This picture wasn't taken in Cozumel.


I was supposed to fly to Tampa on Saturday, to take a short, highly discounted, cruise to Cozumel, but my flight was cancelled Friday due to the major snowstorm set to arrive that night. Which turned south at the last minute and left us without so much as a millimeter of snow on the ground.

Fortunately, missing my cruise meant that I didn't miss the ten inches or so of snow we got yesterday. Who would want to be sitting on a sunny stateroom balcony in the Caribbean when they could be wading through freezing slush in New York?

Me, that's who.