Found Around NYC...

Oh, Lola...

Well, I sat with a lady on a park bench in front of the boating pond and we discussed why Lola hasn't hatched any eggs.  Lola's nest is above the middle window at the top floor of this Fifth Avenue residence building facing onto Central Park.  Lola and her mate, Pale Male, are the famous red-tailed hawks, the breed that mates for life.  Lola has not had eggs hatch out for a few years.

The woman thinks - and perhaps it is a very good point - that there is a metal frame device above the window and because of this the nest isn't resting on a solid surface.  Instead, it is poised above the shelf and air can circulate below the nest.  Possibly this is why the eggs can't be kept warm and develop as they should.

The telescopes were positioned just so and Pale Male could be seen inside the nest.

The Toy Boat Pond...

What a gorgeous day in New York City. Central Park was crowded with people enjoying the mid-70-degree weather, soaking up the sun.

...and then it snowed

The family decided to check out the Museum of the City of New York... during a snowstorm. I was watching the cars slide around on the icy streets from the second story window. I took a picture of a green Land Rover losing control and sliding, and this shot here turned out to be in the lower left hand corner of the original picture.  Totally unintentional.

   

                                                             

The next day we went to church on Park Ave.  I brought my camera, not sure why.

<---This was the first thing I saw when left through the church doors. 

  <---  Later that sunday I took a trip to Union Square to walk around and take pictures. I've experimented in the past with alternating shutter speeds at night (which usually happens when you remove the auto-flash) to give the trailing lights effect if you move the camera while you shoot. I ended up with this.                                       

Posted by:  The Transient       

New Architecture...

Having once worked with architects, I love the urban and built environments,when done well.  This new low-level building, right, is one of the most interesting buildings going up in NYC and is in the Chelsea area in S.W. Manhattan along the Westside Highway and is designed by 78 year-old architect Frank Gehry. 

The curvy, light and whimsical IAC headquarters (for Barry Diller's internet media empire) is still under construction.  Many of Gehry's works for NYC haven't been completed. 

A lot of new buildings are under construction in Manhattan.  I have enjoyed the skyscrapers and architecuture in major cities such as Dallas, Houston, London and NYC.  This one appeals to me because of the undulating forms which were so new when first experienced with Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain  (left). We seem to have metaphorically left the rigid times behind.  This seems to be the new glass box.

Myopic View of the World...

Miss Cellania has a wonderful post on New York, New York and it is worth a read!  I loved the quote she included: 

The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.
-- John Updike

I met a new friend last week and she told me that she thought there were only two types of people: New Yorkers and those from everywhere else.  She was serious.  When I told a Native New Yorker that I was born in Oklahoma City,  she  looked askance for a second, she furrowed her brow and then she tilted her head before she responded.

"I know where that is.  I flew over it once," she said, not even looking at me.

Poodles are Most Popular...

My mother's dog, Lili, fits right in, size-wise, but she wouldn't be the most popular.  Long-haired dauchsunds are not seen a lot.  Poodles are the most popular breed in NYC.

The hot dog in a pet shop window on Lexington last week: a French Bulldog puppy.

Bad Bongos for Those Balloons: Raining on Macy's Parade...

Wind gusts up to 17 mph, temperatures at 41, mostly now above freezing along the parade route and rain, miserable cold rain is falling.

The 80th Macy's Day Parade might have fewer people standing by the curb.

We will watch it on tv.  I'm not getting out in that weather.  Maybe that is my first sign that I'm becoming habituated here.

Touring the City...

Not like touring Gotebo, that's for sure. The wait for the Empire State Building?  Long time, hon.

How Long Does it Take to be a Real New Yorker?

All I can tell you is that the East River is an estuary, because someone who had lived here quite awhile felt it was very important to point that out to me.  Outsider!  Outsider!  I am!  I still am!

See for yourself... take the Essential NYC Quiz. 

It must be important if it is the cover story for this week's Time Out New York magazine.

Well.  At least I've learned how to walk the sidewalks. 

WTC still Haunting...

Metadish had an article on human remains found this week at Ground Zero.  I thought when bones and fragments were found last spring, that was the end of this never-ending nightmare.

Like most non-NYC residents, I experienced 9/11 via the tv continuous coverage.  For those living here, I'm discovering as a new Manhattanite, the tragedy seems to never end.   Rather haunting and spooky and sad that 40% of those killed have not been identified, according to an article by RedOrbit.

Bloggers talking about it: Gina Cobb (who writes that cleaning up human pieces is not a regular thing in NYC or elsewhere), Cake or Death ("one has to realize not everyone will be found",  a blog for all raises legal questions, Texas Fred's response that the city should be thanked, and the Seventh Sense who writes that it is a reminder of the width and severity of the devastation.

My mother sent me the link to Mark Smith's site via email, of photos taken initially from his living room in Brooklyn  and others he took on 9/11.