City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York on the 29th of February.


This is that extra day that is added to our calendar every four years during a leap year.  Leap years have dates that can be evenly divided by four, and here in the States, we have an November presidential election each leap year.


There is also a folkloric tradition that grants unmarried women (like me) to propose marriage to a man on February 29.  


Today dawned very grey with the weather forecasters promising that rain would develop by ten a.m.  This was not very promising to a would-be proposer.  I did some necessary house cleaning, and played around a bit with my new acrylic inks.  My little sketches will eventually be used as gift tags.

They really are just playing around with a new medium, and are based on embroidery stitching.

I think that eventually I will get more comfortable with these inks and will show you the evidence when I see it before me.

Before the rain drops began to seriously take over, I took a brand new bus, with a brand new bus smell, across Central Park to the east side of town.

The buses that travel this 79th Street crosstown route are bendy buses.  I never, never want to ever sit or stand in the part of the bus that has the bendy bit.  You can see this accordion pleated feature in the photo above.

The earlier predecessor bendy bus models' interiors were all on one level.  These new ones require the  passengers to climb up and down while inside the bus.  This can be tricky while the bus is in motion.  I also think that the older buses held more passengers.  (I think the new buses use hybrid fuels and that is why we now have them.)


The elevated four-across seating above reminds me of seating in a shoe shine place.

In the above photo, a brave lady did hoist herself up and on to one of those elevated seats.  She is sitting right next to the bus's rear door, which is recommended by regular announcements as The Correct Door to use for one's exit.  This door way features multiple warning signs about what to touch, what not to touch, where to stand, where to signal a request for a stop.  And...there is danger if a departing passenger thinks that the doors are going to open outwards (as they did on the old buses.)  Mind those blue Danger signs!


Better wait until you are off the bus before putting up your umbrella on a rainy day, too.  I am glad that I did have my camera with me, just to record this evidence of how new is not necessarily better, when it comes to public transport.


I am sure that we New Yorkers will get used to these bendies.


My east side destination was The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where an interesting exhibit opened last week.

The Steins Collect features a superb gathering of many of the works that were purchased by Gertrude, Leo and Michael Stein.  This exhibit does a fine job of showing what a different time it was when the Steins lived in Paris and enjoyed entering into a new world of art.


Matisse and Picasso became Stein family friends, and are featured prominently in this show.  However, there are many other artists included, and even works by Leo Stein and Michael Stein's wife Sarah appear.

I would definitely recommend this exhibit to folks who might be in New York between now and June 3.  It is a large show, but not so large as to be overpowering.  I came to the Met today thinking that I already knew quite a bit about this particular art history sequence, and discovered that there was more to learn.


By the time I left the Met and caught another of the nouveau bendies, the rain was steady and an insistent wind had joined the mix.  My already weakened umbrella may have now had its final outing.


It was wonderful to get home, have a late lunch, talk with some friends on the phone, have some tea, work on some crafts, get caught up with emails.


Nary a proposal was offered by me today.  Although a few hours remain before midnight, I think that New York batchelors might now feel it safe to come out of hiding.