City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York.


This is a very beautiful day in late May and it shocks me that so much time has gone by since I returned home from my holiday in early April.  It does not seem possible.  However, it is indeed possible.


I have been swept back into a rush of work obligations and necessary errands, tempered by regular connecting with friends, a little bit of creative dabbling, some reading, and a continuation of the baking experiments I mentioned in my last post.


Sometimes I am not sure which day of the week it is.  Clocks and calendars seem to be measuring time at a new speedy fashion that I do not like, and so I decided to go for a slow paced walk this afternoon.  Often such walks provide me with time for contemplation.  I remembered to take my camera with me.


Rose season is in full flower around here.  My neighbor's roses are putting on quite a show.

I so enjoy walking past this brownstone's front garden and letting the breeze bring me the distinctive rosy perfume.  I often see another passerby tenderly taking one of the rose branches between his or her fingers, bringing a bloom closer to said person's nose, so to better appreciate the sensory opportunity.

There are four or five rose bushes in this garden, each a different color and shape.  I do hope that this year's blooming season will last a long time.

However, as I continued to walk around the neighborhood for a while, seeking out more roses, it was apparent that our recent warm days have sped up the first rose blooming cycle.  Many of the blossoms were already very blousy or quite spent.

I was so happy to discover these showy multi-colored roses in a brownstone's front garden on a nearby street.  Aren't they exquisite?  Of course, I have no idea what the official name of any of these roses might be.

Earlier this week I had the great pleasure of a breakfast meeting a fellow blogger, Vagabonde, and her husband.  We had met each other last year and so found it so easy to  immediately fall into conversation about varied topics, and several very enjoyable hours flew past.  That morning, I forgot my camera, and apologize for not having a photo of our delicious breakfast table, with its fresh orange juice, fortifying coffee, waffles, syrup, eggs, bacon, hash-brown potatoes, toast, butter and jam.  


The restaurant we chose is one of a vanishing type of classic New York City coffee shops, with seats at a counter in one area, and wonderfully vintage leatherette booth seating in an adjacent room.  Very attentive waiting staff and reasonable prices add to the popularity of the place.  We hope that the continuing upscaling of the neighborhood will not eventually lead to the restaurant's disappearance.


I thought it might be fun to show you all a painting I did in the last century of a flower arrangement.  I am very sad not to have been doing more painting.  I continue to resolve to find more time for my art.  This may require some additional conversations at my workplace.

I wish to remind my readers that I am still contemplating where I might choose to go sometime within the next year, making use of an upcoming Tenth Anniversary Travel Bonus from my employer.  Any suggestions are welcome.


Meanwhile I've done some browsing in my library's travel section and clicked around a few places on the web.  So far, I have decided that I would not want to travel in the summer months, but that any of the other seasons would be fine.

The little book pictured below is a gem of a guidebook that I purchased many years ago from Barnes & Noble.  Obviously, all the pricing information is now hopelessly out of date, but it's still quite good about the history and cultural aspects of various places, even very far out of the way places.

I do not think that I would want to stay in a city, but would prefer to try to find a place to stay, possibly on my own, possibly not, but a base in which I could relax, do some painting, 
have some sort of access to public transportation that could allow me to get around a bit and perhaps meet more of you all whose names I know so well.  All my thoughts are quite vague at present.  It is pleasant to do some daydreaming about countryside places where one can see the stars at night and enjoy landscape views daily, even in rainy weather.


Tomorrow morning, my alarm clock will beep quite early to signal my return to a demanding  work day.  Meanwhile, right now, there are still many minutes left in this sunny Sunday and I am so glad to have added this post.


I thank everyone for your visits and comments.