Tuesday, August 21, 2012

City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

Late summer is gracing us with some mild weather with low humidity.  Very good for hair styles and perhaps also helpful in keeping our spirits mild and attitudes positive.

Around midday today, I arrived at my dentist's midtown office, armed with my checkbook.  The project at hand was the repair of several vintage dental areas.  One was a filling...that's relatively easy to renovate.   The other adjacent site required the replacement of a crown.  I keep thinking of the Diamond Jubilee, and jeweled crowns associated with royal thrones.  My crown is more humble.  

Today's visit required various impressions of my tooth to be fashioned, and in early September I will return to the dentist's chair to have my new porcelain crown installed.  It will be a subdued ceremony, and hopefully all will go well.  Meanwhile, I have a temporary crown, and a little envelope containing some materials that will allow me to re-attach said temporary crown should it become dislodged.

Let's send up a big wish that any such re-attachment will not be required.

Leaving the dentist's office, I decided to walk home, via the southern end of Central Park.  This roadway is called Central Park South.  I usually show you photographs of The Lake but there is another lake visible from the CPS sidewalk.


Here is another view of this lake.  I cannot imagine having the nerve to be a solitary painter like the fellow in the following photo.  I do like to sketch in the Park, but prefer to be in a different area.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people in this southern tip of the Park.


There are many horse drawn carriages parked along Central Park South, awaiting paying tourists.  Whenever I walk along this road, I try to keep up a pace and attitude that announces me as a local.  I would never, never want to take one of these carriage rides.


I feel very sorry for the horses and do not find these carriages as remotely romantic.  Within the past few weeks, there was an incident in which a carriage horse was spooked by something, reared up dumping the carriage passengers and driver from the carriage.  The horse proceeded on its own through very busy traffic, following a route he knew would take him back to his overnight stable resting place.  No one was seriously hurt.  So the news reports reported.

Okay.  I will get off my soapbox.

I continued my walk home, passing by children's playgrounds, lots of sunbathing folks, lunch eating folks, romancing folks.  By the time I exited the Park on to Central Park West, the numbing Novocaine given me by my dentist was just about all gone.

My jaw was tender.  I was so glad that I'd been to the Union Square farmers market yesterday, and bought lots of deliciously fresh vegetables.  I was able to made an easy, nourishing and really yummy soup, inspired by the wonderful Mia who posts a delightful blog  from her home in Norway.  The soup's ingredients included lots of zucchini, potatoes, onions, some garlic, vegetable stock (I cheated with some OXO cubes) and a bit of pepper, and cream swirled in at the end.

My tender jaw is feeling much better after having some of that soothing soup.  I will freeze the rest of the soup.

I've also kept my lace stitch knitting going, now working with a lovely lighter shade of the same Madelinetosh merino light yarn.  It is a pleasure to work with, and our slightly cooler weather makes knitting even more of a pleasure.


My summer reading continues to zig and zag.  I've got a few detective novels on the go, and next up will be The Waves.  I somehow cannot believe that I have never read this book.  Perhaps I have?  If so, how is it that I cannot remember this experience?


As always, I thank you all for your visits and kind comments.  It was fun to see which of the ten things detailed in my previous post rang chords with some of you.

18 comments:

  1. I must say Frances I have wondered what the living conditions of the horses were like when we were there last time. We had a horse carriage ride as part of our "wedding package". She was white and her name was Angie... we sometimes see her on the TV. The day after we got married it became crazy hot and the horses were not permitted to work until it got cooler. As a child I used to go to the Isle of Man on holidays and shire horses used to pull the trams in the main town Douglas. Once we visited the shire horse retirement centre, which was situated in the countryside with lots of fields and trees around. You could buy feed for the horses and generally make a fuss of them... I wonder if there is such a facility for the NY horses? I hope so. It made me laugh about you walking fast with an attitude so as not to get accosted by those selling... that's what I tried to do on our last visit, as it does get tiresome. Glad to hear the weather is pleasant for you at the moment.

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  2. I agree with you about the poor horses, standing out in all weathers and inhaling all the car exhaust.

    Re: Your crown -- it may be less glamourous than the one Queen Elizabeth wears, but probably cost about the same. I speak from experience! :o)

    Enjoy the cooler weather. The knitting pattern is truly beautiful -- and what beautiful even stitching.

    Take care and God bless, xoxo

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  3. Canadian Chickadee has taken the words about your crowns right out of my mouth... but not my very expensive crowns, I'm pleased to say! I do hope you feel less sore now, both physically and financially.

    I'm so glad the couple in my book eschewed that 'romantic' ride in the Park too!

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  4. I got the feeling of contentment from your post today Frances. Apart, that is, from your opinion about the horses at Central Park. When there it never occurred to me to take a ride in one of those carriages. If I am honest, that had more to do with my reluctance to being paraded around like Lady Bountiful than out of concern for the horses whose welfare, one would hope, is taken care of by both their owners and animal welfare organisations(?)

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  5. Hope your teeth are feeling less tender now! What a lovely way to recuperate from a visit to the dentist though (I've removed the horses from the equation)

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  6. You have my sympathies. Dentists make holes in your bank account as well as your teeth and novocaine is revolting. Still I can't think how awful it must have been in the old days to have lived among people with old and rotting teeth - especially your nearest and dearest. I have never ridden in one of those traps, though I think I might like it. But in New York - a horse bolting like that must have created a field day for the lawyers.

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  7. Hi Frances! I have so enjoyed the walk with you through Central Park. One day I hope to be able to do it in person, but meanwhile it was a joy to do the walk with you.

    I do hope your temporary crown stays on until you get the permanent one. "Been there, done that" as they say. No problems at this end, I am happy to report.

    I am so pleased you made the zucchini soup, and that you found it comforting. It always amazes me to learn that someone in fact does get inspired by what I "show and tell".

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  8. Big sympathy, Frances! I have just been through the same thing. The dentist looked at my teeth and said 'wow, some of those fillings must be 30 years old'. 'No' I responded, 'they are 40 years old'. Now I'm waiting for a new nighttime guard so that I don't shatter any more teeth as I clench my way through sleep. What an odd thought!

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  9. A charming grab bag of a post! I enjoyed the walk through Central Park and the soup sounds delicious. Your knitting is beautiful -- makes me wish I knew how...

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  10. I wish I were closer to Central Park! Such a fabulous park with so many varied views.
    I am also knitting – nothing so fancy as yours but my daughter told me that the blankets I knit for my youngest grandson are not right for the daycare – one is too large and the other too little, so I am trying to knit one that will be just right!

    Several years ago I went through a Virginia Woolf phase – I went through all the local second-hand bookstores and bought all her books, that I could find and I think about all of them. Then I bought her husband two volumes bio and two bio on her as well. Right now I started reading an American mystery writer, Donna Leon, who lives near Venice, Italy. I read 13 of her mysteries so far (in 3 weeks) I still have several to read (found most at the library and 3 at second-hand bookstores.) I know it’s a bit compulsive, but why not.

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  11. Dear Frances, I hope that you're completely pain-free by now. Central Park looks like a wonderful cool haven in the hot summer you've had. This morning we saw off the daughter of good friends in Cape Town who stopped over with us en route to New York, where she'll be studying at NYU. Her excitement was contagious, and now I'm imagining her enjoying these late summer scenes in your city!

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  12. Poor you - dental work is not much fun. I love your scarf - I think I have knitted that pattern of lace, it seems familiar - it looks so pretty in that colour.

    Pomona x

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  13. Love your writing, Frances! Very subtle and amusing :) Glad the 'vintage dental areas' were not too troublesome, though it is never a pleasant experience, it sounds as if it will soon be put to rights. Your pictures are always interesting and an insight into your NY world. I love your lacy scarf, it is very pretty.
    Wishing you a happy week!
    Helen x

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  14. Hellooo Frances.!

    My humble apologies for not stopping by sooner, sometimes life here with it's many problems gets in the way. I am now happy to say that my PC is now more quicker and reliable now that I have an extra GB RAM, cannot think why I did not do this sooner.

    I so agree with you about the horses Frances, so sad.

    Lovely pretty pattern to your knitting, I so wish I could knit well like you.

    I love any literature by the author V.Woolfe, can't remember reading The Waves, shall reserve a copy at the library, thank you Frances.

    Do hope you are now pain free since your visit to the dentist Frances.

    Wonderful pictures of Central Park by the Lake too.

    Lots of love,
    Camilla.xx

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  15. I hope your temporary crown is behaving itself, not giving you any trouble.

    In spite of an unpleasant and, no doubt, costly dentist visit you seem to have kept your usual equanimity and pleasant spirits, may that state of mind continue!

    Being recognised as a tourist anywhere is instantly cause for being ripped off by those who live off the trade; perhaps that's inevitable.

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  16. A lovely view of another part of Central Park.

    Let me guess; the dentist is going to take a bite out of your pocket book? Oh, dear!

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  17. Hello Frances:
    We are so late to arrive here that we suspect the trees in the park are already shedding their leaves! But so be it!

    But before anything, we do trust that all of the dental work to date is not causing you any pain or discomfort and that the temporary crown is still firmly in place. However, we are grateful, as we are sure you are too, for the advances in dental treatment over the past few decades. We, alas, are old enough to remember the drill in action with no thought of any pain relief. Brutal. Happily today the experience is totally different and if your own dentist is half as kind and considerate and good as our Hungarian one, then you are in good hands.

    Your images of the park amaze us. That you should have so much natural landscape, or so it appears, within the heart of the city is truly wonderful and we imagine is much use is made of it.

    Like you, as a resident of New York, we too in Budapest avoid anything which might suggest we are not fully conversant with the ways of the city.

    Kellemes hétvégét.

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  18. Lovely to catch up with you Frances. Totally agree with you about the carriage horses, and with your comment in your last post about reading being preferable to watching television.

    Dental work ... nightmare, hope all goes well :D

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