City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York on the first day of October.

As is often true around this time of the year, there is an Atlantic Ocean hurricane finding its way into our news headlines, and stimulating milk sales in local grocery store.

Before I get swept into this theme, I wanted to share with you all some city views from the past few weeks.

This is a grand time of the year to take walks around the city, creating yet another competitor from my spare time.  I now have a tower of books either waiting for me to read page one, or for my progressing toward the book's final page.  The book which I've most recently begun is John Banville's The Blue Guitar.  Its main character is a painter, and I immediately recognized the choice of Constable clouds on the novel's cover.  It was almost a year ago that I was fortunate to visit the V&A Constable exhibit, along with Celia Hart and Gina Ferrari.

I wish that I could be traveling over to the UK again this autumn, but practical considerations will be keeping me in New York until the new year.

However, just over a week ago, I had the immense pleasure of meeting a longtime blogging friend, Elizabeth Musgrave, who writes Welsh Hills Again, and her husband.  Once again, it was as if I was meeting someone whom I'd know for a long, long time.  Blogging creates marvelous opportunities.

We joined my NYC friend and fellow blogger, Elizabeth Wix, for a hearty lunch at a typical New York diner, and then set off on a wonderful walk along the length of the High Line park, that has been created on what was formerly a derelict, unused above ground railroad track.

The weather could not have been better, with a clear blue sky and a slight breeze.  I was amazed to see just how much new real estate construction has been encouraged by the success of the High Line.  

In the following show, you can see some actual railroad cars "parked" on rails at street level.

 Elizabeth is now back home in Wales and has written a post about their trip to the States.

In a prior post, I promised to take some pictures of the lady apple farmer's stand and hope that you all will be able to make out some of the names of the apples shown on her signage in my photos.  I was sorry to find the Cox's Orange apples were sold out before my arrival at the market.  Maybe I will have more luck on my next visit.

I did buy at least one sample of many varieties that I'd not before tasted, and of course, by the time I got home, I had no idea which one was which.  They are all delicious!

The charge for most of the varieties was $1.50 per pound.

I try to select the smaller apples, preferring them to the giant versions.

Moving on to the seasonal vegetables that are new to the mix, I liked the colors, textures and shapes of the squash, cabbages and cauliflowers nestled together.  I did not buy any this time, but will have many more opportunities.  I am savoring my final weeks' opportunities to find perfectly ripe and tasty tomatoes.

Some folks have asked me to show some of the progress I've been making on my marathon knitting project.  The following photograph shows last week's status of the back of the jacket.  I am so, so close to completing this jacket.  I just need some dedicated hours.

Let's see, what else do I wish to show you all.  Well, it must be Central Park, where the end of summer has many signals.

I love the blowzy look of these overgrown areas of the Shakespeare Garden.  I wonder if the gardeners have had some weeks off, or perhaps have been guided to just let nature run its course.

I find this maturity lovely, even on a cloudy day.

Would you all guess that this is in the middle of a large city?

There are still some very delicate little flowers to be found.

The tree leaves are still mostly green.

How I wish that I could properly identify the stars of this show.

Another sampling of purple flowers decorating the garden.

Well, at last...I do know roses when I see them.  There are still a few around.

I took this photo to show twigs tied together that earlier in the season supported some flowering plants...peonies, I think.

Don't know what this is either, but I like the look of the wispy, light-colored lines against the little green leafy ground cover.

And then there is this rather frothy appearing off shooting from another mystery plant.  Forgive me my ignorance.

Another span of froth, with some other garden visitors arriving in the far background.  The scale of the tiny folks compared with the seemingly large foreground froth amused me.

The ruby coleus leaves glowed beautifully against the softer green tones.  Or so I thought.

Green and brown leaves like these are something I might yet get around to drawing.  The composition interests me.

I also could not resist this view of another sign of autumn.

The density of the flowering plants against the texture of the nearby trees made an intriguing contrast, that seems to blend into a soft and misty distance.  Remember, this is in the middle of New York.

Another city view that seems very far from Times Square.

If you click to enlarge this final photograph you will see the remains of a large stage at the far end of the Great Lawn, where on most days, softball is played.  On the day before I took this photo, the stage was the site of a concert featuring Beyonce and others.  

I am hoping you all have enjoyed seeing this very random collection of early autumn city views.  Before long the trees in the above photograph will be showing their golden leaves.

Although the Pope was in town for a few days, and all sorts of international politicians have been in town for the United Nations session, there are many parts of the city that seem untouched by such news making events.  These are the parts that I endeavor to show you all.

Thank you so much for your visits and comments.