Saturday, August 10, 2013

City Views, Country Dreams

Good morning from New York.

Summertime heat arrived in full force during July.  My energy levels dropped as the temperature rose.

I plead this excuse for a long pause in blog posting.  I'll now try to show a small sampling what has been going on during the heat wave.

Berry season arrived and a new bakery opened up in my neighborhood.  It is a tiny place, and offers a small selection of delicious pastries.  Cupcakes do not have starring roles in this bakery.



The trees' leaves reached full growth and deepest green.  Even the small park around the subway station became a place for folks to sit and hope for a breeze.


The nearby newsstand operator added a welcome seasonal ice cream selection.  I have not tried any of this ice cream, but have finally sampled delicious gelato from another neighborhood spot.


The Union Square farmers market reached a seasonal apex.  Each week during July new vegetables and fruit arrived.  I tried to visit the market every week, and sometimes was lucky to meet Elizabeth there.


I would buy fruit and veg, but did not buy and of the lovely flowers.  


The colors amongst all the farmers' displays are very beautiful.  It is so difficult to resist making many purchases.  I try to keep to a budget, but often get carried away.


During many July days the temperatures clung to the upper 90 degrees Farenheit.  With humidity added to the mix, the so-called comfort index was over 100 degrees. 

My existence became a tale of varying environments.  My workplace and the subway trains were severely air conditioned. Sweaters or jackets were required.  The museums and cafes that I visited with friends were pleasantly cool.  The movie theatre at which I saw Woody Allen's newest film, Blue Jasmine, was very comfortable.

 The great outdoors, the subway stations and my little apartment were quite warm.  I would like to praise the help offered to me by the quiet, reliable cooling breezes offered up by my noble Vornado fan.  I drank the more water each day than ever before.  Having cross ventilation from open windows also brought relief.


Relief also seems to have been delivered by the calendar's having moved on to August.  Once again the city is comfortable.  Knitting with wool yarn is much more fun than it was during July.  Strangely, I did quite a lot of knitting during July.


Many thanks to you all for your visits and comments.  Even though I have been a very lazy summertime blogger, I have greatly enjoyed my visits to your posts.   Keeping up with reports of your summertimes has been great fun!

27 comments:

  1. What a lovely post! I am glad relief has come to you.

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  2. You described a city-dwellers challenges with heating and cooling so well, Frances. I remember the days of wearing a jacket at work for warmth and then being hit with high humidity and heat on leaving the office. I remember summers in Manhattan in the '70's - the heat was like a wall!
    What are you knitting? The colours are very pretty.

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  4. Hello, Frances! The hot summer is reigning here, too and we try to adapt to its high temperatures in various ways. It's such a pleasure to feel a cool light wind sometimes in the evenings like at this very moment. Yes, it's time for drinking more than usual - water,even beer and for eating watermelon and icecream! Unfortunately this year I can't go to the Black Sea, but I'm expecting my family to bring me pebbles from there.:)
    I noticed a carpet under the fan - it resembles the famous Bulgarian Chiprovski kilim. Look here...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiprovtsi_carpet

    http://magiccarpet1001.com/index.php/chiprovtsi-carpets

    Bye and take care!:)) I love the way you tell us in words and photos about the things that have impressed you!

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  5. What extraordinary weather you have had, Frances. It must be so difficult to keep comfortable.
    What a lovely bakery, and how nice to get away from the ubiquitous cupcake!

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  6. Hi Frances,

    Happy to see one of your posts again! The weather you had in NY sounds the same as in Holland. We had a heatwave too, so I know exactly what you mean. The fruit and flowers do look good! I love the fact that you buy your fruit in such pretty turquoise boxes!

    Your remark about your knitting in July, during the heat, made me smile. I did exactly the same, but used my crochet needle instead :-)!

    Happy Sunday!

    Madelief x

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  7. Dearest Francis,
    it is always such a pleasure to visit with you, especially to hear that you managed to pass the worst days of summer and are now into more comfortable ones!
    I did not know you have no air-condition, how can you ever survive without in New York's humidity?
    Love the newsstand cum ice cream parlor, such an inventive way to pleasure the customers and at the same time, hopefully, creates some extra revenue.
    It was such a pleasure to have Elizabeth here in Vienna, unfortunately our meetings were fewer than I had hoped, due to my mother not being well at all.
    Wishing you all the best,
    a pleasant August,
    Merisi

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  8. Lovely to hear from you again (I start worrying if you are not around!) and to see your pics and get another taste of New York. It is pleasantly comfortable here now temperature-wise Frances. We did have a very hot spell. Thank you for your really kind words over at my blog.

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  9. I'm glad you are more comfortable now that the year is beginning to turn to more autumnal temperatures. I always enjoy a stroll with you. I wonder what you thought of Woddy Allen's latest offering.

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  10. Hello Frances! We could have needed a couple of your degrees over here...
    No problem knitting in wool this summer :)
    Still hoping for some sumemr days in August. I am not quite ready for autumn yet.

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  11. Good to see you back here and to read about your city life Frances. You always bring it to life. The knitting looks beautiful... as does that pastry!

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  12. I have been away from blogs for a couple of weeks too. I am surprised that your weather in New York – which we call “up North” was warmer than ours here in the Deep South- we rarely had weather over 80 maybe because we had storms every afternoon. I did a lot of knitting in July, as I show on my current post, but it is my month of knitting since I watch TV that month (and rarely thereafter.) You will have to give me the name of that bakery for when we visit and stay in your area in the fall – looking forward to it.

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  13. Hello stranger ;)

    So glad the weather has cooled for you, it must have been a nightmare coping with those variations in temperature, and the hottest would have been far too hot for me.

    The park just looks so busy to this dweller in a rural corner of a far away land ... I can take a walk here and not see a soul!

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  14. umm yum to the bakery and farmers market!
    i felt for you during the heat wave, the kids complained a bit, and i tried to sympathize but it's been an extraordinarily cool summer here (cold!)and hard to imagine. they arrived with no warm clothes and so had to borrow, hee hee.
    your knitting looks so pretty frances, will you share what you are making soon? enjoy your cooler temperatures :)

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  15. Here too the heat was unbearable and I spent all my time in the shade, doing nothing much; I must have got through a dozen books in that time. Nothing very taxing.

    I am glad you have resumed your NYC strolls, accompanied by your camera and we are, once again, the lucky recipients of your efforts.

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  16. Rossichka, thank you for the carpet comment. My own little kilim carpet was purchased some years ago from the USA Pottery Barn company. I love its colors and patterns and am sure that ...wherever it was made, the inspiration must have been the Chiprovski classic you mention.

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  17. Sue and Annie, the photo of the "park" around the subway station entrance, used park with a bit of irony. Yes, there is some greenery and some trees, benches, and lots of cobblestone paving, but it really is not quite a park.

    During our intense heat spell, walking those few additional blocks over to Central Park just required more energy than I could summon.

    xo

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  18. Lucille, I really enjoyed Mr W Allen's Blue Jasmine. It takes its plot from A Streetcar Named Desire, and gives that plots clash of cultures a contemporary view. Cate Blanchett is remarkable; the rest of the cast are wonderful, too. Not a comedy, though you might smile a time or three.

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  19. Our driver on one of our NYC tours told us that 'naked's too hot' in the height of your city's summer! No wonder, you're doing so much to try to stay cool.

    Looking at your photos, we recently made redcurrant jelly from our neighbour's fruit... it took an awful lot of berries to make one tiny pot!

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  20. Good to see you back in Blogland.
    You are very noble to survive the summer without the trusty a/c - which I hate.
    Yes, your knitting looks gorgeous.
    Buster misses you.
    Maybe we can get together really soon?

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  21. Autumn seems to quickly arrive so it is good to feel the sun and know we had a summer. Your heat in a city would not be fun. Glad you are feeling better now. Good to read about your days and see the photographs.
    My kind of pastry covered in fruits, and a huge fan of icecream , I would mix the two!
    I love your knitting, did a little myself as it takes little energy on a hot day and you want to just sit quietly but need something to keep your hands busy. Tried to teach my little four year old, fascinated with it but soon lost interest and back to painting. Millyx

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  22. I dislike going from A/C to heat -- it seems to make the heat all the worse. Fortunately, this summer has been on;y moderately warm, for the most part.

    That bakery confection looks marvelous!

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  23. How nice to meet you, Frances. You look very classically serene sitting by your window radiator, and the metropolitan scenes are lovely. I hope a balmy breeze finds you.

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  24. Seems that you've been a reasonable (if a touch hot) summer in New York. Our Canadian temperatures have been getting closer to 90F this week, giving your correspondent Bear ample reason to be either in the swimming pool or the air conditioning.

    I hope August is a delight in New York.

    Blessings and Bear hugs!
    desert.epiphanies@sasktel.net
    Bears Noting
    Life in the Urban Forest (poetry)

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  25. Hallo Frances, Yes I've been a lazy blogger too - but have just written something at last. It's been excellently hot here, too, but fortunately only for three weeks or so. Now it is cooler, indeed autumnal.
    Love your pictures of the fruit and vegetables. Fxx

    PS Did you know that when you scroll down your fan seems to be going round?

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  26. Hello Frances oh how hot it must have been for you there in NYC during the heat wave .......so glad you were able to find ways of cooling down, and can now enjoy lower temperatures again. The bakery sounds delicious.....and so nice to have a farmer's market too. Your knitting looks so pretty.......I had to stop crocheting my latest blanket one day during our own UK heat wave because I was just toooo hot! Take care, and I hope you will be enjoying some cooler autumn walks soon.
    Helen x

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  27. Apologies for not stopping by sooner dear Frances, I have been a lazy blogger but always love hearing about your fabulous city life in NY.

    Love the pretty yarns to your knits, gorgeous.!

    A scorcher of a summer here this year, I must admit when things got too hot my trusty fan was working overtime.!

    Do hope your new project of Etsy is going well, look forward to popping in when up and running.

    Love and Best Wishes to you dear Frances.

    xx

    xx

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