Photos of the Day: Fragile Hope

 First REAL signs of spring: Friday morning at work.

SNOWDROPS!

Granted, it was about 70 degrees. In February. IN NEW YORK!

~ photos by iPhone

Photo of the Day: Train TV

Morning commute. Quiet Car. Train TV, set to snooze. Necessary morning nap/meditation.

~ photo by iPhone, with some filters.

Photo of the Day: Sunset

Tonight's sunset was brief and fiery - and something to behold.

~ photo by iPhone, enhanced by filters.

Photo of the Day: Knocking on Knickerbocker

as of a visit Monday, February 20, 2017

Vestiges of the 'olde' New York can still glimpsed in the corners and shadows if you only look or know where to look. Hints: ends of platforms, tucked up out of sight, and/or disguised as the years have 'progressed' by. Where once a door may have opened to a glamorous hotel, now commuters jockey for a spot to cram on a subway shuttle and try to ignore the rats frolicking in the trash on the tracks feet below.

 ~ photo by iPhone, some slight filters

Knickerbocker Hotel entrance as covered by The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/nyregion/behind-subway-entrance-to-hotel-knickerbocker-neither-arias-nor-opulence.html?_r=0

Photo of the Day: Waiting

Visiting some old haunts, visiting old friends, visiting the same spot

At The Juilliard School, February 20, 2017

~ photo by iPhone, no filter

Auntie Nettie's Merchandise 2017 - Taking Heart cont'd

Sometimes it is okay to take a unfinished project that was started for a loved one, made with love, to show your love, and then use it to spread some love.

After three years as a UFO, it was time to unravel it and let it go. 🏳 of defeat. I surrender!

(Sorry baby niece who is no longer a baby niece.)

💞
💕
💝

~ photo by iPhone, some filters

Photo of the Day: Winter Casts a Long Shadow

Sunset, Friday, February 17, 2017

Waiting to leave

~ photo by iPhone

Attic Adventurs: 2017

It started Tuesday night, with the sound of fire trucks outside the window. It continued for hours, late into the night.

WHY? WHY?! Jackhammering. At 10:30 pm. Outside the window. Strange septic aroma. Pickaxes. Backhoes. An excavator. Flashing lights. Emergency vehicles. Union dudes.
Sleep was going to be challenging. 

Wednesday night. Note on the elevator. No cooking gas that night.

Tonight. Note on the elevator that gas/electric utilities needed to be in Attic on Friday and upcoming Monday - and OH THEN...

THEN the super and his wife presented me with this box and made me sign for it while they said - there will be notes under alllllllllllllllllll of the tenants' doors.
 

Long story short, I will not be cooking with gas for possibly 4-6 weeks. So. Yeah. Or using the dryers in the building.

Hello landlord-provided shiny new kinda hot plate? Where the hell am I plugging you in in the Attic of no kitchen counters?

(Honestly I am relieved. Was beginning to think the smell was a neighbor who... hadn't been seen for a while and was possibly a 'former neighbor'.)

Vanquishing Age: One Pin at a Time

I actually have two Dammit Dolls, but this little lady is now my 'Dammit, how did I get so old?' Doll. Crafted by my 'outlaw' ma-in-law Cheryl, mom to sis-in-law Kelli , and she's been sitting around waiting for the right age/demographic to be appropriate for use. Can't wait for the time to come to pass her around the family. (Ahem... sisters and sisterfriends) That is, if I don't beat the sh*... stuffing out of her first.

Life is like a box of chocolates - or two

MINE. ALL MINE.

I do not share well with others. Just check my report cards.
Full disclosure: these are not holiday related chocolates. Don't let the timing, red box or cupid confuse you. These weren't technically Galentine's Day chocolates either, despite giver and date of intended celebration. Yes, given by a gal, a friend, and the date was for 2/13 but different celebration altogether. 

I am trying hard NOT to eat them all in one sitting or afternoon.

Officially Middle-Aged

How did that happen?

Photo of the Day: Bumped Off

The day after the war - er, storm, you start to catalog the injuries to your soldiers.

Someone didn't fend off Old Man Winter, left pieces behind on the field of battle.

~ photo by iPhone.

Photo of the Day: Initiative on Ice

Shot this morning, February 9, 2017

Me this morning: Yeah, I am not leaving the Attic anytime soon.

Me looking out at the end of the day to see evidence of clear skies, a jogger running down the middle of the road, and all the folks who have to clear their cards out by tomorrow's alternate side street cleaning. Better start shoveling.

~ photo by iPhone

Photo of the Day: Calm before the Storm

Sunset tonight. Evidence that the days ARE getting longer. 

There was at least one bit of blue before the next storm and socked in series of gray days.

~ photo by iPhone

Photo of the Day: Snowmen

Hartsdale Train Station, as viewed from the train, February 1, 2017

Sometimes in transit, when you look up from your phone at just the right time, you see public art as it is meant to be discovered. This installation at the MetroNorth Hartsdale Train Station is located between the north and south-bound tracks, as part of a system-wide public art works project.

~ photo by iPhone, some filters.

Photo of the Day: Holy Places

Looking for the light? Looking for sanctuary? Look for the library. Look for the librarians.

Katonah Village Library at dusk, with the planets in alignment with perfect light.

Libraries can be holy places.

 

~ photo by iPhone, NO filters.

Quote of the Day: Another Year

pic.twitter.com/yicJOi894N

— Shelf Awareness (@ShelfAwareness) December 31, 2016

I have been flipping through my crafting journal, and other abandoned such lists from this year of ... well, to be honest, I'm still searching for the correct series of adjectives.

In my crafting journal I have simply decided to call 2016: The Lost Year.

DUCK!

Here comes another one.

God help us all.

Poem of the Day: Twas the diet after Christmas

In bottom of a drawer that used to be my drawer, in the the back of a desk that used to be my desk, in an office that used to be my office, was found a pile of random documents, including this funny poem on the back of a sheet from the fax machine ... from 1999.

[Yes, I cleaned out that desk before it wasn't mine anymore. Yes, other people had too. We just hadn't taken the drawer out of the desk, disassembled the desk, turned the desk literally upside down, and removed the desk parts from the office.]

"Hey wait!" she said, as the pile of random papers was about to be discarded or refiled, or shredded, "I think .... I think I typed that one sheet right there. It certainly looks like a font I would've used. Can I have it back?"

Please enjoy this blast from the past. Maybe it will resurface in another 15-20 years or so.

Twas the diet after Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house

Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste

At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!

When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber.)

I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;

The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese

And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt

And prepared once again to do battle with dirt --

I said to myself, as I only can

"You can't spend the winter disguised as a man!"

So away with the last of the sour cream dip,

Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished

'Til all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie - not even a lick.

I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,

I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore --

But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Merry Christmas 2016!

Peace be unto you and yours during this Holy Holiday season. 

courtesy of Caramoor's Rosen House collection, as taken by me.

~photo by iPhone

Looking for Christmas Magic!

Sarah and Drew wish you all find the magic of the Christmas Season.

Photo by their mother, Kelli, used without permission -- SORRY KELLI!
I mean, doesn't that look like a Rockwell picture? It's amazing what a iPhone camera and some filters will do.