Crimean Linden, BBG

I always have a blast this time of year returning to Brooklyn Botanic Garden for another year of Plant-O-Rama, the Metro Hort tradeshow now in it's 16th year. It's a chance to reunite with old friends, connect with new ones, sit in on fabulous lectures and panel discussions, and enjoy celebrating the horticultural lives we lead. This year I was thrilled to finally get to see and listen to Michael Dirr, the national treasure as far as woody trees and shrubs. And even more we get to enjoy all of this over the course of a very fun, relaxed day on the grounds of a magnificent botanic garden. It's so good to visit with my colleagues who are now really the best of the best in my opinion, like Dennis Schrader from Landcraft Environments, Jim from Glover Perennials, and Erika Hanson from Anthropek Gardens, just to name a few. But it is a busy day of passing cards and networking so one of the best parts for me is taking a break from it all and being able to walk the grounds and revisit the trees I love, tended to by my BBG's sensational Arborists, Chris and Travis. Walking in with the morning sun this Crimean linden was really speaking to me so it became the shot of the day.

love her

the oldest, most famous... in the universe!

Really there is nothing else to say. The Bohemian Hall Beer Garden is truly one of a kind, and forever a favorite of ours. Not to mention this evening we got to reconnect with fantastic old friends and catch up over delicious pitchers of IPA and plates of food sure to fill up even the hungriest man. A win-win.

found art

I found this the other day and was instantly intrigued. Since I don't want to get myself in trouble I am not going to say where I was within the five boroughs but stumbling through woods and sand and stone all of a sudden this huge slab of (I presume) marble was under foot. So I did a little research, and by that I totally over exaggerate, it was just a Google search, but I learned about an American conceptual artist named Jenny Holzer. In 1977 Holzer began a project entitled Truisms. She would take her complications of statements and aphorisms (vocab word of the day, aphorism: an original thought, spoken or written in a concise and memorable form) and display them in a number of different visual installations throughout the city over the following number of years. Where this stone was originally and how it came to where it is now I have no idea, another part of my vagueness, but I had to share it. As we head into this year of making changes and doing our best to live on our terms, a much longer post I have been intending to write, I couldn't help but find it interesting that I would come across these found truisms that date back to my birth year of '77. You have to love the subjective nature of art, mixed with that little taste of exploration and discovery, for that is the stuff that makes me smile.

a thing of beauty

Saw this '65 Chevy Impala on the way home on 30th Avenue. Love the environment, but I will always have a thing for muscle cars. Someday I will have one of my own.
Someday.

"golfing"

for "golf", it ain't!
;-)

winter weekend out east

it was wonderful to wake up to fresh snow and the quiet of the country
the beautiful old spruce in the backyard looked even more massive with it's winter coat on
We spent the day with my folks talking about the possibility of moving out of the city, and figured out that it is possible. "Just gotta jump" my mom kept repeating with confident enthusiasm. When night fell we took a drive and walked upon a snowy, windy Indian Wells to get our appetite up for Dad's best meat sauce ever according to mom. We climbed back in the car and listened to the new Amy Winehouse album and while we regained the feeling in our fingers realized how psyched we are about the idea and challenge of moving east.

Sunday morning we returned to Indian Wells for a daylight walk.
This is home.
And still, so psyched, ready, committed to this idea.
This year is about living on our terms.
My love, the creator of 365 days.
The challenge begins.

favorite poster

"Youth and Beauty"
subway ad
Astoria, Queens, NYC

I usually get out of the house a little after 5:30 in the morning. By quarter of six I am on the local train platform, watching the M train pass and waiting until the R train comes through. It will show up at 5:53am like clockwork. Across the tracks I stare at this subway ad. It's for a show at the Brooklyn Museum up through next weekend. The poster has obviously been up for a while and adorned accordingly. As a silly game to play with myself I try and keep tabs on the new posters when they go up and see how long it takes before they get defaced, but inevitably I forget or realize it's really a totally ridiculous exercise and continue about my business. But I never tire of the metamorphosis these posters go through over the weeks and months exposed to the masses. I love this poster to begin with, the painting by American painter Luigi Lucioni from 1928, but with the blue tag and scratch I somehow love it that much more. The Art of the American 20's meets the art of the 20-teens. I love capturing these snapshots so that I can revisit them years down the road and be taken right back to the early New York City mornings like this one.

capturing the day, one year at a time

the 6:18am regulars

My wife wanted a new project, a new challenge, and as a result has begun a pretty fabulous undertaking. Her goal: to post a picture for every day of the year, a complete year of her life captured in exactly 365 pictures. We have been talking about the year ahead and for us it is going to be a year of big change, or so we hope. More and more we talk about getting out of the city and taking this flora and fauna show on the road. This might very well be the year. So what better way to capture it than a whole year documented in simple but complete encapsulations of the day. You all should check out 365 Pictures and keep checking it out. Krissy posted the first picture on her birthday, January 15.

I realized I never posted any Sharon Van Etten! A most sensational singer/songwriter from over the bridge in Brooklyn there, I somehow learned about her 2010 album "Epic" and was instantly so thankful I did. It still gets a ton of play, something about her sound is such music to my ears. If you don't have this album, go buy it, now, you can thank me later. This morning it was on the headphones sounding so nice as we battled the cold wind up 96th Street.


I would have the hardest time keeping it to just one photo...

I Seymour puppy!

Congrats to our friends Jackie and Tony on the latest addition to their family. We had a blast playing with little Seymour today. French bulldog puppies, their a cute thing...

woods sunrise, beautiful Friday

"liquid bread"

One thing about working outside every day of the year, in winter you learn to really appreciate hot showers and serious stout.

Captain Rude's Blackwater Stout is a product of the Swashbuckler Brewing Company in Manheim, PA. For Christmas my father-in-law hooked us up with a case of their different beers, and all of them have been delicious. Definitely worth keeping your eye out for it wherever your favorite microbrews are sold.

the beasts

Above: Puck in a box

Below: Melvin wants to remind everyone to keep it chill in 2012

orange board, Melvin, New Year's Day sun

My love has to work today so it's just me and the beasts...