more NYC in the spring

Blooming!

trip to NJ

Had to go over to NJ on Saturday for Paul to give a talk at a palliative care conference over there. It was in Livingston NJ about 45 mins drive west of Manhattan, so in the semi-rural/outer urban commuter belt. It is near Morristown which was where Washington had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. A nearby village is New Providence, and coincidentally this is where the movie Win Win is set, which we went to see last night; doing quite well at the box office here at present, though we thought a bit slow and predictable.We should have also played some Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen to really make it a NJ day.

The weather is slowing warming up, now 10-15C most days. All the trees, shrubs, and plants are starting to bloom and this time of year the forsythia is in abundance. this bush was in a side street of Morristown.



After a thunderstorm and nearly 60 mm rain overnight, Sunday turned out to be a lovely day. It was cool & crisp early but got up to about 17 by mid afternoon. We went over to the West side of Manhattan to walk the High Line and see how its plants are shaping up for the spring.

Life after Millerton

Now that our lease is over we will be spending more time in the city on the weekends. Even in NYC, the list of things to do is ultimately limited. Yesterday we were over on the Upper West Side doing some shopping, so we kept going another 20 blocks to the Morningside Heights neighborhood, which has a nice walk that we had done back in February 2009. Highlights include Monk's Diner from Seinfeld as well as the campus of Columbia University (originally called King's College when found by the British in the early 1700's).

"Monk's Restaurant", on W112th & Broadway

inside Monk's

imposing edifice of St John the Divine episcopalian cathedral, as grand as any Italian duomo

old library, Columbia

Columbia college kids playing frisbee, of course!

St Patricks Day, Hoosick Falls NY

Today was the 250th St Patrick's Day Parade in NYC, which is quite a remarkable achievement in itself. They love a parade in NYC, but "St Paddy's Day" as they call it has a bit of a Melbourne Cup feel to it: not officially a holiday but seems like most people take the day off and go to the parade then adjourn to the pub, whether or not they are Irish. But it also celebrates the end of winter. today was sunny and "warm" (17C) and the vernal equinox is just 4 days away. we skipped the parade today but last Saturday while driving upstate we did happen upon the SPD parade in Hoosick Falls NY (pop 3436), about 170 miles (260km) north of the city. A "hardscrabble" town reminiscent of Lithgow or Goulburn. But the locals seemed to be having a lot of fun and no doubt enjoyed a couple of Guinesses after the parade.

Bye bye to Millerton - and Millie & Dave

Our lease at 32 S. Center St is up at the end of the month and we are unable to go back up there the last 2 weekends of the month, so this weekend we vacated the premises. It was appropriate for the last chapter of the Millerton Almanac, as the spring thaw has begun. So we had been right round the seasonal cycle, and we did a lot of reminiscing about all the fun times we had there last summer, fall and winter (won't miss the drive out of NYC on a Friday night though).

Saturday, we drove up Route 22 to Shushan NY, so Monica could visit Flying Pigs Farm, her favorite purveyor of pork products at Union Square... and they were very contented free-range pigs and hens. then we headed west across to Saratoga & Albany. On the way back we had one last look at the pretty farmland around Ancram, just to the west of Millerton where we had gone for many challenging bike rides and picturesque drives, as documented in previous posts. The beautiful sunset below was from the top of Winchell Mountain.

Dave & Millie were in NYC the past 10 days, in transit to the UK. We bade them farewell at the 63rd & Lex subway on Wednesday on their way to Newark.

Friday night in Greenwich Village

Stayed in the city this weekend and did a real NYC thing: Friday night went to see a band "Andrea & the Watts" in at the Bitter End Bar, a Greenwich Village landmark since 1961. Ron, the husband of our running friend Jodi, plays in the band (on guitar, pink shirt). They are a cover band playing bluesy rock (Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones etc, which was very contemporary music last time we went to see a band at a pub on a Friday night). Sunday, Dave & Millie arrived. It was very wet but mild, around 15C. We went to the Whitney Art Museum, and enjoyed the Edward Hopper exhibition which is on until April.






Rainy Sunday afternoon on First Ave.

Edward Hopper's "The Barber Shop".

Don't ski Bousquet!

News: Schlepped up to Bousquet, the 4th & final ski field in the Berkshires on the outskirts of Pittsfield MA about an hour north of here, only to find out they had run out of rental equipment! The lodgings are run down, what equipment they did have was very worn, the chairlifts were old and the mountain is much smaller than the others (only 750 ft drop) so I would definitely not bother going back. I would rate them Jiminy Peak 1st, Catamount 2nd, Butternut 3rd and Bousquet a distant 4th. But we had a nice drive in the country in the sporty Mini we rented this week.
Entertainment: Oscars tonight. We will be rooting for Geoffrey Rush for Supporting Actor, but would be happy to see Christian Bale get it for his great effort in The Fighter. Mark Ruffalo is the dark horse.
Finance: oil went over $100/barrel and this impacted on the stock market with all the indicators down
Sport: Rex Ryan said this week the Jets will definitely win this Superbowl next season, but the season may not even go ahead as the owners & players negotiations are not going very well.
Weather: sunny and cold early in the week then wet Thurs/Fri. should be in 5-10C range most of next week, so windchill less of an issue from now on. There could be flooding in the Northeast next week as rain and warmer weather starts melting the icepack
Bousquet Mountain

Berkshire cows in their winter coats

more Berkshire cows

our street in Millerton

Main St, Millerton