September 28, 2010

September 26, 2010

Fort Tilden Beach.



Yesterday was hot. It's the end of September and I was elated. Particularly yesterday when we rode Xavier's latest delight: a scooter, to Fort Tilden Beach. Fort Tilden is across the Marine Parkway Bridge on a strip of land surrounded by ocean, pretty much almost directly south of Manhattan. Astonishingly, the beach is not swarming. It is sort of hard to get to (impossible without bikes after you go to the very end of the A train - or with a scooter or car), but so close to the city. Fantastic beach, good water, scads of animal entertainment.





























September 22, 2010

1, 2











That little water tower.

September 21, 2010

City fowl.



Walking along, looking down - Xavier notices piles of pigeon guano, so then he says look up. Why this particular lamppost? There were five in sight with not one squatting bird. It had to be the view of the Plaza. Or maybe a family reunion.



And then there was she. She was a red-tailed hawk - 9 months old (or so they were saying, chattering all around the base of her tree.."the red part of the tail grows in only after a year"). She was maiming a mouse there along the Hudson River. It brought me straight back to owl pellet dissection in the sixth grade and the kid who sat next to me and successfully reconstructed the entire mouse skeleton by slinking around, stealing other kids' vertebrae and hindlimbs.

September 20, 2010

September 19, 2010

September 15, 2010

The dogs.

Every morning I walk by someone. He is one of the strangest people I have ever seen. He doesn't seem real. He sits on the same corner, in exactly the same position - on a blue crate and he leans against the beam of the streetlight. He holds a cardboard sign at his feet. "I had polio. I'm hungry. Please help." His legs are tangled. He is albino. He squints and presses a newspaper almost to his eyes and reads. He wears running shoes and a baseball cap that always look soggy. He is bony and tall. I work on maybe the most affluent road of all - Park Avenue. No one who walks on this road wants to look at him. Everyone tries not to. Me too. Sometimes, I even find myself crossing at a different intersection to avoid him. It is a confession that makes me wince - deeply. But I end up thinking about him a lot.

This morning. I approach the corner. The buildings almost bend at the top they are so tall. I see a group of accumulated people occupying the sidewalk space right next to him, waiting for the light to change colors. There are two lower forms - shaggy and blonde. Dogs. They look without any aversion. Tongues out, ardent. Straight at him and he reaches out. He is beaming as he pets them. He is suddenly not at all strange and very real. The purple tie looks down at his dogs, jangles the leash and kicks at them to move away. The green-go disencumbers him and the tie cuts in front of other people to flee. He commands the dogs to obey. They gaze back - tongues out. I watch the man sitting there on the crate, who just keeps grinning wonderment, even delight, about those dogs. I keep walking. And I keep wondering who he is and who I am in relation to him.

September 14, 2010

Stephen.



Stephen (my brother) is on Martha Stewart's blog today. He did a shoot with her last week and today, she is blogging about it. Flip through the photos and I think you'll recognize a certain someone. http://www.themarthablog.com/

I have to brag about him because he never would.

September 13, 2010

Marie et son frere.





Ma belle Marie is here in New York City! So happy are we.



September 12, 2010

September 11, 2010

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