A post without photos...

In the summer the Metropolitan Opera and NY Philharmonic play free outdoor concerts in Central Park's Great Lawn. About a 100k people come out and make picnics. The opera ones happen first and always coincide with the first thunderstorm of the season or crippling humidity. So I had given up on trying to be organizer of a picnic in the park. This Tuesday we were invited at the last minute by my former roommate, L. I had to work late and rushed there to meet them. It was such a swarm, getting dark, and they were not expert at navigating me into the park and through a sea of blankets. The classic line of the night was this helpful tip: "See the helicopter? We are right under that." But we did manage to hear the second half and see the fireworks! I love fireworks. This Fourth of July we saw one of the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my whole life. Our scientist friends work at NYU and their labs have amazing views. There are three barges in the East River that they set them off of. We could look out the window and see over the stage where they were filming the TV broadcast. So when the fireworks went off they filled the entire window with sparks- really amazing! Maybe, though, the best fireworks I remember were the ones when I was a kid and we had the luck of living right down the street from where they set them off. We would put up folding chairs in the driveway and "oooww and aaaww" as each one exploded. The NYPhil in the park had that effect- not so much happening all at once that you became desensitized to each fireworks' beauty. At one point, a large purple one went off and everyone in the field gasped and clapped their hands. Then we all sheepishly laughed as we had all been caught reverting to our childhood. These are actually some of my favorite times of the year, primarily because it is the time that I most enjoy living in NYC. It is an experience that is so unique it makes suffering with urban inconvenience worth it.

Downtown Yarns

Here are some pics of the shop. I am only there on Satursdays, but when school starts I am quitting. It is a bummer because I love it there. But I am really looking forward to having a weekend back to spend with Mr. The woman, R., who owns the shop is an artist and has an amazing eye for color and texture.
It is a very small shop, though, and is difficult to keep large stores of everything. Sometimes to help myself get to sleep, I think of the shelves and all the yarns and project that I want to do....
R. always has so much fun with windows. These are knitted dinosaurs.
T. taught me how to knit and we always sit around fantasizing about houses with yards and crafts rooms, big kitchens and closets. Then we say with a sigh, would that be entertaining for like...three weeks? Then we would miss chaos and concerts and crazy people?

Babies

So these last couple of years everyone I know has been getting married. Now starts the baby parade. Which is actually really fun for a crafter- small, adorable patterns to knit. This happens to be a fantastic pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman called the Baby Surprise. As you work on it, it looks like a giant blob. Then you finish it, fold up the sides and you have a sweater- really amazing and cute.

I made a mistake on the lower left hand corner- but it is handmade- so mistakes are like a badge of honor....
I am under the impression that it is going to be a boy, but it can work for a girl if I am wrong.
This one was the first one and was so much fun I decided to do the blue one. It is for a very old friend of mine and is for sure going to be a girl. They aren't due till like October, so they are hanging at the yarn shop.

Baking

I haven't posted for ages....agh. I have a lot of far ranging things on my mind. First off, I had a friend, who attended the French Culinary Institute, come over and help me make some bread and tarts. The tarts were lovely and easy and the bread was...harder. Also three baguettes are a lot for two people to eat. Sparks helped out though.


How spoiled is this dog- I washed all his plushies and he thinks its Christmas morning...

Entertainment

The thing that turned me onto blogs in the first place was knitting and crafting. You would not believe the amount of people who post photos of half finished projects, balls of yarn and links to things they want to knit. However, sometimes I am really inspired. But, I will spare you all my half finished projects and just do a quick viewing of my winter things that I stashed at the top of my closet.

My garden was plundered again- both geranium plants disappearing under suspicious circumstances. The marigolds are really not that great- so Mr. went out and got new plants. I told him to get whatever he wanted and he did so well! I am sticking to bedding-like plants as opposed to plant-like plants. People, I guess, are less prone to grab a little green leafy thing rather than a large flowering thing. Although it is entirely beyond my scope of imagination as to who would steal other people's plants at all.
I needed to be in Westchester over the weekend- so we rented a car and took the dog for a little outing. It was fun- he got to swim in the Long Island Sound and also in the reservoir.
He really loves the water.....
When he is soaking wet- he looks so skinny. His fur is super puffy. This is such a funny expression. I think he is saying, "I'm not chubby, I'm just hairy!"

The Land of Enchantment

We recently went to Taos, NM for a friend's wedding. We decided to take a couple extra days and splurge a little since we were traveling so far. Our first night we spent at Ojo Caliente. It is a spa with natural mineral hot springs. It was so delicious to slip into the hot pools under the stars and full moon!


We had arranged to have a massage the next morning. But our room included a free soak and wrap. So you go into the bathhouse and they run all this hot mineral water in a private bathtub. After you have lain there for 20 min. they take you into a quiet room and wrap you in a cotton blanket and then lay a wool blanket over you and then tuck it all in so you look like a burrito mummy. I guess we were supposed to be getting all zen and relaxed, but that was really funny...

After the massages, we went to the pools for the morning. They have a mud pool that is really fun. You dip, then slather yourself with mud, lay in the sun and rinse. They had an arsenic pool, soda pool, iron pool and mixtures of all.

We got sunburned, of course, and then drove to Taos. On the way, we checked out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It was kind of scary. You can walk across it, but it shakes like mad when a truck crosses. This is the Church of San Francisco de Asis which was actually just a few minutes from our Inn.


We stayed at the Adobe Pines Inn and it was sooo dreamy. The Innkeeper, Louis, made us amazing breakfasts and they are softies for rescue animals. They had a new dog there- a very shy Great Pyranees/ Retreiver mix named Bebe. Everyone we met in NM was really nice, talkative, and actually formerly from the Northeast.


Our room was great. We had a kiva fireplace in the bathroom and the bedroom! There was a soak tub and a sauna. It really does get cold enough in the evening to want a fire and we made one every night and morning.


I am still obsessed with flowers and the macro setting of my camera. But look at this poppy!!!


This is the Taos Pueblo: a Native American community that has been inhabited for 1000 years. It is a large village and they have struggled to survive the invasion of the Spanish and US and have won back the ownership of much of their land including a sacred Blue Lake in the Sangre de Christo Mountains.


These are adobe ovens, called hornos, in which they build a fire until it is the right temperature and then place the bread inside. Each family would have one outside their home. There is a deep sense of peace and connection to the land and community.


Many of the homes have converted to shops that have food, jewelry, pottery, drums, leathergoods, clothing and weaving for sale. There are also dogs running free every where.


The bride and groom. Isn't her dress Amazing?!!


They had a fearless band there called Vanilla Pop. Everyone was up and dancing.


Is Mr. double fisting it? Well, look who he is talking to....haha, jus kidding.


So after the wedding we headed down to Santa Fe. Besides being the oldest capital in the US, it is also a magnet for artists, musicians, scientists and free thinkers. This is the Cafe Paris in Burro Alley.


Mr. took this lovely photo. We went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum- which is small, but still inspiring. We were only in Santa Fe for about 36 hours.


Also, we had been asking people what to do in Santa Fe and we were told that we should go to a Japanese spa called Ten Thousand Waves. I thought we had already spa-ed at Ojo Caliente, but Mr. said we might as well. So he arranged a private tub and couples massage the night we arrived! Aren't we spoiled?


We had to catch a 6am flight out of Albequerque- so we spent our last night there. When we arrived I said I would like to catch the sunset and there just happened to be a big moutain east of the city. AND it happened to have a tram that went to the top.


The wheels that...moved the cable? It is the longest tram in the world and goes up to 10,000 feet.


It was just a little scary and very very beautiful. I have to thank F. and A. for planning their wedding here- it was such a great trip. We had wonderful conversations and adventures in navigation. Saw some good friends and got a lot of sun, but a lot of water and fire too.

Major Victory

On Memorial Day we were invited to the Second Annual Guac-off on Prospect Park, Brooklyn. This event was organized by our uber social friend E. and her lovely guy R. We were all asked to bring our guacamole and everyone voted for which they liked best. I suggested to Mr. that we do the chopping at home, but assemble it onsite. It is really best when it is fresh and not brown. Despite being late, he got it together and won 2nd place!!!