Some of my favorite photos

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pictures, postaday2015, stories

   
    
   
I was going through my pictures stored on both my iPad and iPhone and I pulled a few to put into a separate folder called “Maman’s favorites”.  These are the ones, either I took and ended up surprising myself with or my husband took or my cousin sent me. As I get more and more addicted to WordPress and writing, I find my addiction is crossing over to photography as well. I can no longer write something without looking to include a visual to roundout the story I have to share with everyone.

   
    
 
   
    
 

A view of the bay at Arcachon, p.m and a.m

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Arcachon France, pictures, postaday2015

     
 

My cousin Leon took me out to reconnect with our “childhood” friends from 30 years ago who, one of them, has a house right on the road alongside the port of La Teste de la Buche. The clouds were starting to menace thunderstorms and pouring rain, but lucky us it didn’t happen until well after dinner.

The following morning my cousin, his friend and I had breakfast closer to my sister’s rental in Le Canon but still on the same bay, the Bay of Arcachon, whichever side you find yourself, it is incredibly beautiful.

This trip is very bittersweet, one of my cousins is dealing with a serious health issue, my aunts and uncle are in their eighties, in the back of my mind I feel Father Time counting minutes and seconds. I am forcing myself to embrace the here and now.

In the fourth picture down, I zoomed in a little bit to show the Dune de Pyla across the bay, a spectacular dune, the tallest in all of Europe and one that I climber very often as a child.

   
   
   
 
   
 

A look from Washington Street, Boston

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Boston, pictures, postaday2015

   
    
 
This is from my perspective walking from Washington and Berkely Street, away from an excellent Japanese restaurant where our son and I had a late lunch. Our daughter had to work, I’ll facetime with her later, but trust me when I say lunch was delicious. The sushi was creative, small portions of handcrafted ocean goodness and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

While we were walking back towards South Station, my son asked me why was I taking pictures right there. I told him because I wanted a contrast between the new and old, the pretty and the ugly, the rich and the poor because it takes all to make a city what it is, an amalgam of all humanity.

Boston is so much more than shiny new towers and touristy attractions, there are cultures and family stories to be found at every street corner. I wanted to shine a lens on it while I was there.

Different perspectives from New York

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New York, pictures, postaday2015

   
    
 
I was sort of in the United Nations neighborhood, the U.N is on First Avenue, I was on Third Avenue, but I got a pretty nice shot of the building itself. I have wonderful memories of spending hours doing research for my political science class in the United Nations building, back when you were welcomed practically with open arms and allowed to spend as much time as needed to read periodicals and documents. I miss those days, it was twenty five years ago, but we should aspire to get back to that place, where we aren’t governed by fear and distrust.

I was able to take pictures from an elevation, which gave me some nice perspective of the gorgeous sky, breaking up the concentration of steel, glass and concrete. The view of the East river was nice, both rivers offer beautiful views, each has a distinct flavor which makes it very New York in the competitive sense, East versus West rivalry.

I could never get bored taking pictures of New York, looking at New York through a “camera” lens gives me a brand new appreciation of the city.  

The August flowers are out

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flowers, pictures, postaday2015

   
 
I love these flowers, although my new vegetable patch ate into quite a bit of their territory, it made me sad pulling up the tiny plants while I was prepping the area pre-planting. These flowers are however, sturdy and stubborn, they will prevail no matter what. I remember I gave Debbie just a few to plant in her backyard, to fill in a few bald spots in hard to grow places, before she knew it, she practically had an entire field, all from those three or four little plants.

I’m not sure why the two pictures are so different, the first one, I know I took during full sun, the second may have been overcast, it was a partially cloudy day or it could have been the editing tools on my iPad, there is the enhancing tool that makes the colors pop, but I wouldn’t think it would change it to this extent. I’m not sure. I kind of like going back and forth between the two.

Exploring Chelsea Piers, New York City

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New York, pictures, postaday2015

          

We visited the Chelsea Piers today, my husband for golfing purposes and I, to paint images in my head for my characters worldview arriving from the Old World via luxury cruise liner in 1925, as you can see the area nowadays is very lovely and family friendly, both for children and canine.

My husband found what he was looking for as did I, the facilities have beautiful full blown photo montages of the Pier’s history with very educational images of the era between the 1910’s and the 1920’s. It helps me put myself in a New York state for mind from an era long ago, because the reality of New York today is quite jarring when put next to New York of yesteryear. It oftens interferes with my stream of consciousness that enables me to put thought to “paper”.

I have been repeating myself often these past few months each time we walk around New York, too many people, too many cars, too much, just too much. I felt the same two years ago when my daughter and I were traveling through the South of France, I couldn’t help but feel claustaphobic, too many people and too many homes on top of each other, too much.

I think that maybe I have been living in Blandford for too long, it has rendered me ill-equipped to deal constructively with crowded spaces, I need room to breathe and think.

Another visual tour of the Big Apple

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New York City, pictures, postaday2015

            

My mother and I decided to meet at 60 East 42nd Street, right across the street from Grand Central. I was twenty minutes early, so I took the opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful historic Grand Central terminal with the magnificent Chrysler Building in the background. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the Pershing Square Cafe,  the building originally had  housed a tourist information burea which had been there forever, I remember giving the tourist bureau a passing glance each time I passed by, but I had never set foot in it. I don’t know when it was transformed into a cafe, but I am sure there have been thousands of satisfied diners since its transformation because if you look at the sign, it does say that it is the busiest and best place for breakfast in all of New York City.

We weren’t interested in breakfast, we were interested in lunch and specifically thin crust pizza if I am going to be precise; I had done my research and I told my mother that we needed to walk downtown towards 32nd Street and Lexington Avenue to an Italian restaurant called Vezzo’s. My research paid off because we ate the best thin crust pizza that either of us had tasted in a long, long time. We ordered two personal pizzas, one with mushrooms and one plain, we split them evenly down the middle and there was nothing left on either of our plates. The crust was so thin and crispy, the sauce was beautifully seasoned and there was the perfect amount of cheese and enough mushrooms, the portion was just enough, neither too much nor too little. I have to write a little blurb on their website asking them to open a Vezzo’s in Astoria, Queens, that pizza is a keeper! I have to perfect my pizza dough even more to figure out how to get it that thin, because when it is that thin, it gets crispy on its own.

After lunch we walked down to Union Square and then back up to the Flatiron district with a spin around 6th Avenue, within the vicinity of the early twenties is the home of three gorgeous buildings that I have always admired.

   
       

All in all we almost walked the 10,000 steps recommended by health experts, we were short by a couple of hundred steps, I might have gotten them in later because I left my mother at the subway station at 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue and I walked back to where we are staying, 29th Street and 8th Avenue. 

We did luck out today for our little walkabout, the weather was infinitely more pleasant than yesterday, a civilized 82 as opposed to a sweaty 90 plus of yesterday. 

My feet are a little bit unhappy right now. They’ll get over it.

Searching for happy thoughts

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cheering up, pictures, postaday2015

My husband shared this gorgeous shot of the East River he took from midway on the 59th Street Bridge as he was walking across it yesterday late afternoon. Twenty five years ago, I had often made that walk across the East River via the bridge and it is quite the hike, but it was so worth it, between the views and endorphins generated by brisk walking, I always felt great afterwards.

Have you ever woken up to feelings of deep sadness? Today is one of those days, so I pulled up the lilac picture and shared the beautiful picture that my husband shared along with the brilliant song created and sung by Simon and Garfunkel. Anything to push my sad fog off and nourish the optimism seeds that forever lie in my psyche, I hate when they go dormant on me. The key is to actively find things that redirect the negative energy and transform it into positive; aromatherapy is a great way to shake up the chemical balance of the brain, I can’t wait to bury my nose in a bush or two.

I suppose if happiness and optimism were easy, they wouldn’t be so great and if you do not experience sadness, you cannot appreciate happiness, at least that is what I am tellling myself today.

Tomorrow is another day! 

Boston at lunchtime

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Boston, pictures, postaday2015

          

What a day it was in Boston, simply glorious, everyone was scurrying about going for lunch or waiting on line at food trucks and then taking their lunch to the greenery. I waited on my own line at the MonoGoose and ordered my favorite sandwich, the bahn mih, a vietnamese sandwich with grilled pork and I sat down on a rock and ate it surrounded by many like-minded people.

The views by the water, I thought were lovely, so that was why I took the photos, especially the skyline.

In a New York minute

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bookstores, pictures, postaday2015, rockefeller center

  

   
   

   
   

http://youtu.be/LxGr5doGJmY
One of my favorite songs referencing New York, lovely and mellow, lingers in the mind long after the song is over. What I love about these quick in and out trips to New York is that it forces you to focus your attention to one area and you get to capture its unique flavor amidst all of the cacophony.

My focus was Rockefeller Center, I have always loved that little pocket of international flavor right in midtown. I have very fond memories of visiting no matter the season, it is always special, I remember there being for the longest time, a French bookstore where I would spend hours perusing each section, either for my personal reading needs or for school, I loved that place, it’s closed now, such a shame.

The Scribner Bookstore, now a Sephora, was another treasure of mine. It was as beautiful on the inside of the building as the outside and I was so sad the day it went out of business, probably 15 years ago, another casualty of the mega bookstore phenomena, a tragedy for the bookworms of the world.

If you look closely at the picture of the imposing dooway, you will see the name Cole-Haan engraved on the wall on either side of the doorway, I am a huge fan of Cole-Haan shoes, when I can I go to their outlet stores, around the time they launch their huge clearance sales and BOOM make a purchase or two. This store is most probably their flagship store, so I enter, look and catalog for future reference, always a pleasure to peruse lovely shoe design even if you aren’t buying at that very minute.

When I left Cole-Haan, I casually looked over to my left and shockingly Saint Patrick’s Cathedral sat there in all of her naked glory, released from her long hibernation of renovation and restoration. She had been covered with tarps, surrounded by ugly scaffolds for such a long time, to see her all shiny and clean, I had to take a picture.

So this was New York, in a New York minute.