| Our two week visit to New York was neatly divided into a week
upstate in Catskill, and one week in New York City. |
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| Upstate |
Upstate New York is pretty, quiet and rural. We visited the Book Barn, a used bookstore on a gravel
road up in the hills where there is no chance of foot traffic. (The last guy walking by was Johnny Appleseed!)
We also visited the Innisfree Garden, a hundred year old acerage also on a gravel road, Nimble Roots truck farm,
across a one lane bridge, an enormous apiary with 80 hives of great interest to the local bears and coyotes.
Also, we wandered several orchards up in the hills. Its slow pace is opposite the city chaos, and residents love it. |
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| The City |
We'll take Manhattan ... and the other four boroughs as well. What can you say? 'It's the
city that never sleeps,' though that's mostly the taxis honking. |
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| You Eatin' Dat? |
We were welcomed to New York by Dave and Stephanie who took us to dinner at Don Peppe, a Family-centered restaurant in
near-to-the-airport Ozone Park. At the Don's, it's all "Family," as in the Corleone Family.
Stephanie and Dave Took Us to Their Favorite "Family" Restaurant
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| Left Bank Ciders |
While in Catskill we enjoyed hours of socializing at the Left Bank Cidery taproom and outdoor patio. The
Cidery makes a range of interesting
ciders, which we felt
duty-bound to become familiar with. Also, the Cidery's convivial atmosphere attracts an interesting society
of patrons, which we felt duty-bound to meet and become friends with. It was tough, but we stayed
at it!
Left Bank Ciders is Catskill's Social Center
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| Innisfree Garden |
The Innisfree Garden is a huge (145 acres) hundred year old garden near Poughkeepsie NY. It might
best be described as curated countryside because it is almost all natural, lightly modified and very
well maintained. We spent several hours
wandering around appreciating the impressive specimens. Like
this old white oak with horizontal branches so long most have to be propped up with at least one post.
A Venerable White Oak
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| Book Barn |
This charming bookstore is nicely
currated,
as would be expected for a successful business deep in the woods.
We spent a delightful two hours there, scoring 9 books, passing up a book
on the FREE table: 'Legal Requirements for Boilers in Tolland County, Connecticut'! Had they been Pot Boilers ...
Used Books in a Rural Setting
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| Upstate Graft |
For big city politicians graft is a noun; upstate, it's a verb. Dave took us to an orchard LBC is reinvigorating
by grafting on their preferred apple varieties to old trees long out of production. They remove all but one
of the old limbs, leaving a stub onto which they graft scions collected from preferred varieties. Not
all grafts are successful, but about 3/4 of theirs worked. Grafted in the Spring, the scions had 'taken'
and grown more than two feet by mid September. In 3-4 years they'll be producing apples for cider.
 
Teaching Old Apple Trees New Tricks
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| Apiary |
A most enjoyable evening in quiet rural NY was cocktail hour with Lexi, a bee keeper and Philosophy doctoral
student studying Heidegger. Interesting! She and her husband are professional artists, live in this Federalist (ca. 1800)
home,
and run several businesses. Even more interesting. She served tapas with Dave's cider. To thwart the bears and coyotes,
Lexi keeps two dogs living under the chicken coop, one a massive Anatolian shepherd. The chickens, bees and philosopher are all safe!
Lexi's Apiary
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| Roosevelt Island |
When we got to Manhattan we took the East River Ferry, making a midway stop at Roosevelt Island, a
great vantage point to photograph the United Nations and the City beyond.
Among the upgrades to the Island since the days when L stared at it from his UN office is a memorial to FDR.
In addition to this brief homage to the great president, we also stopped in at FDR's presidential library in
Hyde Park NY during our visit.
The UN from Roosevelt Island
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| Space Diamonds |
The attraction of the American Museum of Natural History captures us every time we're in the Big Apple.
The agenda included the new Gems and Minerals exhibit - including a
mineral from Libby
MT - and the
Northwest Indian exhibit. Perhaps the most awe inspiring was a vial of "nanodiamonds" from interstellar
(outside our solor system) dust. As AMNH explains:
Today, small amounts of this stardust,
know as presolar grains, can be found
in some meteorites. The Allende meteorite
contains many types of presolar grains,
including tiny diamonds that consist of
only about 1,000 carbon atoms. This vial
contains about 60 quintillion (6 followed
by 16 zeros) of these "nanodiamonds,"
isolated from a 5.7-gram (0.013-pound) piece of the Allende meteorite.
60,000,000,000,000,000 Space Diamonds
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| Insects |
In the exit hallway, the AMNH shows two dozen huge enlargements of insect photos take by Levon Biss
using a special high resolution macro camera he built. They are all amazing! See them
here.
A Beetle Photo 4 Feet High
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| Wave Hill |
The Wave Hill Estate in the Bronx is a private botanical garden with beautiful grounds overlooking
the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades beyond. An enormous Beech Tree welcomes guests.
Our favorite exhibits were the greenhouse with succulents and the greenhouse with alpine
varieties, but all aspects of the estate are enjoyable.
Wave Hill Pergola
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| Isamu Noguchi |
In Brooklyn we toured the Isamu Noguchi Museum. This is a excellent introduction to Noguchi
because it contains a wide range of his work. Everything from carved columns of
basalt to more
abstract work.
A Classic Noguchi Fountain
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| Witold Reiss |
We stopped in at the of New York Historical Society Museum to see a lovely collection of portraits
by Winold Reiss, a German artist to emigrated to American and was captivated by the
African Americans
in Harlem. His portraits are nearly 100 years old and have not been
previously exhibited.
Winold Reiss' Portrait of Langston Hughes
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| Valerie & Isak |
Dave's art school friends Valerie and Isak invited us to their 'hood, the Jackson Heights
neighborhood of Brooklyn, the most diverse place in America. That means it has the widest range of
ethnic restaurants in America. V & I took us on a foraging tour of their favorite restaurants,
then back home to devour our treasures. Tremendous! Later, Isak showed us the operation of his
letter press, and the new book he's working on. (It even has cameo of Dave and Stephanie!)
What a delight!
Printing the Old Fashioned Way for a More Elegant Result
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