Winter Warriors

Nope, not me! I have been known to go out paddling in some pretty frigid conditions, but I am not counting myself among them this time. I did end up walking a mile and a half outside on Saturday, and probably just a little under a mile outside yesterday, but I didn't particularly embrace it, it was more a practical matter of getting places I needed to go. As I've mentioned in a couple of places, I actually rearranged brunch plans yesterday to cut down the walking/waiting in the single-digit outdoors, but there were other things that did necessitate a little time outside. This post is in honor of those who went out in the weekend's single-digit and even briefly negative temperatures voluntarily, with smiles even!

One of the necessary destinations was the GrowNYC Sustainability Center at the Courtelyou Road Greenmarket. I keep my compostable food scraps in the freezer to keep down the smells and the vermin (my building is not bad as older buildings go, but there are occasional mouse and roach incursions, so not leaving food around where they can get it is important). The bag was full up and taking up a lot of freezer space; I would usually have taken it to Sebago but I forgot a couple of times and then the last time I went, last weekend, I didn't think I would be able to get to the compost bins because of the snow. I was headed to Play Fair at Javits Center yesterday, Cortelyou Road is right along the way, and when I checked the Brooklyn Greenmarkets FB page for weather updates, I was delighted to see that they were open for business and that compost collection was going on as usual.

The booth volunteer was well-dressed for the cold, and cheerful - you can't really see it in this picture but she's giving me a smile and a thumbs-up sign! It may have been up to 2 degrees at this point, late morning, but it was probably still -1 when this stalwart lady arrived to set up her booth! Winter Warrior #1! Woohoo! 

And then there's Winter Warrior #2 - or perhaps I should say Winter Warriors. This isn't actually from the weekend, this was one year ago yesterday. Facebook has this "memories" thing, where it pulls up posts from the past (one-year increments, usually one year ago, sometimes more), and FB has been tormenting me with pictures from the sailing trip with friends in the Caribbean that TQ and I enjoyed so very, very much, but yesterday it finally came back to Brooklyn with this Coney Island Polar Bear photo that I took on a very windy day. Fun to see this one again. I wasn't there this time, but the Polar Bears didn't let this cold snap stop them, nope, these Winter Warriors came out to play!

Click here for a Daily News video of the Bears at their icy Valentine's Day frolic. I'll wait for Easter, thanks! I'm planning to swim outside, or at least float around outside, today, but that's going to be in a heated rooftop pool at a spa in Queens where a friend is celebrating her birthday. That's as close as I'm gonna get to an outdoor swim this time of year without first travelling a considerable distance south!  PS - next video after Coney Island Polar Bears is a most adorable polar bear cub. PPS - video after cute polar bear cub is stupid gossip, don't bother, was hoping for a whole string of polar bear fun but no such luck.