Escape from Black Friday 2016

A variety of promising escape routes, all right here in Brooklyn! How convenient.

     O

:D />

0

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Petition - a quick plug!

Just wanted to put up a quick plug for a petition a neighbor has been sharing - at the moment I type this it's at 1,889 signatures and it would be lovely to see it break 2,000.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I make regular visits to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, especially in the spring to see the daffodils and the cherry trees, and also in the snow -- it's really one of my favorite NYC places to be on land. However, these days it seems like the board has lost track of something. I always thought that one of the things that makes a botanic garden a botanic garden instead of just a plain old garden garden is that there's generally some sort of SCIENCE going on there -- you may not always see it, it can be behind the scenes, but it's there and it's a big part of the garden's reason for being.

However, the board of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has decided that that doesn't really need to happen anymore - they've cut down the science staff and closed down their research center. Meanwhile, they had the money to open a "shiny new visitor's center" (quoting the Daily News article I link to below). Speaking as a visitor, I didn't need a shiny new center, I think it would have been better for them to spend the money on the science, even if I never ever set foot in the research facility.

Flatbush neighbor Chris Kreussling, who blogs and Facebooks as the Flatbush Gardener (he's always running neat things in the area like daffodil bulb plantings and stuff that I always want to go to but never make it to) and has been a long time supporter of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the one from whom I first heard about this, he's appalled by the departure from the organization's mission statement, and he's been running this petition for a while now. I've plugged on Facebook, now I'm linking to it here. Click here to sign! Oh, it's at 1,891 now, 2 new signatures as I typed this - 2,000 here we come (and let's not stop there). Thanks!

Good article about the situation here:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/botanic-garden-prunes-science-staff-article-1.1438606

Mighty Cranky Power Ranger

Actually I'm not sure what that expression is - cranky, grumpy, or just determined? Click for detail - what do you think? Whatever it was, I just loved this picture - funny thing was, I was focused on the kids trying out the steel drum and I didn't see that face until I started going through my pictures! What a mug. Reminded me of that little boy who was sooo serious about the spinach-eating contest at the tugboat races earlier in the year -

and so appalled when the older kid won -- click on this one to really see that expression, the compressed view doesn't quite do it justice.

Anyways, it was a good day at the BBG the day before the day before the storm. Funny, too, I'd actually though about leaving when I'd gotten to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and discovered that they were having their annual Halloween "Ghouls and Ghosts" celebration, they were charging extra admission because of the festival and I usually go to the BBG in search of peace and quiet (I actually sometimes like to go on days when the weather's not so perfect because a lot of people won't) - but then I thought "Well, this might offer some fun picture-taking too". And it did, too - click here for a few more ! Oh, there are a few heron pictures in there, too - just the ones I liked the best, but if you already saw the full series just click through those, there's more Ghouls & Gourds after them.

Sushi en brochette

Went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden the weekend before the hurricane. Thought I'd go see if there was any foliage there that I could take pictures of before Sandy blew it all away.

The color hadn't really gotten underway. But the fishing was good!

I got a whole series of pictures of this heron hunting in the Japanese Hill and Pond garden. I think he must live there, I've never seen a heron that was more blase about the presence of humans. The ones I see in Jamaica Bay are usually flying away because they saw me first, they are terribly skittish birds and I'm always pleased with myself when I can spot one and not make him fly, but this one? No way was he going to let some silly people deprive him of his koi kebabs.Click here for "Heron on the Hunt".

Special thanks to Bob Hilscher, who left a VERY nice compliment on that red-tailed hawk picture I'd posted a couple weeks ago. He and his wife Jean had their own unusual chance to get some excellent red-tail pictures when a hawk landed in a tree near them, and they left a link to a photo essay they'd posted on their site (click here for that). Among the pictures leading up to the arrival of the hawk, there was a lovely shot of a great blue heron, and that reminded me that I'd never really done anything here with my heron pictures. Between Sandy, the election, the nor'easter, I'm not sure I would've remembered without the reminder, and I'm glad I got one.

An Eventful Holiday Weekend.

Quite an eventful holiday weekend, all in all! TQ moved to Brooklyn on Thursday the 23rd. I had him over for dinner afterwards & then on Christmas Eve Day we went to his new place & unpacked. Christmas Eve, we had the most amazing dinner at Purple Yam. It was something like an eight-course meal, with the main event being the most scrumptious spit-roasted pig, which they made in the restaurant's garden -


They had very nice live music (including a few selections from A Charlie Brown Christmas - still a little incredible to think that CBS wasn't really sold on the Vince Guaraldi Trio, can you imagine any other music working as well?) -


and this is the final course, a lighter-than-light lemon souffle - we actually tried to leave after the ice cream, because we were too stuffed to eat another bite, but TQ went to thank Amy (one of the owners) for a wonderful dinner & she wouldn't let us leave without trying it! I'm glad, too, we certainly didn't need it, and we couldn't finish it, but oh, how delicious.

Christmas Day we slept in a bit & then (as I'd mentioned) headed out to the club for an afternoon paddle.


It was a wintery day, although beautifully quiet. We ended up doing around 9 or 10 miles at a nice steady clip, going around the smaller islands of Jamaica Bay with a lunch stop at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (I wanted to scout the take-out prior to taking a special guest, a gentleman who's writing a guidebook for Long Island Paddling, on a paddle next week - it's an easy one but I do like to double-check).

Probably not enough to work off the excesses of the night before but it still felt good - and it's always incredible to have the bay entirely to yourself.
We only saw one other boat out from 2:00 launch to twilight landing

And it was Marcus Demuth on his Epic V10 surfski -



And we didn't see him for very long!


Seriously, we were laughing because we didn't launch a terribly long time after he paddled off, and we are not exactly slouches as sea kayakers go, but by the time we came out from under the bridge at the basin, he was nowhere to be seen. That's fast.

We went on to have a great paddle & then the final stop of the evening was at this wonderfully over-the-top Christmas display in Canarsie -







Nice festive end to the day.

Boxing Day, we were supposed to go to Queens for lunch with an old friend of mine. Unfortunately he had to cancel because he wasn't feeling well but I think that it was probably for the best that we only went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden instead - we'll reschedule the dinner & as it was, I took this picture right around the time that we were supposed to be at J's.
TQ's a good driver & getting home from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was not a problem but getting home from Queens might have been trouble.


So of course that was the Great Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010.

And yes, I did take more pictures. Of course!

I've put up 3 blizzard galleries on Picasa -

First was more from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was interesting, they had some areas open that are usually closed in the wintertime - we wondered if maybe they did that as a special treat for those of us who come out to visit the garden on a cold & snowy day.

From Boxing Day Blizzard, Brooklyn Botanic Garden

This afternoon, TQ & I went out to get some lunch, pick up a snow shovel if the hardware store had any left, and see if there was any way for me to get to work. Of the three goals, only lunch worked out, but I did take the new camera along, got some nice pictures, and despite the lack of snow shovels at the hardware store, we did manage to get the Mighty Taurus more or less cleared out through kind loans of shovels from neighbors. We started with TQ wielding this broom but we did end up with shovels for both of us. Thank you neighbors!

From Boxing Day Blizzard - Day After, afternoon walk

I've posted the best of the "morning commute ha ha" pictures here, I'd grabbed the Optio because I was actually going with the intent of going to work - you saw how well that worked out but as usual I had fun taking pictures & there were a few more too.

From Boxing Day Blizzard - Rush Hour

Tomorrow? Fingers crossed for getting back to work.

In lieu of the hoped-for marsh grass planting -

Slow! Photographers At Play!

Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 4/10/2010


As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I stayed home today after waking up not feeling too well (note a bit later - and did I ever miss a beautiful day)
. Perfect opportunity to grumble at the City Council, but on a cheerier note I also run through my pictures from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden weekend before last.

I'd played the spectrum game again - the rules are simply to try to get the whole ROYGBV spectrum, in one day, with a different flower for every color. Not too hard on a fine spring day in Brooklyn.

I think I need to play this game with the houses in my neighborhood sometime. Maybe tomorrow if I'm not feeling up to paddling yet, sure can't spend another entire day at home. Bleah!












And I didn't forget the all-important PINK!

Weekend's Fun - Long Paddle & Cherry Blossoms!

hmmmm...

Not bad.

but...

it needs...

needs what? Something!

OH! Hey! I know!

wait for it

wait for it

There. MUCH better, huh?

I had two weekend fun goals for this beautiful breezy weekend - cherry blossoms and a good long paddle. Good long paddle was today, I launched midafternoon & paddled as far as I felt like paddling, which turned out to be Manhattan Beach. Trip planning? Vos is dass?

This took me right past Plum Beach, where the windsurfers were tearin' it up in a nice frisky breeze. I couldn't supress a whoop as this guy shot past me heading the other way - he zipped by a little closer to throw me a proper Island greeting - eh, shaka right back atcha, brah!


Funny how stodgy a person feels in a sea kayak in a nice breeze with these guys zipping past - but I was after fresh air & exercise & the wind (slog-making, to the sailless) & mileage (somewhere around 14) gave me just that, so it was all good!

And so were the cherry blossoms. Good people of Brooklyn, ADORE the cherry blossoms!

Very Good! And yes, there will be a gallery. And probably another BBG spectrum (although the first one was so nice that I probably shouldn't repeat, but it's a fun game to play). Just not tonight.

Other weekend accomplishments: Taxes done, check. Laundry done, check. Ticket to Hawaii purchased, CHECK AND YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE!

OK, I gotta go un-salt myself & go to sleeeeeeep.

I'm Off to See the Wizard Cherry Blossoms!

2008 Cherry Blossom Time-lapse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Vimeo.

It's hanami time at the BBG! Grabbed this off their site when I went to check their hours. I'm off for a lovely afternoon!

Singing Silver Swords of Sakura!

OK, so the first ones here are bamboo. Oh well! A couple more short clips of the goings-on on a rainy day of the Sakura Matsuri Festival 2009 at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden:

"Kinda Kendo":

Fencing for fun in the rain. "Kendo?" a passerby asked the duellists. "Kinda..." they replied, with a laugh.

Samurai Sword Soul Snippet:



A lot more choreographed than the first - Just a quick bit of the opening of Samurai Sword Soul performance. Oh - notice the front-row seats here? It definitely pays to not be afraid of the rain! :D

The fighter with the staff is Japanese actor/comedian/martial artist Yoshi Amao - he was the emcee for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Sakura Matsuri festival 2009. He was the "instructor" in "Advanced Japanese" clip I posted earlier this week, and he's also the founder & producer of Samurai Sword Soul. They have classes - maybe my next hobby will be samurai sword fighting!

That will of course happen the day after I get bored with boats, which is to say probably never. But it does look like fun, doesn't it?