NYC, Day Three

Gramercy Park 

I was on my own again on Thursday, so after a bagel and tea for breakfast (at Ess-a-Bagel on Third Ave.), I started walking down Second Avenue towards one of the prettiest streets in Manhattan,  E. 19th,  which leads right into Gramercy Park. If I lived in Manhattan, this is where I would live (and then I could shop at Bergdorf's).  This tree-lined street has beautiful town houses built in the 1920s by some of the most famous American architects. And you have to live on Gramercy Square to get a key to the private garden. Wouldn't that be great, your own private garden in the middle of the city? Ooh, I would love that. 

Gramercy Park

E. 19th

E. 19th

E. 19th

E. 19th

Gramercy--love that ivy

I continued down Irving Place,  just off of Gramercy, and decided to stop at Friend of a Farmer for lunch. We had been here for brunch once before, so I knew it was delicious, and it's a really cute place.

After some refreshment, I continued down Irving Place and over to Broadway where I shopped around the Union Square area, stopping in at ABC Carpet and Home (Martha shops here),  Printicon, a fancy paper store that I have been in before and liked, City Bakery (just to look), and I may have stopped in Fish's Eddy again.

One of the places I have to visit every time I am in Manhattan is the Strand Bookstore, just south of Union Square. It is a great old bookstore, four floors, but I like the basement where I always browse their extensive collection of used and new gardening books. I have found a few treasures there, but didn't find anything this time that I had to have.

Pretty window boxes in East Village

East Village

Leaving the Strand, I decided to head east on E. 11th St.  I walked past Julia's old apartment at the corner of E. 11th and Second Ave., where the gardens look just as pretty, and then headed back up Second Avenue, all the way to E. 42nd. Another day of a lot of walking, but that's what I like about New York, you walk everywhere and because there is always something to look at you don't even realize how far you are walking. Another thing I really like about NewYork is all the small parks in the middle of the city, every couple of blocks it seems. I saw lots of little children playing on playgrounds, young mothers with their babies in strollers, enjoying the park, and of course the every-present homeless guy sleeping on a bench. Thursday was the first day of school for New York kids, so I saw lots of little ones being walked home by their parents, and tons of middle schoolers hanging around the bus stops.

Flowers on the corner

Walt and I decided to have dinner at Libretto's on Second Avenue, a short walk from our hotel. It was one of Julia's go-to restaurants when she lived here, cheap and cheerful Italian food. I had rigatoni with vodka sauce and Walt had lasagna. It was delicious. After dinner, we walked a a few blocks over and up Park Avenue towards Grand Central (and surprise surprise, there is a Magnolia Bakery inside Grand Central), then back down 42nd St. to our hotel. Love those cupcakes!

Grand Central Station, at night

NYC, Day Two

So while Walt was working all day down in the Financial District yesterday, I walked about 500 NYC blocks (just kidding, well maybe not kidding). You sure do walk a lot here. I'm taking lots of Advil.  I started out by having brunch at Sarabeth's, a cute little place on Central Park that I had been to before with Julia and with my high school friends Kathy, Mika, and Hodder when we were all here in 2008. I had French Toast and a plate of bacon that would have fed a family of 4. I did my best. Then I took a stroll around the south end of Central Park.

Central Park in the morning

It was pouring rain in the morning, so I took my time with breakfast and then ducked into Bergdorf Goodman for a bit, but phew, that's not my kind of department store! I guess the people who live on Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue shop there.  When there was a break in the rain I continued down Fifth Avenue and went to the MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, which I really enjoyed.  There is a beautiful sculpture garden, and lots of paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet,  Matisse,  and many others, as well as several exhibitions. I was excited to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night," and a triptych of Monet's "Water Lilies."

My buddy Balzac (by Rodin) at MOMA

MOMA 

Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

Then I decided to go by Rockefeller Center, which was crazy because they were setting up for a big football event that night and there were about 5,000 event people working and you couldn't see a thing. No sign of Matt Lauer.  So off I went to see the New York Public Library, and Bryant Park, two of my favorite places in the city.

NYPL

I think I like Bryant Park so much because it reminds me so much of Paris. The statue of Gertrude Stein helps in that regard, also.  So many people just sitting and enjoying the day, even a little reading area where people can pick up a magazine or book. And the restaurant there is so beautiful, the Bryant Park Grille. Julia and I had lunch there one day when she was working here.

Bryant Park

Love this restaurant in Bryant Park, so pretty

Love this sculpture of Gertrude Stein in Bryant Park

I met up with Walt in the West Village for dinner, where we ate at a great little French bistro that I have wanted to try, Pastis. I had steak frites,  of course,  and Walt had a fresh pea ravioli, both were delicious, and it was a fun dinner. We walked all the way back across town and uptown to our hotel. New York is exhausting!

New York City

Shake Shack

Walt and I are in New York for a few days--he is attending a conference here and I have a few days by myself to wander around the streets of Manhattan, and see some of my favorite places. We took the train and arrived in NY around 2 pm. After settling in our hotel, we started out walking, and stopped for shakes at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, then continued walking down towards Union Square, passing the Flatiron Building, and even stumbled upon the TV show "Smash" filming a scene by the Flatiron Building. That's Megan Hilty in the white sweater. It was fun to watch and we recognized a lot of the actors (but no Katherine McPhee).

Flatiron Building

Filming a scene for "Smash"!

Of course we went to my very favorite store in NYC, Fish's Eddy, which is near Union Square. So much color and fun stuff, just love it there.

Fish's Eddy

Fish's Eddy

We stumbled upon Eataly, a really cool Italian marketplace (Mario Batali is an owner), huge and filled with all kinds of coffee, chocolate, seafood, pasta, meats, olive oils, pastas, and much much more.  It was a little overwhelming. There are lots of little restaurants also where you can eat. We decided to eat at Punch, a restaurant and wine bar we had been to with Julia when she lived in NY. 

It's fun to be back in NYC, even though it's a little strange without Julia here.

Eataly

Pot Shots, Updated

I've been checking out my pots in these first days of September, seeing what has made it through the whole summer. For the most part, my pots have done really well. I have some winners and a few maybes, but I don't think there is anything that I wouldn't plant again. One of my favs, definitely, is the variegated scented geranium, above. It has looked great every single day of the summer and I just love the foliage. It does get small lavender flowers now and then, but it's the foliage that wins me over. I will get more next year.

Another winner, and no surprise here, is the Persian Shield perilla, and sweet potato vine. They are solid winners. 

A real workhorse is coleus. They are so showy and grow enormous and last the whole summer. These are sun coleus, 3 plants in one big pot, and they have been pretty amazing.

And this small sedum has done great since I planted it in my old green colander. It has bloomed profusely every day this summer and is still going strong.

Another favorite is this Mexican heather.  Eileen was the first to buy these up in PA and now we all snap them up for $1/plant.  I think there are 2 plants in this pot. It looks good every single day and doesn't get wilty when I haven't watered for a few days.

And speaking of sweet potato vine, the purple one is great too.

Another strong contender is angelonia, planted here in a pot. I did a pot of three different varieties of purple, pink, and lavender and I liked them mixed together.  They're still doing well.

This blue scaveola did great for most of the summer, but I've noticed in the past week or so it just looks tired and like it is just finished. I trimmed it up some this weekend and will see if it has any life left.

And my millions of million bells have just about lived their lives. It's hard to say anything negative about them, because I love them so much in the spring, with all their amazing colors. They are just so irresistible. But they just don't like our hot humid summers, and next year I will buy a few less (maybe). The same with petunias. I love them in the spring, but the only one I bought this year was the 'Picasso' petunia, and my one pot looked pretty good most of the summer, though it is dying out now. Petunias just get so straggly, and even when I cut them back, they just don't look as good. Another winner is lantana, blooms all summer and is still going strong. Heliotrope I buy because I love it, but it dies out by end of summer.

Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral

On Sunday we drove down to one of my favorite places, the Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral. I have loved this small enclosed garden since I first moved to DC. Every spring on the first weekend in May they hold a Garden Fair on the Cathedral grounds, which I have been to many years.  The garden is set below the Cathedral, enclosed by stone walls and arched doorways, with stone and brick pathways that wind back and forth throughout the gardens. There are rose gardens, perennial borders, herb gardens, small fruit trees, and an amazing collection of boxwoods, which must be close to 100 years old. The garden was designed in the early 20th century by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. Interesting benches and chairs are tucked into hidden corners, perfect for contemplative thought or quiet reading.

Welcome to the garden

The Shadow House Gazebo

And of course everywhere you walk you see lovely views of the Cathedral.

I love these old trees. This iron bench is my favorite spot.

This baptismal font dates from the time of Charlemagne. Wow.

These hardy begonias are everywhere, tucked into shady spots. So pretty.

Several pinnacles, ornaments, and flying buttresses were damaged by last summer's (2011) earthquake. Maybe these are new ornaments waiting to go up?

And everywhere you look, there are ferns tucked into little nooks and crevices in the stones. Just my style! Can I just say one more time how much I need a stone wall??

Garden on September 1