O for a Sunny Day

o, for a sunny day in a month lost,
obscured in clouds,
with nearly perpetual precipitation
washing away the joy of solar radiance.

o great orb that rules the day:
can i remember how you feel?
your warmth upon my face,
my body bathed in summer heat
as I stroll the city streets
enjoying the leisure of the unhurried pace
that your warmness imposes.

how can we endure the grayness of another day
where the subtlety of colors is diluted
in such dull diffused daylight?
where an autumnal chill in my bones and
a film of mist coat over our flesh
left my soul in a joyless limbo.

o new month of Julius,
will you restore what we lost last month?
the simple joy of a warm summer day
bathed in sunlight.

At last, a summer's day! Part 1: Walk in the Garden

Then suddenly, the month of rain ended! Just like in the movie, Forest Gump, when the monsoons stopped in Vietnam: the rain stopped and the sun came out. Suddenly, it was summer!

With the warmth of the sun beaming down, the city came to life. At lunchtime, I walked through the Public Garden. Like a tourist in a new city, I documented the planting beds, the logoon and the famous swan boats.

At last, a summer day! Part 2: Evening at Revere Beach

Revere Beach, a 3-mile long, crescent-shaped barrier beach located about 8 miles north of Boston is America's first public beach. Designed by the renound landscape architect, Charles Eliot, it was part of a Metropolitan Parks System that was born around the dawn of the 20th century.

The parks were accessible by streetcar and provided fresh air and escape from city life in the midst of the industrial revolution. Coal was burned everywhere coating a fresh layer of soot on windowsills and lungs alike. The cobblestone streets were an adventure to navacate, avoiding the droppings of the everpresent horse-drawn transport while not twisting an ankle!

Revere Beach was immensely popular, especially with the working class. Early on there were all sorts of amusements and places to eat. These features fell into bad times in the 1960s and eventually they were demolished and replaced with high-rise apartments.

In the 1990s and recently the state has put money into refurbishing Revere Beach: bringing in sand to restore the beach itself, restoring the shade structures and restoring the beachside promendade on the north end of the beach.

Over the years, Revere Beach has remained a popular place to cool off on a summer's day or evening. On this summer evening, we ate at Kelly's (famous food stand) and walked the beach at sunset. Here's our postcards from today.

High above the Streets of New York: It’s a .... Park!?

One of the most creative and interesting parks just opened in New York City. But if you walk and walk and walk all over Manhattan, you may never find it!

Why? Because it’s 30 feet above the street!

High Line Park is build on the trestle of the abandoned West Side Line built by the New York Central Railroad in the 1930s. What I find most interesting is the design – an amazing blending of two forms I love, yet are contrary: industrial and naturalist design.


What I love most about it is that they kept the historically defining features: portions of the tracks, the railings, and the great steel structure holding it all up. Then, perhaps inspired by the wildflowers that grew unaided between the abandoned rails, the landscape design brings back intense plantings of a beautiful palate of wildflowers.

A Brief History

By the 1900s, New York was a great port with piers lining the Hudson River. Long before highways and interstates, all that cargo arriving was loaded on trains. And like streetcars, the trains rumbled along rails in the cobblestones, mixing with horses and carts.

The New York Central Railroad had its own “cowboys.” These cowboys didn’t herd cattle; they herded freight trains! Riding horseback, they guided the trains through the west side streets of Manhattan.


Certainly, this was dangerous and inefficient. A plan was drawn up to lift the tracks 30 feet above the streets. The High Line was born. The miles of viaduct meandered above 10th Avenue and even went through right through buildings.

Times changed. As the ‘30s transitioned into the ‘70s, transportation modes changed. Highways got better. The ‘50s brought the interstate system, and with government-provided infrastructure trucks became a faster and more flexible for transporting goods. The High Line slowly died.

Like other relics of a past industrial age, the High Line was scheduled for demolition. But, others had a vision to convert this relic into a linear park above the streets. The advocacy of the Friends of the High Line and others saved the structure. And now a most unique park is born.

Witness the evolution of the High Line: active rail line to abandoned viaduct to park.


Credits:

The idea for this post come from my friend and fellow blogger, Nando. Check out his video interview about the High Line Park. And his blog post on the High Line at http://www.nandoism.com/

Most of the photos come from the Friends of the High Line’s web site: http://www.thehighline.org/. You’ll find many photos and videos, and much of the history of the Line and how it was saved.

My Little Garden: 2009 Edition

Well, I have finally got the little shady garden planted, just in time for the rhododendrons to bloom. Compare this 2009 edition to my 2008 garden in September of last year.

Sunset at Fenway Park

I'm in love with spring!

This Memorial Day weekend is often thought of the beginning of summer, and the end of spring. I'm a little sad that spring is over.

From the late days of winter where the discovery of a crocus daring to bloom on a warm day, I've been in love with the hope that spring brings. From the barren earth, new life sprouts up. And flowers! (The first flower I saw was on Valentines Day, walking with my honey, so that may explain my feelings.)

I find the contrast of the bluebells and forsythia blooming against a brown background as wonderful. Unlike the summer, where the entire landscape is verdant, here the beauty stands in contrast to a dull background.

Then the trees leaf out into their yellow-green. And they flower.

At this point, I'll let my photos do the talking!

Here's my favorite photo from a day in May in Concord, near the Old North Bridge over the Concord River (site of the "shot heard 'round the world, April 19, 1775):

A few of my lastest photos of the Public Garden:

Breasts, What Are They Good For?

Breasts: sex objects or the natural way to feed your baby? After reading a friend's blog post about post-nursing breasts, I thought of the contrast between what breasts were designed to do (i.e., nursing babies) and breasts as exhibited in celebratory fashion.

At this point, I'll let guys, looking for something more salacious, to click the back button and return to their search page.

Ok, back to my post.

Now, not only have necklines plunged to mere inches above the nipple, but we see some celebrity dresses feature a mere two vertical sashes leaving ample side cleavage, and little to the imagination.

With so much revealed, you can almost guarantee every celebrity needs medical enhancing to get that perfect shape and size.

Clearly, in American culture the breast has become a sex object, maybe even the first thing a guy looks at. (But I won't say anything disparaging about men; they're intoxicated with testosterone and can’t help it if society has defined breasts as something to become aroused at mere sight of one.)

But let's contrast this with Muslim culture where women are covered head to toe. No wonder the culture war between Islam and the West!

Also contrast that with a more conservative time in the US (‘50s, early 60’s) when breasts were out of sight, out of mind, and served no function. The modern woman of that time chose the “modern” way to feed her baby with delicious, “nutritious” formula!

Hmmm, do you think that once breasts stopped serving their biological function, they became sexual?

Finally, consider some societies in the warmer climates of Africa and southeast Asia where women may go around topless. In these societies, this is simply natural, and breast do not take on a sexual nature. No customers for enhancement there!

Now I don't mean to be prudish about breasts, but I do think our celebrity culture has taken breasts to an extreme!