I've been bummed out ever since my birthday turned out to be warm & gray. I want snow! We haven't had any this whole winter, except for a 10-minute flurry. A couple days ago I checked out a bunch of books from the library with "snow" or "winter" in their titles. One turned out to be (I think) a romance novel, so now I've read a romance novel (I think). At least it had impossibly attractive people with unlikely talents, but it also quoted Christina Rossetti: "Snow had fallen, snow on snow on snow." I just found a book of British mystery short stories set in winter called Crimson Blood. That's the one! I want to be cold & look up & see quiet white outside my window.
NauenThen
A bust
March 14, 2017
Snow plow, Union Square.
This was my Facebook post:
East Village report: gym is closed, dentist is closed, laundry is closed, B&H (wheatgrass, baby!) is closed, Block is closed, & I am exfoliated from walking around in the icy pellety wind finding out.
Came home exhausted & didn't go out again all day. Whew!
WillisWeather® [Spartanburg, SC] explained: It was looking so promising, but it's weather. A storm yes, a blizzard Read More
East Village report: gym is closed, dentist is closed, laundry is closed, B&H (wheatgrass, baby!) is closed, Block is closed, & I am exfoliated from walking around in the icy pellety wind finding out.
Came home exhausted & didn't go out again all day. Whew!
WillisWeather® [Spartanburg, SC] explained: It was looking so promising, but it's weather. A storm yes, a blizzard Read More
The joy of snow
February 9, 2017
Easy to know what to say today because it's all I can ever say when it's snowing. Yay!!!
What a nice relief from all the rest of what's going on.
Which I shan't enumerate.
But will return to momentarily.
What a nice relief from all the rest of what's going on.
Which I shan't enumerate.
But will return to momentarily.
Yet another snow post
February 10, 2016
See the bike?
It's still dark so I don't know if it snowed last night. If it did, there's none on the windowsill so I don't have high hopes.
Here's a piece that was published many years ago in Organic Style:
It always snowed on Halloween. White trees leapt out like fists at shivering witches and ballerinas, who stumbled through the neighborhood trick-or-treating, faces up to lick flakes out of the sky. I grew up on the Great Plains Read More
Here's a piece that was published many years ago in Organic Style:
It always snowed on Halloween. White trees leapt out like fists at shivering witches and ballerinas, who stumbled through the neighborhood trick-or-treating, faces up to lick flakes out of the sky. I grew up on the Great Plains Read More
Sleepy Friday afternoon
February 5, 2016
This is Washington Square Park, not my backyard.
When I woke up this morning I looked outside & said, Hmm, how odd that I never realized that the tree in our courtyard (which I've looked at for almost 40 years) is a birch. Then I woke up a little more & said, It's snowing!
A good long lunch (pasta with lemon & parmesan—just maybe I'll order something else at Morandi, some day), good talk (Alex!), & a good walk there & back (7th Avenue & 10th St). And now it's nap time, except that I'm going to kabbalat Shabbat services with Alisa. Read More
A good long lunch (pasta with lemon & parmesan—just maybe I'll order something else at Morandi, some day), good talk (Alex!), & a good walk there & back (7th Avenue & 10th St). And now it's nap time, except that I'm going to kabbalat Shabbat services with Alisa. Read More
On Sixth Street (IV)
February 1, 2016
This is the most puzzling thing I saw on Sixth Street.
I guess I don't love purple snow as much as I love regular snow or the fabulous blog post by Sarena Neyman (click the caption—that's the link to her post). She only posts once a week & is always worth reading for the way she combines the personal with larger concerns. Read More
I guess I don't love purple snow as much as I love regular snow or the fabulous blog post by Sarena Neyman (click the caption—that's the link to her post). She only posts once a week & is always worth reading for the way she combines the personal with larger concerns. Read More
Not snow
January 25, 2016
After the excitement of 26.8" of snow (a near-record), plus the unneeded, unpleasant excitement of having the roof alarm biting my ears for 15 hours (until a locksmith came & drilled it out), necessitating leaving the roof door open to let the sound fly away, and by the way the heat in our building was off, I'm relaxing to the serenity of this Japanese print. Ah.........
The patch of white that caught my eye turns out not to be snow, but I like it anyway. Read More
The patch of white that caught my eye turns out not to be snow, but I like it anyway. Read More
I Heart Even More Snow
January 24, 2016
In the end, we got 26.8" yesterday, .10 short of the record. This South Dakota gal is happy.
More things I love about snow:
= The excuses. Normally I always/never, but it's a blizzard, everything is permitted.
= The pretty. Big snow is the only "disaster [sic] that leaves the afflicted region more attractive in its wake."
= The camaraderie. I love hearing people's stories. I could look endlessly at photos of kids, dogs, pigs, pandas frolicking.
= The frolicking. Read More
= The excuses. Normally I always/never, but it's a blizzard, everything is permitted.
= The pretty. Big snow is the only "disaster [sic] that leaves the afflicted region more attractive in its wake."
= The camaraderie. I love hearing people's stories. I could look endlessly at photos of kids, dogs, pigs, pandas frolicking.
= The frolicking. Read More
I Heart More Snow
January 22, 2016
I love poems about snow. I love snow men. I love "nothing that is not there and the nothing that is." I love being inside & the snow is outside. I love hot chocolate & the possibility of snow on my February birthday. I love not losing my hat or mittens. I love kids sledding on cafeteria trays. I used to love ice skating. I love reading books about the Arctic. I love thinking that I could theoretically walk to the North Pole. I love the Northern Lights. I love books set in Alaska & the Yukon & northern Norway. I love photographs of snowflakes. I love cutting snowflakes out of paper. I love having an excuse to go for a walk & not to work. I love everything I can think of about snow, "the most benign of big weather." Read More
I Heart Snow
January 21, 2016
As with a lot of things, anticipating snow is the most exciting part. Well, one of the exciting parts. Today is when it's still possible that we will have a blizzard! A foot of snow! Two feet of snow! Three feet! I love the squeaky quiet of my feet on the snow when there's no traffic. I love the bicycle- and hydrant- and car-shaped heaps on the street. I love too white to see. I love the wind. I love having to walk with my back to the wind so I can breathe. I love looking out the window and being inside. I love being outside. I love being cold. I love thinking about the people I know who also love snow (Steve!) and even the people who hate it & think we're nuts. I love remembering the snows of yesteryear. Read More
Snow snow snow
January 27, 2015
Winter Landscapes and Flowers, Qian Weicheng (Chinese, 1720–72), Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As everyone knows by now, the storm of the century, Bombogenesis, Snowpocalypse, whatever you want to call it, was a bit of a dud. We in Manhattan got between 6 & 9 inches, although not far to the east they got 20" or more, & Boston is having a real blizzard. Sure it's disappointing for those of us who feel the more the better. I feel like my date with Derek Jeter turned into a date with a Derek Jeter impersonator.
What's been interesting has been tracking the mayor & governor's moves (& how they've been second-guessed
Beside myself
January 25, 2015
It is, perhaps, the storm I've been waiting for. The latest prediction is for 20–30" tomorrow & Tuesday, & very high winds: a genuine blizzard. All my weather friends, like Steve Willis & Evie, are excited. It's the talk of the weather blogs. Not sure, however, what would make it historic, a word that's shown up in a lot of the articles I'm looking at.
I'm not a driver, shoveler, commuter so it's all joy for me. Read More
I'm not a driver, shoveler, commuter so it's all joy for me. Read More
Snow
January 2, 2015
Snow in Arizona, snow in Alabama, snow in Las Vegas, snow in the Carolinas, snow everywhere except where it's needed (wanted) (OK, by me) most—right here in New York, New York. C'mon.... please! It'll probably snow in Hawaii before it snows here.
The snow chronicles: last of 2014 (maybe)
March 17, 2014
There was a snowflake icon on my iPod for 5 & 6 a.m. but when I went outdoors at 6:45 this morning, the streets were as dry as a bitter wind could scrub them. Now that I have a glass of daffodils on my mantel, I'm ready for spring. I am ready for snow (always) but this cold: enough. Especially as every day I lose an article of warm clothing. Read More
The snow chronicles XII
January 27, 2014
Snow predicted today for southern Alabama & South Carolina, rain for New York City. What's wrong with this picture? And as someone pointed out, there's something amiss when 36° registers as a heat wave.
Weather, weather. Maybe it's not the all-consuming interest for me that it is for a couple of my friends. I can't remember from day to day what yesterday was like, & I'm not much interested past advice on sweaters & scarves. Or maybe weather's a great hobby, since, like cloud-watching, it involves little more than paying attention whenever you think of it.
Just blew a fuse so now the heater's off in here. That's weather for ya. Read More
Weather, weather. Maybe it's not the all-consuming interest for me that it is for a couple of my friends. I can't remember from day to day what yesterday was like, & I'm not much interested past advice on sweaters & scarves. Or maybe weather's a great hobby, since, like cloud-watching, it involves little more than paying attention whenever you think of it.
Just blew a fuse so now the heater's off in here. That's weather for ya. Read More
The snow chronicles X
January 23, 2014
East River from Brooklyn (photo by Maggie Dubris)
A friend from back home ee'ed me to ask: "I know you like snow, but when is ENOUGH?!"
We only had 11" & they didn't cancel school. How could that be ENOUGH?
Now it's Day 3, & it's bugging me not to ride my bike. Maggie says the trains are horrible—infrequent, therefore crowded—so I'm mostly walking but it's harshing my mellow. Also, it's cold without much prettiness left. I like the cold when I'm outdoors, but in my office, not so much.
Friday update: My friend says the East River is frozen over off Greenpoint. "It looks like a bunch of icebergs." Read More
We only had 11" & they didn't cancel school. How could that be ENOUGH?
Now it's Day 3, & it's bugging me not to ride my bike. Maggie says the trains are horrible—infrequent, therefore crowded—so I'm mostly walking but it's harshing my mellow. Also, it's cold without much prettiness left. I like the cold when I'm outdoors, but in my office, not so much.
Friday update: My friend says the East River is frozen over off Greenpoint. "It looks like a bunch of icebergs." Read More
The snow chronicles VII
January 2, 2014
We're supposed to get quite a bit tonight, maybe 6" & blizzard conditions. Trying not to get too excited. I relish having to walk backwards when the wind is so harsh you can't breathe into it. Bison can, cows can't, which is why the former survive storms that the latter don't.
The snow chronicles VI
December 19, 2013
Ice ribbon aka frost flower
51° isn't really putting me in the white mood.
But random facts do, like knowing that Saturn's rings are up to 99% ice. And thinking about cold things like polar bears, penguins, & ice ribbons.
But random facts do, like knowing that Saturn's rings are up to 99% ice. And thinking about cold things like polar bears, penguins, & ice ribbons.
The snow chronicles V
December 19, 2013
Precipitate is a 1528 word that means hurl headlong, probably related to precipice via Latin. Precipitation is 50 years older—the act of casting down. It took till the mid 1600s for precipitous to make its appearance.
We fling ourselves recklessly into the joy of snow.
We fling ourselves recklessly into the joy of snow.
The snow chronicles IV: bad neighbor
December 18, 2013
A third of the mural. See the door to gauge its size.
I remember something I don't like about snow, and that is when businesses don't bother to clear it away; eventually—predictably!—the snow turns to slush turns to bumpy, slippy, dangerous ice. The worst offender near me is the Rite-Aid on my corner. They usually manage to clear in front of their store on First Avenue but neglect the long 5th Street sidewalk.
I've been trying to get them to be responsible about it for years. Sometimes they lie: It's not our responsibility (wrong); no one told us (no one told you you're not two-dimensional? no one told you if you're on a corner you have two sidewalks?) Read More
I've been trying to get them to be responsible about it for years. Sometimes they lie: It's not our responsibility (wrong); no one told us (no one told you you're not two-dimensional? no one told you if you're on a corner you have two sidewalks?) Read More
The snow chronicles I
December 13, 2013
Whosoever will be an enquirer into Nature let him resort to a conservatory of Snow or Ice. —Francis Bacon
I am an enquirer into Art! Can I get there through Snow just as much as a naturalist?
We'll see....
I am an enquirer into Art! Can I get there through Snow just as much as a naturalist?
We'll see....
Dinner with friends
December 2, 2013
The first miracle was that it was so easy for the six of us to pick a date & time.
The second is nothing more & nothing less than the great enjoyment of being together.
Angelica's is a little less than miraculous these days, although a couple of us remember when it was the first & only vegetarian place in the neighborhood. The walnut-lentil paté is still good: "vegetarian chopped liver!" Alisa exclaimed.
The only thing missing was snow, but that's usually missing. Read More
The second is nothing more & nothing less than the great enjoyment of being together.
Angelica's is a little less than miraculous these days, although a couple of us remember when it was the first & only vegetarian place in the neighborhood. The walnut-lentil paté is still good: "vegetarian chopped liver!" Alisa exclaimed.
The only thing missing was snow, but that's usually missing. Read More
Snow jitters
November 27, 2013
My friend Steve, who lives in Spartanburg, SC, loves weather, snow in particular— something that's rare in the Piedmont area of the state where he lives; he's been known to drop everything & take off for the mountains in the hopes of getting snowed in. Steve spends a lot of time on arcane weather sites discussing weather patterns. He probably knows as much about meterology (not the study of meteors, oddly enough) as people with a degree in the subject.
Years ago, when he first got a phone after living in the woods Read More
Years ago, when he first got a phone after living in the woods Read More
Snow!
October 6, 2013
OK, the snow is out in western South Dakota, but it means my favorite weather is on its way here too. They had 2' in Rapid City, almost 4' up in Lead, in the Black Hills.
And I'm happy to be still in touch with so many of my friends from high school (and junior high and grade school). There’s so much that feels rootless in my life, but one thing that can’t be taken away is my past.
Although that's not true if you've been lied to, according to an op-ed in the Times: "Insidiously, the new information disrupts their sense of their own past, undermining the veracity of their personal history. Like a computer file corrupted by a virus, their life narrative has been invaded. Memories are now suspect: what was really going on that day? Compulsively going over past events in light of their recently acquired (and unwelcome) knowledge, such patients struggle to integrate the new version of reality. For many people, this discrediting of their experience is hard to accept."
Hey wait, I'm simply happy to think about the beautiful snowfall: I remember sitting on the porch of the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood, watching a thick but not serious snow falling on the spruce hills across the way, so warm that sitting outdoors was a delight.
It is what it was. Read More
And I'm happy to be still in touch with so many of my friends from high school (and junior high and grade school). There’s so much that feels rootless in my life, but one thing that can’t be taken away is my past.
Although that's not true if you've been lied to, according to an op-ed in the Times: "Insidiously, the new information disrupts their sense of their own past, undermining the veracity of their personal history. Like a computer file corrupted by a virus, their life narrative has been invaded. Memories are now suspect: what was really going on that day? Compulsively going over past events in light of their recently acquired (and unwelcome) knowledge, such patients struggle to integrate the new version of reality. For many people, this discrediting of their experience is hard to accept."
Hey wait, I'm simply happy to think about the beautiful snowfall: I remember sitting on the porch of the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood, watching a thick but not serious snow falling on the spruce hills across the way, so warm that sitting outdoors was a delight.
It is what it was. Read More