For The Birds!

There I was at my usual spot on Central Park West after a morning bike loop of Central Park, reading Open Throat, when a pigeon jumped on my knee and wouldn't budge until I stood.

I definitely prefer the skittishness--and beauty--of the blue jays at my after-walk reading spot in the Ramble.

Jane Fonda Fan Club played an impromptu concert at the band shell.

Their groovy noodling wasn't bad.

"Benoit" a series of bronze sculptures by Bruno Catalano along Park Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood.  I caught them during multiple visits to the dermatologist.

"Blue de Chine" 

"Benoit"

"L'Etoffe des Heros"

"Voyage a New York"

There were plenty of exhibits to catch up on at the Met after returning from Florida, including "Sleeping Beauties."

"Ammonite" by Bea Szenfeld (2014)

Matthew Barney, working in terra cotta, smeared the walls of the Gladstone Gallery as part of his latest work.

With "Seasons" at MoMA, Alex Katz, still going strong at 97,  provided the backdrop for my favorite selfie of the summer.   Relatively speaking, I'm a spring chicken.

Somebody at the Flag Art Foundation came up with up with the clever idea of celebrating the 60th anniversary of "The Swimmer," a short story John Cheever published in The New Yorker, later adapted into a film, with a themed exhibit.

"Pool" by Cynthia Talmadge (2022)

I'm always amazed by how few adults I see swimming in the ocean.

"Coming Home After Swim" by Katharine Bradford (2024)

The Brooklyn Museum exhibited more than one hundred views of 19th-century Tokyo, when it was known as Edo.

"Maple Trees at Mama, Tekona Shrine and Linked Bridge" (1857)

Osmegeos taught visitors to the Lehmann Maupin Gallery how twins dream.

A traveling show at MoMA's PS1 showed some overdue respect to Pacita Abad who never saw a major exhibition of her work in America during her lifetime.

"Subali" (1983/1990)

Underwear embroidered by a mental health patient was among the items exhibited by the American Folklore Museum in a traveling show that explored "institutional psychiatry."

A retrospective of Des Evlin's designs for the theater and concert tours at the Cooper Hewitt persuaded me that her work is often as interesting as the headliner's.  I first became acquainted with her work at Miami Superblue.

The Cooper Hewitt also displayed some interesting political posters from Peru by Jesús Ruiz Durand. 

"Make the Most of Your Land" (1968-73)

There's always something to catch your eye walking the streets of Manhattan.  The elegance of the Chrysler Building camouflages its serious real estate woes with commercial tenants complaining of rats and murky water.

Despite this beautifully painted and upholstered chair's ability to stand en pointe, somebody was discarding it on the Upper West Side.  I was tempted to claim it, but there's no room left at 47 Pianos after 46 years of garbage picking.

Although I worked at the New York Public Library for five years, I never noticed the lions beneath the upper windows on the 40th Street side of the Beaux Arts masterpiece.

Even Manhattan's graffiti works out!

This magnetic Tin Man flyposting adorned the IRT subway station at 23rd Street.

More bikes for the collection.

Long Island City

Murray Hill

Anthony and John served a delicious Turkish meal the night before 

. . .  Thom and I had almost the same meal at Magda's and Joe's place in Quechee, Vermont, but no hot air balloons floated past in Baldwin.

We also visited the Billings Farm and Museum

. . .  which displayed the incredible array of entries in a quilting bee contest.

Just across the street, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park offered a lesson in land conservation.

After returning from Poland, I took Amtrak tot Randy's in New London

. . . before continuing on to North Andover to celebrate Audrey's 70th birthday.  Despite the rain, I took my first dip in her and Tom's heated pool, about twice the size of ours at the Folly.