Belmar, New Jersey, February 2010

I am writing this note on the train going to Belmar on a sunny February morning. T and P recently bought a house in Belmar and have put the old one up for sale. Over the years, V and I spent many weekends at that house and I happily put in many hours working in the garden: making new flower beds, planting herbs (thyme, sage, lavender), replanting the day lilies and sunflowers I would dig out from empty lots, weeding, trimming, cutting down invasive vines, building a compost bin, raking leaves and planting bulbs in the Fall. Even though this time I know I will find the garden covered under snow, I brought along my camera to record what is perhaps my goodbye to the beautiful garden at the old house.

When I wrote to my friend M in December about being a bit distressed and depressed about the prospect of losing the garden in Belmar, which as I pointed out to her had in any case never been “mine” although I had certainly developed a possessive attachment to it (which, fortunately, T an P did not seem to mind), M wrote back about the “funny nature of our relationship with places.” M also wrote that I should try and remember and cherish all the good times I had working in that garden and that this was what mattered. True.

What would I miss most about New York if V and I were one day to move elsewhere? These places quickly come to mind: the Walter Reade Theater (for films), Housing Works stores (mostly for books), Demel (for tea breaks and those amazing cakes in the Viennese tradition), La Bergamote, the High Line (for walks), the Hudson River (again for walks along it), La Mama Theater (where we recently saw a great play “The garage” by the Zagreb Youth Theater), and a lot more places I cannot now think about. I imagine that we might discover new favorite places that would in time displace some of these, but others might not be so easily replaced.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to finding out what the new house looks like along with the new garden that comes with it, which I am told, and for now at least, is still mostly a large snow-covered patch of lawn.

The High Line, 4pm, January 9, 2010

One of the wonderful features of the High Line in Winter is that, in late afternoon, one can enjoy direct sun there while the streets below are long in the shade. Today, the temperature was below zero and the wind made it feel even colder. I quite froze my hands walking around without gloves to take these pictures.

The last picture in this series (below, of Vlada and I) was taken by my father in November 2009, which was exceptionally warm in New York. During that walk, my mother identified some plants on the High Line which she remembered growing in the city garden of my great aunts Gette and Dédette in Reims. These great aunts were the two older sisters of my maternal grandfather Henri. I only vaguely remember that garden unlike my grandfather's garden. It was a bit intimidating (to a young child) and dark, surrounded by high concrete walls. The plants in question have dark green, roundish leaves and thin stems bearing minuscule flowers. According to my mom, my aunt Gette used to call them "le désespoir du peintre" ("painter's despair"), a name that she probably had made-up for these particular plants in her garden, because of the almost non-existent flowers.

Manhattan, December 20, 2009

These photos were taken a day after a big snowstorm on the last day of Fall. The snow started falling on Saturday shortly after noon and lasted until early the following morning. The photos were taken on Sunday at the following locations (from top to bottom): 29th street, Bryant Park, the Cartier store on Fifth Avenue, and Central Park (Sheep Meadow and the Central Park Lake).

Happy holidays!

Range Ponds State Park, Maine

I love nature, trees, mountains and so, naturally, I also love lakes. These pictures were taken on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (November 29) in Maine. That particular day was spectacular and I had gotten up early to watch the morning sun slowly light up the trees on the property behind the Latkovich house. In the morning we took one of the dogs (Zorro) for a walk. In the afternoon, we took another dog (Sousa) for a walk in Range Ponds State Park.

Vlada and I had already been there last August on a hot summer day. We had then packed our bathing gear and driven to the State Park. The main beach had been packed but we had found a spot for our towels, coincidentally near a group of people speaking Bosnian and playing bocce. After swimming in the lake we had discovered a much more secluded beach (Frenchman’s beach) a short walk away from the main beach. That small beach was stunning, with beautiful sand and clear water and since it was further away from the parking lot and changing cabins is was much quieter there.

On that Sunday in November the entire State Park itself was very quiet. Some people had come to walk their dogs but most seemed to be heading back home when we arrived there. We walked to Frenchman’s beach and then walked back on a loop trail to the main beach in time to watch the last rays of sun cast their orange glow on empty life guard chairs.

Auburn, Maine, Thanksgiving 2009

These photos were taken in Auburn, Maine during the Thanskgiving Weekend (November 26-29, 2009). Most photos on this page are of Auburn Lake, a water reservoir for the cities of Auburn and Lewiston. The last photo in the kitchen shows preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner, with Vlada in the role of the chef and my parents as helpers.

Red Hook, Brooklyn, Sunday November 15, 2009

These pictures were taken on a sunny Sunday in November in the Brooklyn neighborhood known as Red Hook. On weekends a free ferry service sponsored by Ikea takes people from the boat terminal at Wall Street, in downtown Manhattan, to Red Hook, Brooklyn. The ferry ride is less than 15 minutes. Some folks bring their bicycle. Most of the riders are on shopping trips to Ikea.

Vlada and I discovered this quiet Brooklyn neighborhood in September this year after I was tipped about it by a friend at work. We liked it so much that we have been coming back to it several times since then, sometimes only the two of us, other times with friends or family. The waterfront is beautiful and peaceful with full-frontal views of the Statue of Liberty. We have yet to buy plants at the local nursery but have tried both Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies and limeade. They are both very good.