I'm making this post because I'm waiting on the phone to talk with someone about COBRA coverage. This is what I do all day lately, and it's not the most interesting blogging material. But perhaps it will allow me to sneak in a quick post.The photo above is my roof deck planter. I hastily threw in a few annuals in late May and put a net over them to keep the jays and starlings out. At the time we were having problems with the building watering system and I left for Italy in June thinking all the plants would surely be dead by the time we returned.
But when I finally got home and made it back upstairs (late July), our planters looked better than they ever had! Everything had filled in, the plants were lush (the basil has yellowed a little since), the tomato plants had become the size of a small tree (I apparently mistook Beefsteak shoots for Sweet 100s), and best of all, my mom's heirloom salad tomatoes had volunteered in the thick of the other herbs. Beefsteaks don't do so well in planter boxes (mine currently have a sort of rot), but the salad tomatoes are doing fine. Is this the law of benign neglect?
We also returned to find that a pair of Redtailed Hawks had adopted our neighborhood as their hunting territory. They may quite possibly be descendants of Pale Male, the famous Redtail who lives on Mary Tyler Moore's building on Fifth Avenue. If so, they are decidedly slumming in Morningside Heights. But either way, they get the same rich diet of New York City rats and pigeons, and I often see them at work around 6 a.m. when I wake up. (See below, and note the extended talons.)
But the photo above is the one that was the initial impetus for my post: I was cleaning out the science experiment cabinet and happened upon a mason jar that looked like the remains of an old experiment. At first I thought we'd grown some salt crystals, but then I noticed that the bottle was labeled, "Bleach." Then I remembered that I'd used a bottle of bleach to clean up after a bacteria experiment. So I poked the almost 1" crystals adhering to the bottom of the jar, and sure enough there were still bits of liquid bleach underneath the hollowed out pyramids. So I guess this experiment was a two for one!One last anecdote: CZ recently performed in a nursing home concert for the 103rd birthday of one of the residents. When she walked back into the apartment after the concert, she announced, "Well, now I've seen everything!"
"You mean the 103-year-old man?" I replied.
"No. I was walking up Broadway at 107th and I saw a Columbia student carrying a four-foot-long, clear plastic toothbrush!"
I'll miss this city.
3 comments:
Your garden box is so pretty! And that's really cool about the hawk, too--I love how you have observed and enjoyed city nature so well. It will be interesting to get a view of nature in Italy. In fact, it will be fun to get a picture of a *lot* of things re:everyday life in Italy! I can't wait, but I will miss you living in your city, too, Laura.
Susan <3 (I normally reserve those hearts for my kids, but I'll give you one today! :-)And by the way, Aaron--the smart aleck--would say about that little "heart" I just made-- "Huh? What? Susan is less than three?!")
Ah, thanks for the heart! And Aaron, as has been amply demonstrated in the past, would get along just fine with Bob, who would no doubt say something similar.
Reading your blog over the years has really changed my perspective on NYC nature! It is so neat that you've been able to observe hawks there. We have had a pair living nearby this summer as well. We've seen them a few times in some of the larger trees in our yard, but mainly I've noticed their presence by their calling. When the windows are open, I hear them often throughout the day. There is something about their call that really makes me stop and listen!
I enjoyed reading through Bob's talk. It is interesting to see how it all came together, seemingly pretty smoothly. I wish all of you the best with your upcoming move!
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