Cue the Callery Pears. This is 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. Reliably more interesting than 5th Avenue, Manhattan. Oh, maybe I just say that for effect. But I can guarantee that while I may bring back impeccably coiffed tulip pictures from 5th Avenue in say, the rarified atmosphere of Upper East Side altitudes, I will also bring back pictures of dog walkers walking face-lifted dogs...
Above, 7th Avenue, Park Slope. This cab must be lost. Never did tell my cab story, did I? The one about the cabbie who made us get out of his cab on the way to JFK, after trying to overcharge us a flat fee of $45, from Brooklyn, who got off with a fine after telling the judge that I used bad language and did not speak clearly when asking him to take Atlantic Avenue? Well, which was it? Did I use bad language which he implies he understood, or did I not speak clearly ??? Or maybe asking a cab driver to take Atlantic to JFK is using bad language. This route saves you at least $6.
Naturally I could not cross examine him because by that time I had been told by the Taxi and Limousine Commission that my testimony (on the phone, live) was sufficient and that I could go now, thank you. So I never heard his side of the story. What a farce. Oh, blablabla.
Back to flowers.
Probably "Okame", at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park.
Magnolia soulangeana in Cobble Hill, from Smith Street. Two construction workers, drinking coffee: What's she takin' a picture of? Da fence? No...no. Da tree! Da tree!...No... da flowuhss, da flowuhss!
What is this? It's humbling to admit that am still learning big American (?) trees sans leaf cover. The flowers are everywhere, now, an electric, intense, lime green. Bee-yootiful.
The magnolia opposite us, in the always-deserted garden where the movie was being shot last week.
And flowering quince on Congress Street, the same shrub that survived the quince thief a couple of years ago.
There are face-lifted dogs??? I suddenly feel very rural and it has nothing to do with my purple plaid flannel shirt.
ReplyDeleteI remember how beautiful the magnolia trees were in NY when I visited last spring. We only have a few in Brussels. And they're well hidden. It's such a pity...
ReplyDeleteOkame, I went passed these today, cherries in the mist, and they were quite lovely, dusky pink, I photographed with my eyes.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think I am fortunate not to have my camera or I would never get where I am going!
Hardly one feature alone certifiably ids the trees! I've got some bark down, many leaves, and little of the flowers. Still workin on my weed tree.
As lovely as the further pictures of spring are...and of course they're beautiful.....
ReplyDeleteI'm reeling from the cabbie story.
Is this not weird to anyone else?
Who won?
xo
I follow your blog avidly, Marie, but rarely comment (and I adore el gato negro, por supuesto) - but I must say that I have appreciated more blossom this year in our 'hood, in central England than ever before because of your recent posts - thank you.
ReplyDeleteI bet you'll know those flowers though next year, probably just because they caught your eye and curiousity this year. Humbling perhaps, but also kind of cool, because it means there's always something else to learn..something else to discover. that's how i look at it.
ReplyDeleteChartreuse flowers - Norway maple? Big, big trees, little explosions of lime-green?
ReplyDeleteDid the cabbie get busted?
Ooooh ... that quince color makes me very happy! Thanks as always for the pictures.
ReplyDeleteKeli'i
The Cab Ride:
ReplyDeleteThe cabbie was fined $350. He can appeal. He was found guilty of being 'discourteous' - making us leave the cab on a cabless stretch of Brooklyn on the way to catch an international flight. He was found not guilty of trying to overcharge us (this after he twice ignored my request to go a certain route, then set his meter to $45 once he had been persuaded to turn around). His representative was allowed to cross examine me, but I never even got to hear his testimony (which was later sent to me by mail with the verdict), nor to question it.
I remember the 'bad language' I used, now. I said to him, as we left the cab, with our luggage, You are a crook.
Sylvanna - they give the French bulldogs botox, too. At dog spas ;-)
San - I wonder why New York has more?
Frank - yeah, it does become a bit obsessive compulsive. I think that if I photographed less I would write more.
Jane - sigh. I don't know. He was such a schmuck. I should have known when I said good morning and was met with thundering silence that it would be a bad ride. But that's not too unusual.
Janet - you are great! Yes and yes. Thank you. Norway maple! They are stunning.
Thank you very much, Hazel - that makes me happy...
Sweetgum T - yes, it's true. Every year something new.
Ikaika/Keli'i - yes, it's saturated and unreserved :-) Tickle to the cat.
Dear Marie Viljoen,
ReplyDeleteThis is a friendly follow-up to our first message to you (May 2010), to warmly invite you again to list your blog on our Expat Women Blog Directory (http://www.expatwomen.com/expatblog/). Blogs like yours are excellent sources of information for relocating expats, so we would love to include it with our other 1,700+ self-listed blogs.
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