Apartment needed

A June supper

[Update: Apartment found!]

By now I have flower-bombed social media with this message and finally it comes to rest here:

SOS. Help needed:

The Frenchman and I have just learned that our landlord is not renewing the lease on our Harlem apartment. It expires at the end of August. He says he will be doing renovations in our apartment which will also involve ripping up part of the terrace.

While this apartment and location have come with problems, there are many things we like a lot (space, tall ceilings, terrace), and I am still stunned. We made it a home. The garden is looking very beautiful right now, lush, healthy and happy. I love sitting out there, and the thought of destroying it all at its peak is numbing.

To add to the bad timing,  I had just  booked a late-August, early-September trip to South Africa - to see my not-very-well parents, in their 80's. We had been planning this for a while. The Frenchman's ticket was to have been bought today. He needs a vacation. not a move. I have just booked and paid for a visit to the wonderful spring flowers on the West Coast of the country. That trip is probably toast.

Young sparrow

So. Dear New York City Universe, with matter-of-fact New York directness:

We are looking for a 1 bedroom apartment with a garden or terrace or roof deck (private outdoor space is essential), rent in the realm of $2,700 or less (we pay less currently, which might be a Harlem thing). To move in by, or before, September 1st. We are pretty open to neighborhoods, and know our rent will probably prescribe the hood. As tenants we are quiet, considerate, and leave the place better than we found it.

The jewelweed forest

If you know of a place or someone who might know, please get in touch using the Find/Follow tab, top right.

The tame mourning dove (the bravest of of six)

Hey. We may even move back to Brooklyn!

And then, after this, we will never rent again.

Hell hath no fury...

I like the squirrel. Goodlooking fur, fluffy tail and the stricken little clasped paw. And the squirrel annoys me, of course. Hogs the birdseed and digs in the planters.

"The" squirrel - I don't actually know how many there are. A few weeks ago one squirrel - which was certifiable, it must be admitted, it showed no fear at all - was either 1. Drowned in the East River or 2. Released in a Bronx Park, depending on which version of the story you believe.

Our landlord trapped him, after s/he (the squirrel) apparently: 1. Chewed a hole in the roof  2. Chewed a hole through a metal plate inserted to deter it from chewing holes in the roof 3. Was ousted from the ceiling where it had taken up residence by an exterminator who sprayed something "non toxic" into the hole 3. Was thumped on the head late at night after it descended to street level by a passing drunk guy, in front of a small audience  4. Escaped again to the roof, despite what must have been a significant concussion.

Where s/he was caught the next day in a humane trap.

Maybe s/he fired the shot that reverberated on the street at 1.20am last night.  I mean s/he was angry enough, surely? Payback.

It was a robbery, close to home. No one was hurt, and the police arrived very, very fast and stayed till 4am.

So if you see a squirrel in a grey hoodie, s/he could be the one. S/he remains at large. Free. Drowned and risen.

Bent on revenge.

                                                        _______________________________

                         Book a Wild Foods Walk

                      (no squirrels will be harmed)

Starting

Seeds have been sown. That's the easy part, really.

Sub tropical, all:

Nasturtium, purple pole beans, scarlet runner beans (saved from last year)
Cardinal vine, lablab beans, Malabar spinach (ditto)

Mostly things that go UP. For the birch screen.

A slow spring, but not unexpected. Hey, do you see the hot pink spot, bottom right? That is the Malabar spinach after soaking for a few hours. Fantastic colour.

Plant shopping is a challenge, locally, and there is mose def a niche for someone who wants to open a shop with interesting, well chosen plants for city spaces. Along the lines of GRDN Brooklyn. Except at night I'd turn it into a bar with botanically themed drinks and snacks.

And no, I'm not going to do it.

But I would be your best customer.

Spring in the hood

East 125th Street at Madison. 

Madison Avenue, looking south.

And Marcus Garvey Park. I climb the rock every now and then but the top is blocked off right now while paths and the clock tower are being renovated. I sometimes meet trios of cops walking down, And at the top are the solitary men. The park's lower regions are widely populated by cross sections of Harlemites, from kids and nannies to homeless people, to chess players, to geezers with stories, to basketball teenagers. Whereas the top is no person's land. Unless you are me, or the solitary men, or a cop.

Harlem winter

Since we have broken records in the last week, with a coldest temperature recorded at JFK...

...here's a look back at the last three weeks in our immediate Harlem hood.

 127th Street

Until February rolled round winter had been chugging along. Last February was snowy, too.

 Lenox Avenue

But this year, wham bam, we were cold-slammed.

 Lenox Avenue

Even the scaaaaaaary blizzard that made the governor shut down the subway fizzled out, in January. 

Nobody warned us about the next part.

C-c-c-c-c-cold. 

The derelict community garden on our block froze and the snow covered its trash.

 Yes, I have made inquires; no, I have not received answers. GreenThumb is "looking into it."

Even our steps had icicles.

Trees bent with iceweight.

And the flower sellers stayed open, keeping up a steady supply of forced bulbs for me.

The sidewalks are obsessively scraped and then are snowed on or iced over again. 

Wildlife plots its course.

And the stone steps up the rock hill of Marcus Garvey Park are a frozen watercourse.

Most parks have been cleared well, but Marcus Garvey, beautiful in many ways, is also semi-derelict, on these upper levels. The people who come this high are occasional dog walkers, drug users, sex-seekers and purveyors, police (an officer was shot up here last summer), and those who fall in the cracks (...er, me?). So. No salt for us? Maybe they want we should fall and break or heads. Problem solved.
.

Beautiful steps, up the chunk of rock too big to blow up, so that 5th Avenue has to move around it.

And home past old Atlah, whose pastor's habits have returned after an uncharacteristic Christmas time lull.

Yes, well. The nutter is still at it.

And so are we. 

In other ways.

Walk in the hood woods

Late in the afternoon, I went for a Saturday walk. It was very cold. Cashmere T-shirt plus cashmere pullover plus cashmere hoodie plus thick merino wool cable knit turtleneck plus long coat plus hood of hoodie under cashmere hat cold. Plus scarf-like-a-blanket (yes, more cashmere).

Cold.

Did I mention the knitted leggings under the jeans? For a South African that is Serious dressing.

The woods were empty. I crunched around for an hour.

Then I crunched back home. 

Hawthorn in Harlem

I have never seen hawthorn planted as street trees, before (as medium-sized trees they are perfect targets for tall trucks, which clip them as they drive by).

They line Lenox Avenue and are heavy with fruit, right now.

Boule weather

My boule moves are back. This was a good one.

And with coffee? Even better.

On the terrace the little juncos* have returned. The bean leaves are yellowing on the birch screen. The house is dark at 2pm.

Yes, it has arrived.

*Not junkies. We had some of those a few weeks ago, half passed out on the stoop steps but still managing to sell something to people who passed by. Pot, I imagine. Very low level and disorganized. I called the cops to move them on - there were five, and I did not want to deal with them myself. Did the cops arrive? No. "Do you see any weapons?" I was asked on the phone...Uh, no, I said. 

Maybe next time I'll just take out some sandwiches. Make friends.

Concord air

They perfume the whole apartment. From the tiny, one-stall farmers market on 117th and Lenox Avenue.

Seeing red - cardinal vine in October

The cardinal vine keeps putting out more and more flowers. Ipomea x multifida is an annual in our Northeastern climate, taking off in warm weather. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for any region where the winters do not freeze. It can be invasive.

It did its job, feeding at least one hummingbird (I like to think there were dozens more, when we were not looking!), and is giving me a lot of pleasure in the last hurrah days of the growing year. It is also contributing enormously to the success of our birch pole privacy screen.

"Where did the sun go?"

Soon, I'll be asking that, too.

And in other local news, thanks to the Urban Garden Center for stocking my book, 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life. It's nice to know it's in the hood!

_______________________________

* The Next Wild Edibles Walk *

Picnic in Central Park

After doing a bit of this, yesterday evening, in the Conservatory Garden...

...we did a bit of that.

While we ate Vince remarked, It's been a very long time since we had a picnic. 

He was right. The Harlem move knocked the picnic right out of us.

It's been over  a year since our last picnic, on the roof in Brooklyn. And before that, there was this one, with our healthy, happy kitty (who has been rallying  over the last few days).

In fact, there were lots of picnics.

And it has been a year, now. 

Perhaps we'll picnic more often.

___________________________________

* The Next Wild Edibles Walk *

East, through Harlem

Every few weeks I walk east, way east, through Spanish Harlem, to do some shopping.

If I had a garage for it and the gas, I'd be tempted.

Peppers, I think...

...I guess, after the divorce, you need the movers?

Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, babee. Byoodeeful.

Which makes me think of Pablo.