Only Maddie's Missing Now

We were ready for T to get here today. He arrived around 2:00. Before that, H and I checked out the windows at Bergdorf's.

We were glad to see T! He was happy to be here.

We had lunch and then walked down 6th Avenue and enjoyed a street fair.

I love the way the other buildings and the clouds are reflected in the building windows. We stopped along 53rd at some artists' booths and then H noticed that an exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum was by an artist she was familiar with, Henry Darger. I have just learned, since this trip, about "outsider artists." These are artists who create "outside" the boundaries of culture. While in Baltimore last spring, we visited the American Visionary Art Museum, a museum dedicated to self-taught artists. H became very interested after that trip with outsider artists and Creative Growth, a facility in Oakland, CA that nurtures, through art, those with disabilities.

This braided "rug" was made with Wonder bread wrappers.

Clementine Hunter

Judith Scott, an artist (now deceased) from Creative Growth

After the American Folk Art Museum, H went to get a haircut and T and I went to MoMA and rested in the Sculpture Garden. This was our view. "Does this marble make my butt look big?"

H brought this home on Friday. She has one more week.

Dinner Saturday night at Milos.

Wide Awake

The City That Never Sleeps.

Trash Day! I hear the trucks really early in the morning on trash days. Trash bags are piled high on the sidewalks the evenings before. Thank goodness the sanitation workers are not on strike.

T comes in tomorrow!

Man's Best Friend

I didn't do very well today taking pictures, although I saw a couple of things that were interesting. H and I were on Park Avenue around 58th Street and, low and behold, the woman with the Uncle Sam tattoo walked by! This time she had on high-waisted jeans and a red and white striped shirt with a red ribbon in her hair. She still looked like she was dressing from the 40's. So strange...it makes you wonder how many people you see more than once but you just don't recognize them. Below is a picture of the woman I am talking about just to remind you. She was on 6th Avenue around 57th Street when I saw her the first time.

The second thing I saw was MADELINE! I quickly texted T and asked him if maybe Madeline was missing and had done the Homeward Bound thing by walking up here to find me! I had to stop and take a picture of this little dog because she looked so much like Maddie. I am ready to see her! Hopefully she will remember me and won't punish me for leaving her for so long.

"Oh, Motha. I am finally here in the city and have been looking for you everywhere!"

Melting Pot

We were walking to the park today to eat our lunch and H said, "By now, do you think we've lost our accents?" I said, "Yes, definitely. I've gone a whole 24 hours without being laughed (or even smiled) at!"

It really has been fun to hear all the different languages. On the streets we have heard English only about half the time. I don't worry about my accent. It's just the carrot in the huge stew pot of the city...or maybe it's the cornbread you eat with the stew.

After lunch we headed to The Frick Collection. They are very serious about their art and the Frick mansion it is housed in. The ladies' room was the only place you could take a picture so H did.

These are the gardens on the east side of the museum.

Some people are way too serious even for The Frick. Exhibit A.

We left the Frick and walked over to Madison for coffee. We found the cutest little shop, Bel Ami, where we got coffee and a caramel macaroon. We should have bought iced coffee; the paper today said this was the hottest July on record!

Wow! How great is this? A lemonade stand right on Madison Avenue near 67th Street, some of the most expensive real estate in the country! I failed to look at his prices and to see if he sold any special gourmet flavors.

Then we headed back to the apartment where H painted for the rest of the afternoon. She's working on a watercolor of the elderly man from the park yesterday.

Serendipity

This was really a great day! I walked in the park and jogged around the reservoir and then met H back at the apartment. We made a picnic lunch and walked over to the Poets' Walk in the park and sat on a bench and ate. H took some pictures with her good camera.

Always there are artists and musicians out on the sidewalks or in the park or on a subway platform trying to earn some money. Here is a guy who was loving those drums!

This family was singing under the bridge at the Poets' Walk. The acoustics were incredible. It was lovely.

H liked the workmen at the top of the fountain. There are always people from the Central Park Conservancy working on the grounds.

This was the best day! H says it was her favorite day so far. While we were walking through the park, we saw lots of people H wanted to paint. She told me she wanted to ask them if she could take their picture. I said, Ask! All they can say is no and then we'll just walk away really fast, never to be seen by them again. It's a BIG city! So that's what she did. And we met some of the most interesting people. H would tell them why she wanted to take their picture and no one refused. H loved the way this guy looked with his hair and cigar and dog.

These people were the best. H asked the elderly lady if she could take their picture. She said sure and then we sat and visited with them a bit. The lady is an artist too and so was her dad. She studied with an artist from the Ashcan "school." She told H not to let anyone try to influence her away from her own style but to paint as it comes naturally to her. The man in the picture is 103 years old! These folks made our day. We saw them as they walked slowly out of the park. They live somewhere right along 5th or one of the side streets. I can imagine them spending time each day in the park when the weather is good. Talk about serendipity!

We walked over to the Conservatory Water to take pictures of the sailboats. These are mostly H's pictures. I love how the buildings along 5th Avenue are reflected in the water.

There is a plaque in front of this statue of Hans Christian Anderson that reads something like "Given to the Children Who Lost Parents on 9/11."

H is taking an independent study this fall on Degas. The class will take a trip to LA to visit specific museums. She spoke with her instructor before she left for the summer and was told where to see the most Degas here in NY. We spent part of the afternoon at the Met photographing and making notes of all the Degas paintings and sculpture.

After the Met, we walked over to Madison and had coffee. We were kind of cutting up with the camera here, trying to take artistic pictures!

Our friends Terri Merriman and her girls, Morgan, Madison and Chandler, were in New York for a week. We saw them last night at dinner. We walked over to Rue 57 where they were eating and we just visited. Tonight we had dinner with them at Serendipity.

We ordered two of the the Forbidden Broadway Sundaes for the table. Ridiculous.