Wednesday, December 31, 2014

City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York on a chilly New Year's Eve.

Yes, wintry weather has finally reached us.  I assure you all that I will not be amongst the folks gathering around Times Square waiting for midnight!

I do want to share just a few recent city views with you as this old 2014 draws to a close.



After many months of construction and installation behind visual barriers, new fountains in front of The Metropolitan Museum of Art have now been revealed.

The circle of spouting water is programmed to dance through a loop of choreography.  Tourists seem to enjoy having their photographs taken at the fountain edge.


While the plaza renovation was underway, there was some discussion over whether the food vendors who park their stands along the Fifth Avenue curb would be allowed to stay amid the new splendor.  I hope that you can see their brightly colored umbrellas just behind the arc of the dancing waters.

Over in Central Park this is a subdued time of the year.  Preparation has been made for a time yet to arrive when the lake will freeze.


Neutral colors dominate with brighter accents provided by visitors' warm clothing and the for-hire carriages and pedicabs.


I think that the subdued colors are beautiful in their own way.  There are lots of interesting textures to add to the visual interest.  Perhaps you all can detect a few red leaves and berries.


It was mid-afternoon when I took my walk, and cloud cover was thickening.  Everything seemed softened.  Rain seemed possible.


The following photograph shows the tall buildings of Central Park South, the road at the southern edge of the Park.


Walking home through the Strawberry Fields area, I was delighted to see this brave little cluster of snowdrops.  Earlier in my walk, I had seem evidence of hungry little squirrels nibbling on other tender shoots that had poked their heads above the leafy ground cover.


Earlier today watching television, I saw spectacular New Year's fireworks broadcast from Australia.  It's fun to watch the stroke of midnight arrive around our world and in many cases to realize that some of you all are already celebrating 2015.

I'll cling to our old friend 2014 for a bit longer, being somewhat reflective of all that has transpired in the past year.  All in all, I think that 2014 has been very good to me, and am particularly appreciative of the many connections that I have been made via this little blog.

Thank you all for your visits and comments.  I am looking forward to seeing you again in our Happy New Year

56 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing such beautiful pictures. I discovered your blog this year and am so pleased to have done so! Have a wonderful 2015! x

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    1. Thank you so much Abi! I hope that you will be visiting here often in this brand new 2015.

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  2. And a Happy New Year to you also. Love seeing the winter season there. Looks the same where I live. Can't wait for spring.

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    1. Donna, I appreciate your New Year's wishes and also your impatience for spring. How I hope that this winter will not be another super cold one like last year. xo

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  3. Thanks for your great photos and Happy New Year from Australia!

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    1. Thank you Janice! How great to have you visiting here all the way from Australia. I look forward to seeing you here again. Best wishes.

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  4. Happy New Year to You dear Frances. Thank you for the snowdrops. I love them so and to see them so early was a real treat.

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    1. Gina, those perky little snowdrops were just the perfect New Year's gift from nature.

      Happy 2015! xo

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  5. Dear Frances, thanks for the stroll around Central Park. Here too, winter had arrived and we had snow and frosty nights. Actually, I had the same reflections, that 2014 was good to us. Happy New Year to you!

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    1. Bayou, I'm looking forward to lots of visits during this brand new year. Also looking forward to bundling up this afternoon for my first 2015 walk around the neighborhood.

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  6. Snowdrops already - too early for ours in This part of Wales. Love your views of Manhatten. Best wishes for 2015

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    1. Mountaineer, it seemed too early for ours, too. Seeing them was a lovely surprise.

      Happy 2015! xo

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  7. Happy New Year! 45 mins left of 2014 here.

    Hope next year is a good one for all of us xx

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    1. Celia, we are now just over ten hours into 2015, and I so agree with you...hoping this new year will be good for all.

      xo

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  8. Oh - those snow drops. What a treat they are, like your beautiful blog posts popping up now and then to make us all smile. Happy New Year to you Frances!

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    1. Thank you so much for your visits and kind words, Carol. Without making it a formal resolution, I do hope to be able to post frequently in 2015. Time will tell....

      xo

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  9. Sue, I'm looking forward to visiting over at your place many times in this new year. It's always a treat! xo

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  10. Happy new year from Rotterdam, the Netherlands and lovely to see the snowdrops in Central Park!

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    1. Jolanda, it's lovely to have your New Year's wishes all the way from Rotterdam. Isn't the blogging community a marvelous thing!

      xo

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  11. Happy New Year, Frances! I love the photo of the building across the pond -- such a contrast! And snow drops! I'll have to take a look outside -- I planted some last fall. I look forward to more of your words and pictures in 2015! xox, Vicki

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    1. Vicki, when I walk around the Park, I could almost imagine I was walking down a country path...until I look up past those tree tops.

      I do love Central Park for the nature it allows us to experience.

      Happy 2015. xo

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    1. Elizabeth...there weren't many in bloom, and I do hope that the late bloomers will be strong enough to weather winter that will visit them.

      See you soon. xo

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  13. Thank you for sharing these Central Park pictures, I loved the beautiful buildings against the blue skies and the snowdrops in flower.
    I look forward to visiting you in the coming year, seeing your interesting photos and reading your thoughtful words both here and as comments on my posts, dear Frances. Wishing you a very Happy New Year.
    Helen xox

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    1. Thank you Helen. Could 2015 be the year that I actually do some paper pieced quilting? Too soon to tell.

      xo

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  14. Happy new year Frances. It was lovely to meet you in 2014 and I look forward to visiting NYC through your observant lens this year.

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    1. Thank you Gina. I hope to increase the frequency of my posts this year. Not a true resolution, mind you, just a hope or intention.

      xo

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  15. Happy, peaceful and magical New Year to you, dear Frances. It is a joy to see snippets of your New York life here.

    I quite agree with you; winter brings its own beauty. I am happy with the muted colours she gives us. And I see snowdrops! Oh, Frances, they are my favourite flowers, thank you!

    Stephanie

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    1. Stephanie, I was so surprised to see those snowdrops in bloom. These sightings usually take place in late Jan or even Feb, and involve the brave beauties being strong enough to poke their blossoms up above a cover of snow.

      I do wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us this time around. I will keep my camera ready.

      A very Bonne Annee to you dear Stephanie. xo

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  16. Your park is endlessly interesting, Frances. The views in the winter are stark - the buildings in the photo look, on first glance, like some sort of Russian palace.
    Happy New Year!

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    1. i agree with you, Pondside. The Park really has many faces through the seasons, and some of the impressive apartment buildings on the Park's edges do have rather fantastic tops.
      Best withes to you for 2015. xo

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  17. I wish you a happy year 2015! The best! Lovely pictures from your city...just lovely...
    Warm hug,
    Titti

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    1. Thank you very much, Titti. it's so much fun to see images from the island where you live, as well. Your photographs have given me quite a good idea of what life is like there, around the year's seasons. This is something I would never have known without having connected with your posts. xo

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  18. Frances we wish you one amazing 2015. Thank you for sharing the views of NYC. We hope to visit your city someday! Groeten Heleen en Corry

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    1. Happy New Year to you all, too! I look forward to sharing more of NYC with you in 2015, and also making lots of visits to your very inspiring and creative posts. xo

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  19. Frances, I was introduced to your blog, via a mutual friend, and I am in awe of your prose and photography. What a delightful pleasure starting 2015 with you. Happy New Year to you.

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    1. Welcome, and thank you so much for this comment. I am hoping to post a bit more frequently this year, and look forward to having you visit again. Cheers!

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  20. Happy New Year to you, Frances. I do love snowdrops and very much enjoyed your photo. Strangely, I had mixed feelings about seeing the fountains outside the Met Museum because it's now not as I remember it - but that's a good reason to return, isn't it?

    Thank you so much for your very kind comments on my blog. Here's to 2015, to new opportunities and, hopefully, the chance to meet up again.

    With love and best wishes,

    Chrisx

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    1. Ahh Chris, the new Met plazas and their fountains are quite different from what was there before. Maybe I can take some more photographs of the entire span of the front of the Met to give you an idea of the change. I really don't think it is particularly attractive, or in keeping with the building's facade. But I am not the one who paid for it. xo

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  21. Lovely post, dear Frances. Once again it strikes me afresh just where you live! I somehow often forget that you are so THERE...so in the very middle of NYC.
    Lovely pictures, as always.
    I took down my cards today, and carefully packed your latest with the others kept over the years.
    Very glad 2014 was kind to you and hope you have a wonderful 2015.xxx

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  22. Jane, thank you for your kind words. It's funny, yes, I do live Here, yet sometimes feel that I don't always connect to NYC as much as I wish. And so...a New Year's resolution, or perhaps a gentler intention, is formed.

    xo

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  23. ...and a very Happy new year to you too...I found you via Lola Novas blog and very happy to have done so too.
    Nyc is one of my favourite cities, so to see your all your photos and beautifully shot too, is the next best to being there...
    bestest wishes
    Daisy j x

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    1. Welcome to you Daisy, and many thanks for your comment and signing on as a follower.

      Your very own site is lots of fun to visit, too. As is Lola Nova's, of course.

      Cheers!

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  24. Such early snowdrops! I wonder if I have missed any clumps here. I know I planted some, but they don't always take very readily. Your card is still delighting me on the kitchen shelf. All the others have been taken down now.

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    1. Oh, thank you so much Lucille. There is something so brave about those little snowdrops. Today was a grim NYC day, temperature below freezing, with scatterings of snow flurries, to boot.

      I went to see Mr Turner at my favorite neighborhood cinema, just across Broadway from Lincoln Center. I really enjoyed this movie, and having seen the Tate's Turner show, and the V&A's Constable show on my London trip added to the pleasure.

      xo

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  25. Happy new year frances. My snowdrops are right on the edge of flowering here in North wales. I am glad last year was a good one for you. I do hope we meet in 2015. Looks like we might even be in New York in September so let us hope so!

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    1. Elizabeth, we have had a below freezing day, with snow flurries in the mix, today in New York. I do hope those brave little flowers over in Strawberry Fields are truly tougher than they look.

      I also hope that 2015 might be the year that we do get to meet each other after all these years of blogging. On either, or both sides of the Atlantic, aka The Pond.

      xo

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  26. A very Happy New Year to you Frances, and may 2015 bring you only good things.

    Aren't snowdrops just the most perfect harbingers of spring, I do hope the ones in the park survive the icy weather yet to come.

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    1. Annie, since it has been very, very cold here today, I am hoping that the snowdrops that I saw at the weekend weathered the freeze and snow flurries, and that the other members of their botanic tribe will have wisely kept their heads down and will be showing their blooms when I next take a walk in the Park.

      xo

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  27. BRRRR, Frances! I know how that New York winter chills to the bone, but the snowdrops seem to love it... such hardy little souls. Sending you an excellent new year, here in the Hollow, Jeri

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  28. Brrrrr indeed, Jeri! Today is a day off for me, and I will be braving the sub-freezing temps to get my errands done. Hoping to be back home indoors in early afternoon to warm up.

    Thank you for your new year's wishes. xo

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  29. A belated Happy New Year! Your snowdrops are more advanced than mine here in London but they're on their way. Snowdrops are one of the true pleasures of January for me.

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    1. Jane, it's turned much chillier here than it was on the day I saw those snowdrops. I wonder if their surrounding mates are managing to bloom. It's too cold to take a walk over to Strawberry Fields to check!

      xo

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  30. Happy New Year to you Frances, I hope it's a good one. The snowdrops are very early, don't they just lift your spirits? x

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  31. Thank you for the new year wishes, Val. I am a bit astonished to realize that January is almost at its half-way point!

    Hoping to see more snowdrops soon! xo

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