"Astorian" April

Now that I'm working from Astoria, I've made a decision that I should re-embrace the original theme of this blog. I know I say this frequently, but knowing how fickle I can be in terms of blog subject matter, I'm really only going to try to restrict my posting about Astoria to a single month. Seems doable. I'm calling is Astorian April. Yep.

Actually, to already dilute my resolve a little, I'm not just going to talk about Astoria, but I am going to try to stick to Queens. For some reason, it always annoys me when New York based publications (New York Mag, Time Out NY, the Times) only ever report on Brooklyn and Manhattan restaurants and events. On the one hand, it's cool, because our restaurants and events aren't overrun by New York's hippest, but on the other hand, I feel like this borough's awesomeness and diversity gets overlooked. But the thing is, I do it myself. I hardly ever venture out of Astoria into other neighborhoods of Queens. Whenever I do, lately mostly for Make-a-Wish interviews, I always happen on cool looking places that I make a mental note to check out later. Only I never do check them out. Instead, I read New York Magazine and Time Out New York or talk to friends in Brooklyn and Manhattan about what to do on the weekend and inevitably find myself on the N train crossing a river. But no longer! Well, for April anyway.

To kick off the now clearly mislabeled Astorian April. I'm featuring some shots of Astoria in spring. During the hour I used to spend commuting, I've now taken to going for runs in the morning in Astoria Park. It's nice because the weather has been so nice, and it forces me to make sure I get out of the house at least once before lunchtime. On Sunday, instead of running, I brought a camera (and a photographer) with me to capture a couple of shots of spring in Astoria Park.

These particular tulips are growing in front of a war memorial at the edge of the park. There is a sign saying it's intended to be a quiet and meditative area, but on the other side of it is the public pool (yes, Astoria Park, has an Olympic sized pool!) where hundreds of kids go every summer. So I guess it's only a meditative zone outside of July and August.

Every single day it has been sunny and lovely except the day I decide to take pictures. This looks more like autumn than spring, but you'll just have to overlook the dreariness.

See--spring!

Further evidence of spring.

Does anyone know what these are? The flowers remind me of poppies but the foliage is different.

So as you can see, it's quite lovely-like in Astoria. Luckily, my readership isn't so high that I have to worry about too many people coming here.