"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.

Springtime in photos

This weekend was the first weekend of the spring that hasn't been terrible. Weather-wise, that is. As such, I'm going to post pictures from my weekend of lovely weather despite the fact that it's now Tuesday. I meant to do it yesterday, but wouldn't you know, the weather was nice then too. It's actually lovely today also, but I'm making the sacrifice and posting pictures instead of basking in glorious, glorious sunshine. I can't guarantee thoughtful commentary on said pictures though. You might have to wait for winter for that. Or until it gets so hot that I prefer staying inside with air conditioning. Spring just isn't conducive to blogging.

On Saturday I went to the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was the perfect day for it. And like all festivals in New York on beautiful days it was insanely packed. Brooklynites are enthusiastic about their cherry blossoms.

Straight up was the only view of cherry blossoms I could get that didn't have hoards of people in the way.

So many people. So many cherry blossoms.

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens has a number of non-cherry blossoms. I risked my life kneeling to get these shots. Crowds of flower-viewers don't stop for anyone. Then again, I may have tripped over a couple of kneeling nature photographers myself, so I fully sympathize.

After paying the $15 entrance fee and walking amongst the crowds for an hour or so and eating a slice of cherry pie, my friends decided the sunny day would be much less crowded if we just walked around the park for free.

That's what we did. Observe Prospect Park. Try to guess which curly-haired silhouette is me.

On Sunday, it was yet again nice (sometimes New York surprises me). This time I journeyed north on the train upstate to Breakneck Ridge. My friends and I didn't complete the full hike because it's 5 miles mostly uphill and we're whiners, but we did get some lovely views of the Hudson Valley along the way.

This is the only view I seem to have gotten. All of the others have people in front of them. And speaking for myself, hiking is not when I am at my most photogenic. For one thing, putting a backpack on inevitably causes me to hike my thumbs through the loops and jut my elbows out as I like to imagine mounties do. I call it my hiking stance, but it really shouldn't appear anywhere publicly.

That about wraps up my weekend of gorgeous weather. I hope to have at least one more of these before it becomes hot and humid and walking outside makes me feel sweaty and dirty. Not that that doesn't photograph well also.