Last Vestiges of Winter

It is late March in Northern New Jersey, and dirty piles of leftover snow have just about melted away.  Along back trails of the Ramapo Mountains, streams are flowing again creating interesting shapes and patterns in their melting ice. Sandy, our faithful hiking companion back then, was exhausted after this particular late March day ….in 2006.

Thanks for Viewing. Comments are always welcome, and zooooooom in for a closer look!  M 🙂

PANDEMIC BLUE

            Yes, a new world-wide color: Pandemic Blue. Particularly those in urban areas have likely noticed what is one of the effects of significantly reduced airline and surface-traffic exhaust.

             Doesn’t the sky in this image, taken this morning in my suburban backyard,  look …nice?  Pandemic Blue. AND, as a bonus, if you are into “star-gazing” or astronomy, check out the night-time skies. Yes, …it’s more transparent! Pandemic Black

A small silver lining to an event that has become almost incomprehensible worldwide! 

Thanks for viewing. Hope all is well with you and yours during this thing! And you can zoom in for a closer look.  M! 

 

 

Fly-Over Salute to First Line Heroes

Most of the country, and particularily cities like New York, continue in a state of shut-down due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Today, a most welcome and meaningful show of support was heralded simultaneously by the Navy’s Blue Angels, and Air Force’s Thunderbirds, seen below flying from just south of the George Washington Bridge, to The Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan.
I joined about 30, mostly masked onlookers atop a basalt outcropping near Goffle Road, Hawthorn, NJ, to witness the event some 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) distant from Manhattan. Close-ups are seen through ground haze, and a 600mm  lens.


Thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome, and zoom in for a closer look. M 🙂

A Snowy Trek to see Lucy

          Lucy Kaplansky, a Greenwich Village honed musician and singer-songwriter with pitch perfect vocals and acoustic guitar mastery, has impressed us during a number of local performances over the years. This past Saturday, as snow fell on the city and suburbs, my city savvy son and I made the trek, first by car in N.W. Bergen County, NJ, to the local train station. The end of the line is Hoboken, just steps away from the ferry terminal where we waited a few minutes for the frigid ride across the Hudson River to the “Battery” terminal (WTC area.) A cold half mile walk thru accumulating snow and partly along the water front, brought us to the pleasantly impressive “City Vineyard” restaurant on Pier 26.

         Preceded by an excellent dinner, Lucy would perform flawlessly with her music and stories, right there on the Hudson River, and practically in the shadow of One World Trade Center.

This  is  how  we  got  there…

          The last image above is through the window next to our high top table while watching the show, – overlooking the summer deck and Jersey City beyond. 

   City Vineyard is marked near the upper right on the map above.

        After the show, with my son leading the way, we would take a cab uptown to Penn Station, where the trains would bring us back under the river and eventually to the car (via Secaucus Jct.) and the final slippery road home. 

Note that these are i-phone images.

Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome. M 🙂