Weekend before last, I made a trip with Colman up to the Natural History Museum for a tour of the Hall of Gems given by my Gemology teacher, Michael, from FIT. The trains we usually ride are cancelled on Saturdays while the terminal at South Ferry is under construction. We thought we would be able to transfer to the A train at Fulton Street but when we got there the A train wasn’t running from there, we had to go to Brooklyn to catch a train to the Museum. While at Fulton Street I saw these large ceramic tile decorations for the first time.
Moving to the A train platform we passed this Iron Gate which has been pressed into service as a subway decoration.
Turns out we had to ride a train into Brooklyn to catch the A train we needed to get to the museum. After getting onto that A train we thought we were finally on our way. At 59th street the doors closed, after we were in motion the conductor announced we were to “go Express” to the next stop which was 125th street. You can imagine how happy I was. . . After catching yet another train we finally arrived at the stop near the museum. The station has been decorated with these enormous ceramic and mosaic murals. Here I am standing near an octopus.
The next mosaics are more typical of art in the subway. I think these were closer to the stairs to the street or they may have been on the down town side, I don’t remember right now. We were planning to stop at FIT on the way home, so I could get some pieces I had forgotten to take out of the polishing machine during the last class last Thursday.
Walking down 7th avenue, we stopped at one of the weekend flea markets, these pearl buttons caught my eye. Looking at the photo now, I see that I should have bought some of them. I wanted all of the stars and geometric pierced circles and couldn’t see buying just one.
This past week was the peak for our azaleas.
Fay and Robert’s azaleas across the street were putting on a show too.
In the front yard, our tree peony, Godaishu was in full bloom, this is one of about 6 flowers.
On Wednesday, I met with Sandy and her friends before heading off to my last Gemology class. L to R, Jan, Marjorie and Sandy. We haven’t seen each other for 50 years. Sandy’s mother found me on the web about 3 years ago and we have been catching up in email since then, this is the first time we have been together in half a century. We made plans for them to visit Staten Island on the following Sunday.
It was final project critique time in the casting class on Thursday. Here’s the array of our projects, mine is the big gray bracelet near the center.
I was taking a photo of Karen, my teacher when another student from another class (finishing a final project at one of the benches) decided that she’d take a photo of both of us with my camera. It was a surprise ( I didn’t know anyone was watching) and a good idea. I’m glad she acted on her impulse.
After the critique and grading we went down to the FIT Galleries to see the Senior Show where a reception was being held. I was surprised to see a lot of work displayed that I had seen completed and critiqued in some of my classes over the past two years. It was a happy moment, but a little sad because I realized that some of the people I had been working along side were graduating and wouldn’t be there next semester.
Sunday arrived and Sandy visited with Jan and Marjorie. We had lunch at home and I took them to Snug Harbor to see the greenhouse and the Chinese Scholar’s Garden.
Here they are on the floating bridge near thew Moon Viewing Pavilion.
The garden has really filled out, it is very lush now with all the new leaves.
The water was very clear and almost still, the carp glowed and moved slowly through reflections of the surrounding rock formations.
In one of the open air garden ‘rooms’ two Mahonias were covered with new fruit. I love these plants. The fruit follows yellow flowers and will turn frosted navy blue later in the year.
