Newyorkamera.com

These tulips were blooming in the park in front of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Manhattan side, last week as I went into the city to make some deliveries uptown. The flowers are blooming in our yard too.

It was the beginning of a weekend of beautiful weather ( it’s rainy and cold again today).  There were a number of events on our island but I’ll show photos of that later, this entry is about our tree peony seedlings. Colman planted seeds that formed on the plants we bought;  the seeds take two years to visibly (they don’t show leaves the first year)  germinate and another 4-5 years before they bloom. This first photo is from our Green Dragon in a Pink Pool, it may have been one of the parents of our seedlings. I cut the flower because it had been beaten down by a shower and I wanted to trim the plant back a little too. This particular Chinese hybrid is always the first to bloom.

This next plant was the first of the seedlings to bloom. It has bloomed  three years now and the flowers have gotten better  and more plentiful each year.

The flowers have subtle flares in the center.

The next plant bloomed the first time this year.  It has a strange center and lots of petals.

A very pale pink, almost white flower is blooming its second time in the back yard.  It has a beautiful shape and subtle color.

Our primulas are in full bloom too, These are just outside the back door.

The white primulas are my favorite for their cut edge petals and textured leaves.

We have been unusually busy. On Wednesday morning, at 8 A.M., a 137 pound crate of paper arrived. I began to make a very large, guarded book out of it that had to be finished by the end of the day. At 6 or so I was cutting the last of around 60 leaves out of the book to finish it, wrap it and get it ready for pick up. There are no shots of the book, but I did make movies during various stages of it construction (for publication at a later date). Here I am folding the pages early in the morning and the finished book with its boards wrapped to protect them while my clients work on the interior. The book opens to display a spread of  54 inches.

These shots were taken toward the end of this week. The garden has been performing, our first tree peony opened Monday and the seedling, blooming its second time, had 4 very nice pink flowers.  This is Green Dragon in a Pink Pool.  

This is the seedling. It bloomed for the first time last year.  We’ve been told that it takes about 3-5 years for the seedlings to display their full potential. this one is coming along nicely. I like the dark pink flares in the petals.

Here  is the front yard as seen from the street.

The pink rhododendron, New Rocaille, growing with the chartreuse flowered Euphorbia myrsinites.

Ipheon is blooming, it has escaped the flower beds forming patches in what should be the lawn.

 In addition to class work, we are in the last two weeks of classes,  my dragonflies are in production for earrings that have been ordered by a gift shop. Days keep getting busier and busier.

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.

Saturday we went to visit our friends Bob and Patti in Pennsylvania. It was a cold overcast day but we had a good time going through Bob’s Greenhouse, visiting with other plant friends who came from Philadelphia and then later talking with Bob and Patti in their living room. 

Sunday was much a brighter better day. The rhododendrons in the front and side yard are performing beautifully.

In the side yard, our redbud is in full bloom along with the Ken Janeck rhododendron.

The first dwarf black iris bloomed this weekend. More will follow.

A japanese tree peony by the front walk, one of several flowers on the bush..

My Purple Velvet Smoke tree peony is blooming by the back terrace. The camera never gets this flower color right, it’s much a darker, almost black-maroon.

On the edge of the piano bed, one of my azalea seedlings, Elizabeth Wilson, named for my mother, is starting to bloom. It’s about 10 years old now and I should propagate it.

Near the Elizabeth Wilson azalea, Dream, another azalea, along with a rhododendron, Gordon Jones is in full bloom.  

This is a close up of Gordon Jones, this plant took a LONG time to establish itself. It’s only been blooming well the last 2 years, I think we planted it about 15 years ago. 

Over the years Colman has pollinated our tree peonies and planted a few of the seeds. This is a first bloom on one of the seedlings, I think it turned out well and we’ll look forward to next year when it should have more flowers. This plant is about 3 years old. 

Inside, in the late afternoon, the sun cast an unusual reflection from the studio into the entrance hall. It lit my sculpture and the collection of glass and pots on the shelf above out mantel. 

Colman is painting a lot, he’s started to work on small canvases. This one is of a net, it’s photographed on my work bench.