Williamsburg

Saro and I took a faux vacation day in Williamsburg today. She's considering a move to a new neighborhood and I've never been.  Adventure!

 

First Brooklyn Snow

If  you could have seen our last apartment, you would understand why I am so obsessed with the weather and outdoors in our new apartment in Brooklyn.  We lived in a cell, a box, a cave.  Now we are surrounded by windows, light and SNOW!

Backdoor door stop.

Me and the kid enjoying our white yard.

Raccoon

Brooklyn can feel like the suburbs or even the country some times compared to Manhattan.  Especially when you have a raccoon running around your backyard.

Fall in Park Slope

Such a stunner of a fall day today.  I really appreciate Park Slope for all of the trees and plants. I hate to sound gushy, but we LOVE having the park so close by.

 

The kid and I spend a lot of time bumming around the neighborhood, looking for dogs and just exploring.

I went a little crazy and bought three GIANT pumpkins for carving. I kind of forgot that pumpkins would be tasty for squirrels.  Maybe the pumpkins will look scarier if they're half eaten.  

Cherry-gedon

Our garden is beautiful. A lot of it has to do with my mother-in-law who had free reign to do whatever she wanted back there. The bones were there when we moved in, but it needed work.

The lot faces north and is lovely and cool in the afternoons.  Perfect for hot summer days in July. A lot of the temperateness of the yard comes from two beautiful, old cherry trees. We heard in the spring they are truly amazing, covered in delicate white blooms. I'll report back next year on the matter. For now, we are enjoying the shade.

Well... we would be enjoying the shade if we could stand to be out there.  There is nothing like being pelted with rotting cherries day in and day out. I spend a good portion of my time scrubbing the deck and wiping the furniture. While the baby has been enjoying watching the birds and squirrels fight each other for the tasty red morsels, I have been less pleased by all of the bird and squirrel shit I've had to clean up.

I think today might have been the worst of it. I hope today was the worst of it.

Rogue Gardeners

Another absolutely fascinating, and just a little bit strange, occurrence in front of our building today. I'm at work in my office as usual. Window open. Suddenly I hear,

"It's just awful. Just awful. It's ruining my property value. Disgusting."

I look out and see an old couple standing in front of my building staring down at that little plot of dirt that seems to be in front of everyone's houses in Park Slope.  This plot is our plot, well, my landlord's plot. Right there outside the window. Ours is full of green plants.  I'm guessing they are weeds of some sort.

Then.....

The old man proceeds to cut down all of the plants.

What is even more strange is almost every neighbor comes by at some point. 

"Hey there, so-and-so. Up-ending another garden, eh?"

"Keep up the good work, so-and-so!"

It's not my property and it's really not my business, but oh man, stuff like this gets up under my craw.  What if I WANTED those tall, green, weedy things in that plot of land? What if I don't care about so-and-so's property value?  And most importantly, what gives this old dude the right to come onto someone's property and just start digging??

I couldn't keep quiet. I went outside and said, "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?"

"Well, my name is so-and-so and I'm the local garden gnome around here."

Say. What???

"Sir, the next time you have a problem, would you mind leaving me a note on my door instead of uprooting another person's property?"

"Sure, sure."

We'll see. I have a feeling this isn't the last we'll see of the garden gnome.

Apparantly I live in a crack den

We are finally starting to get settled into our new place here in Brooklyn. Sometimes we bumble around, not knowing where to go with so much space. I have friends that moved out of the city to the 'burbs. For the first year they pretty much lived in the kitchen / family room which was the size of their living space in their old place in Brooklyn. It's kind of the same thing. Your body can't figure out where to go and what to do in so much space after living in our little Tribeca box.

Having this much space in relation to my work truly is amazing, however. My office has two huge windows facing the street. I have endless sunshine and breeze at my disposal while I'm attached to my computer.

This street-side view makes for some fascinating eavesdropping. Today I head a group of people walking down the street toward our building. One woman, with one of thicker true Brooklyn accents I've heard was leading a group of out-of-towners (fanny packs and cameras slung around the neck gave them away), giving them a tour of the neighborhood. 

Overheard....

Tourist Woman (stops directly in front of my building and points to the entrance leading the lower level of my apartment): So tell me about these kinds of apartments.

Brooklyn Tour Guide (standing directly below my office window, pointing at my apartment): Well, these kinds of apartments are completely illegal. You remember me telling you about my husband and how he was a crack head? Well, he lived in one of these places for two years with a bunch of other crack heads and the landlord couldn't kick them out because it was an illegal apartment.

Tourist Woman (staring blankly ahead): Oh.

Oh indeed.

I was laughing so loud in the office I was shocked they couldn't hear me from where they were standing. I thought about my baby girl downstairs, curled up in her crib, along side some sordid crack fiends. The lady was clearly a bit hazy about real estate laws in New York City.

I'm starting to feel a bit like an old Brooklyn lady, hanging near the window, waiting for more neighborhood gossip.