Visiting the Big Apple

I went down to New York City this weekend, the occasion was the Empire Quilters Guild biannual show which I loved and have just written about on my other blog. I was there once last year but have now been gone for nearly two years. Changes always abound. As the Peter Pan bus [the only direct way to get there except for driving or spending a mint to fly] crawled through Harlem and then down Columbus Ave. and then 9th Ave., the changes I noticed were just a few of the ones I'm sure are everywhere.

First of all Harlem looks utterly middle class. I know that's not true of all of it but even Target has moved in, and some of the more upscale stores are there in the neighborhoods of well kept brownstones. On Columbus I saw a Brooks Brothers that was not there before but more importantly I saw a bike lane. These bike lanes are being added to many streets -- thanks to Mayor Blumberg. My friend Ellen, who is a very wonderful hostess, lives in Chelsea at the edge of the gallery area and really just steps from the expanding Highline park -- which we strolled on my previous visit -- when the weather was quite a few degrees warmer. New building abound, both residential and gallery spaces. I love, even when the wind is very nippy as it was, being on foot on the sidewalks of New York -- the variety of people sharing those sidewalks is a great pleasure and so is watching the commercial windows.

I will write in a few days about an unexpected experience that I am still digesting, I was reminded how those of us who are whatever we call ourselves "older", "senior" "been there" have long vistas of the changes that happen to people and businesses.

Meanwhile I urge anyone who reads this to click on the Purelandmountain blog in the sidebar here for an on-the-spot summary of what is happening in Japan.