Inspired by food blogger Nupur we went to Jackson Heights last Saturday to check out the Indian neighborhood. I love to be a tourist in my own city! There was so much fresh and inexpensive produce, and of course I couldn't pass up the deal on mangoes by the box ... and then it was Mango Mania!

I made mango sorbet, mango habanero salsa, mango jam and mango chutney. And of course there was plenty of mango to eat.

I made the mango jam with 50% of sugar to the amount of fruit and added one cup of homemade juice from tart pectin-rich apples plus one cup of sugar and the juice of one lemon. The turned out fine. Fine, but not spectacular. I don't quite know what is lacking. Mango can sometimes be a bit one-dimensional. Maybe lime instead of lemon would have given it a bit more zing. Interestingly, the girls said that it was too sour. Lime zest might be interesting, too. And for some reason I keep thinking anise. Raspberries would definitely be great! Maybe I should go back and get another box. Or two.  5:44:00 PM    

I am in between visits from in-laws. Visit was good, I think. It is good for grandparents to spend time with their grandchildren, especially in view of health problems.

I focused the last week on my garden(s) (what am I talking about??? I have a postage stamp and three window boxes ...). In the back, I put the Japanese Maple in. It looks gorgeous. I still need to thin out the canopy a bit. I put in Sweet Autumn Clematis to keep the other Clematis company. They can mingle and we will have some nice bloom in the fall. General cleaning-up, put in some Impatients to brighten things up a bit. And I moved the Bleeding heart that had gotten so enormous it was crowding everything else.
I took the pansies and primrose out of the window boxes and planted them under the blueberry bushes. You never know, we might still get some mileage out of them. For me geraniums are the quintessential window box flower but since they don't get enough sun here, they actually never look really good. So this year I did something drastically different (and ironically, this was the first year I managed to overwinter my Geraniums). I assembled some houseplants that can't stop multiplying and added some colorful coleus. (I will post a picture once they have filled in a bit). Basically, there is Sweet Potatoe Vine and Wandering Jew trailing down the front, two different types of coleus and a polka-dot plant in the middle, along with a white Impatients (some flowers, I figured), and in the back there is a spider plant and a fern. It looks pretty good with unusual contrast of foilage.
I put my tomatoes and peppers on the roof and a few herbs and other things. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, I worked for five hours climbing up and down that ladder with my backpack loaded up with plants and compost. I thought my back would break. The potting soil I had used last year had not drained very well so I really needed to refresh the pots with lots of Perlite and compost.

And speaking of compost, I had to move that around too, because my bins were full. Again. I wish I had room for a third bin.

So much for was my gardening craziness. I also repotted most of the houseplants and put the geraniums in pots on the steps. I will post pictures eventually. The bizarre thing is that while I dig around in the little dirt I have, all around me neighbors are putting in paving and building walls and covering up that last bit of dirt as if it were the evil enemy. Oh well.

I still have to do the tree-pit in the front. That's the toughest habitat. Dogs, people, cars, salt in the winter. Whenever I have an extra plant that looks tough I put it in there. Last fall I put in a hosta and it came up this spring. Then someone actually dug it up and took off with it. I hope it found a good home.

Culinary Stuff

I delegated most of the cooking this week to my spouse. Being cooked for is nice. I could get used to it. We went out once to Little Giant again. I had wild asparagus for the first time. It was amazing. Pencil-thin with relatively large tips. Very green and fresh tasting. Apparently some guy from Vermont drives around and sells it to people in the know. I don't think he will be coming by my house, though. The other noteworthy thing I had there was a Mojito with rum they had spiced themselves. I managed to coax the ingredients out of the waitress. Speaking of drinks we were at a BBQ today and I had excellent home-made beer. It was seriously good beer. Almost makes we want to start brewing. But my neighbor said he had been tinkering around for four years and pouring a lot down the drain. Hmm, maybe I can trade some canned goods? Or some spiced rum?  11:05:17 PM    

They had five children. When we first moved in, the three younger kids were riding their tricycles on the sidewalk. We watched them grow up. We invited them to our wedding. We admired their first grandchild. We moved away. Whenever we came down to the "old neighborhood" we walked the block and often ran into a member of their family. We don't go down there so much anymore. The neighborhood is so hip now and we have settled into family life. We haven't seen our old neighbors in a while, a few years maybe.

I just learnt that their youngest son, now 16, was fatally stabbed. I read it in the paper and it took me a while to put two and two together because he had a different family name. But his sister's somewhat unusual first name was mentioned. I checked Newsday and Daily News online and unfortunately, there is no doubt.

I also learned that the three younger children were adopted. The family adopted them after their mother died in a car accident. This is a family full of love, a hard-working and good family. The boy was a good kid. My heart aches when I think of their pain.

This is the second time in a couple of years that someone we know personally has died through an act of violence. This city can be so hard.  9:53:01 PM    

Today I took a break and wanted to have lunch among the Magnolia petals. As I was carrying my tray outside a bird came flying towards me from the neighboring yard. I thought it was a mourning dove at first because of its size. But when it landed on the tree in my yard I saw that it it a speckled chest, a long beak and was a different bird altogether. It somehow resembled a woodpecker but was not the red-headed kind I had seen in the yard in years past. It did not sit still long at all but I did get a good look at it and it was quite distinctive.

I went inside and got the children's bird guide. On the page after the woodpecker was the Northern Flicker. That's clearly what it was. I know this is not a rare bird at all but I had never seen one before, so I am very excited.

I had heard its cry for a while (and also in a near-by park) had not been able to see it. There is a very dead tree two yards down and I had heard some hammering for a while but it was not as forceful as a woodpecker's and I couldn't see a woodpecker either. I hope the flicker will nest in the dead tree.

Another species to add to my list of urban wildlife sightings. This year we have two very noisy blue jays who give the crow a run for its money. Sparrows, starlings, mourning doves and pigeons of course. Last year we saw woodpeckers, robins, and cardinals.  2:04:33 PM    

No, no, don't even think of it. I did not make these. Whatever artistic talents I may harbor, sadly I don't think I will be up to that level of execution. These beauties are courtesy of the Cupcake Cafe, thanks to my "connection" there. If you are impressed by the artistry, click here and you will see many more wondrous creations.

I am usually a bit suspicious when I see pastries that look too pretty too eat; often they don't taste all that good. I was very surprised by the Cupcake Cafe cupcakes though. They really taste like homemade cupcakes. The butter-cream is butter-cream there is no doubt about it, but in conjunction with the cake it manages not to be too heavy, and best of all, it is not too sweet. I am not an advocate of food coloring, but I think it has been put to good use here.  9:43:27 AM    

Seven antique paneled oak doors resuced from dumpster.

Little Giant restaurant, 85 Orchard Street corner Broom Street, the best meal out we have had in a long long time. A tiny, lovingly hand-made place. We hope they will survive and make it. More later.  11:30:01 PM    

(View from Harlem Meer)

We had a saffron day yesterday. Friends called us up and asked if we wanted to meet them in the park. They were driving in from NJ and have a 4-year old too. They suggested meeting at the 72nd Street entrance to the park, but we said "Naah, come up here, much nicer and less crowded." So we met up by the Harlem Meer.

I do not really want to add another description of The Gates, there are plenty of them out there already. Just a few personal impressions: Usually they are referred to as "fun," and they certainly are immensely joyful and spririt-lifting but at the same time they struck me as formal, processional in their series. I was especially surprised by the effect of the pleats supposedly "he put the pleats in there for the effect of the light shining through." (Some knowledgeable fellow-viewer told me). I found the pleats created a formal yet understated sassy look: reminiscent of the pleats on a formal living-room curtain, but also of the pleats on a prim school-girl's skirt.

What I like best about The Gates is that they are not an artwork you stand in front of and absorb passively (although it is pleasurable to spend a good half hour gazing at them from a good spot, say at the Harlem Meer, and observe the changing light, changes in the movement etc.), but in general they are to be experienced, walked through and around looked at from various angles and spots etc.

I did find that they integrated into the landscape, in way they seemed like mushrooms to me that had sprouted up all over. Walking south from the Meer to the Conservatory Gardens I appreciated little yellow flecks in the distance, suggesting a continuation and connection between our Northern rustic corner, often overlooked, and the "Upper East Side" stretch of the park along Museum Mile.

I was surprised by the variation in the arrangement of the Gates, both in their spacing and in their width. Climbing up the look-out on the South side of the Meer, they were so narrow that only one person could walk through comfortably at one time.

So, yes, it was a wonderful and great experience. The North corner of the park was populous but not overcrowded, about the same amount of people you would expect to find on the first nice Sunday in spring.

I will go back again on a weekday morning by myself and spend more time walking around.  9:29:02 AM