So, week before last, the Brit and I took ourselves a few days staycation and played touristas in our small town of New York City. The highlight for moi was our visit to the new Highline. For those of you that may not have heard of this new wonder, it is essentially this: a railroad built in the 1930's that elevated dangerous rail traffic 30 feet above pedestrians. It goes from about Gansevoort St. to about 34th St. It's been out of use since 1980, and has since overgrown with plants and weeds.
Some very ingenious folks in town thought it would make an awesome elevated park, and in 2002, my fair city agreed. Here are the results thus far:
I cannot explain to you how lovely this park is. But I will try.
I guess I can start with the breathtaking concept of keeping the park in touch with its historical roots. Railroad imagery abounds in the design. If you have ever walked along railroad tracks with the weeds growing through the rails, you'll recognize this immediately.
There are all sorts of little hideaways in the park, too. Despite the railroad feel, it is anything but a straight line. There are little turnoffs that lead to spectacular vistas of the Manhattan skyline, framed by the gorgeous native plants along the way. So much was in bloom when we were there (a spectacularly hot day, I might add), the vibrant blossoms framed the rest of the world.
But the Highline has little secrets, too, where it passes through buildings, offering shady respite to park-goers. If you're lucky, you'll be licking a passionfruit sorbet by the other end of the tunnel.
If you find yourself in Manhattan, please do yourself a favor and seek out this new treasure. It is not yet complete, but what's there now is totally worth your time.
And what about Shipwreck? Well, I'm in section 7 where you slap on the millions of beads, and kept on getting myself tied in knots. So the shawl is temporarily in drydock while I work on my recently-married brothers wedding blankie. Which, despite the relative ease of the pattern, I've screwed it up and have had to unknit it twice now.
I'm sorry, did you say Ice Cream? Funny you say that, because I just today made a batch of buttermilk-lemon sorbet. Oh, sweet mother of crap, it's good!
In Kitten news, the poor bastards got snipped this week. Sputnick came out of his singing and dancing, but little Lola had a tough time with the anesthesia, and will be a friggin' conehead for a couple of weeks.
Now I've been telling the Brit that Lola is the smart one, and here's a great example. She's got this bloody cone on her head and can't wash herself, which is driving her mad. So she used my hand as her de facto paw. She licks my hand, then rubs her face on it, just like when washing her face with her paw. Genius!
Finally, another refashion project is on the dressform. The Brit is getting rid of a few shirts who's fabrics I quite like. As in this one:
Here is my proposed refashion. I have pintucks running over the shoulders to take in the width there, down to the boob. Then I pick it up again under said boob. The same tucks are taken on the back, down to the waist. It's just pinned thus far.
Thoughts?
