wild parrots

I am totally and completely infatuated with the wild Quaker Conures in Edgewater, NJ. They are so much fun to watch and photograph. I have one myself, she's 12 years old and a vicious, lovable little wench who will kiss you one minute and try to rend a hole in your lip the next. Unfortunately, not knowing much about the breed when I got her 12 years ago, I didn't know how busy and con/destructive Quakers can be, and the unfortunate part is that in captivity they often get bored no matter your efforts to occupy them. Poor Gertie, my Quaker, has managed to pluck all her feathers out as a result of boredom, and no end of attention and treatment from me and some of NYC's best exotic specialists could make her stop...and believe me I tried everything short of sending her off to the colony in Edgewater. So I get to enjoy the plumage on these guys, and can go home and play with my little plucked chicken.

why would i ever go out on saturday, if THIS is how i spend saturday?

imagine if this is what you saw when you came home

years ago, probably more than a hundred years ago, but my history of the spot is a bit foggy, this was the entrance to a grand estate. the owner was one of the biggest developers in manhattan. however, this developer built his estate out of wood - obviously he hadn't read 'the three little pigs' - and didn't plan for a possible fire. well, a fire broke out in his glorious house, and he hadn't built a water pump strong enough to pump water up to his house to extinguish it. his house burned down and now his estate is fort tryon park. the park itself was designed by one of frederick law olmstead's sons, and if you know your new york history, olmstead designed central park. central park is a masterpiece of man emulating nature, but fort tryon is a beautiful symbiosis of man and nature. the park was in such disrepair until recently that nature had almost taken over most of it. bette midler stepped in in the 1990s with her new york restoration project, and added the spit and polish necessary to make it one of new york's grand parks again.

i ask you to imagine if this grand driveway were part of your morning commute, how would it make you feel? this is pretty much all that's left of the estate.

the heather gardens

i'm going to show you the historic entrance to fort tryon in a moment, but i wouldn't do justice to my favorite park if i didn't include pictures of the heather gardens and the beautiful seasonal flowers.

i am such an old lady

I spend all weekend in the park feeding squirrels and taking pictures.

my favorite picture (recently)...any botanists out there?

Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? Is it a Columbine?

the jimmy juice experience:::a photo essay

My friend Jimmy does not ordinarily allow anyone to take his picture, I have numerous shots of him with hats pulled down over his face, scarves pulled up over his hair, or sneaky out of focus pictures taken on the sly...until the other night when the spirit of Bill Nolan's truly bad ass car overtook him, and he staged this whole photo essay a few Fridays ago.

NO PAPARAZZI PLEASE!!