A Walk in the Park, a very long one...

A Day in Central Park

October 2010

I didn't realize how big Central Park was till I saw it from the air and walked it from top to bottom and side to side. I think I spent a good 4-5 hours walking it.

A view of Central Park from my plane ride home.:

Right before crossing into the lower side of Central Park:

A closeup of the Lady of the fountain:

Many lovely bridges to be seen and crossed over.

The Gapstow Bridge was especially nice at night.

It's funny to see all the high rises bordering the park.

There was a big family celebrating an event in this pretty gazebo.

I tried not to intrude.

Another secret deserted area. I'm guessing wisteria?

Must be gorgeous when leafed out and in bloom.

The Staircase of Bethesda Terrace:

I was bewitched by the details in just the staircase:

Bethesda Fountain with its Angel of the Waters.

A pretty spot with lovers rowing boats behind it.

One lover wasn't rowing his boat very successfully :P

Under the stairs you'll find a the lower passage that has great acoustics.

I caught a family gospel group singing a capella. :)

A view of Bethesda's Terrace:

Conservatory Water with model sailboating:

The large Alice in Wonderland statue next to the Conservatory Water.

It took quite a wait to take a photo without little kids

crawling on the big mushroom for a photo. :P

You'll see and hear many musicians playing around the park.

Most of them were very accomplished. I took my time and stopped to listen to a few.

They had me humming tunes as I walked around. I think this is the Greyshot Arch Bridge.:

Another different bridge, The Greywacke Arch.:

And then I saw an ancient piece of Egypt. It was donated to receive aid to modernize Egypt.

It's from around 1500 BC and located behind the Museum of Modern Art.

The clearest side of the heiroglyphs.:

And welcome to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

This is the largest body of water in Central Park. It's HUGE! I walked around half of it.

Another lovely bridge looking onto the Reservoir.:

The other side of the Reservoir looking towards the opposite end with the high rises where I started my walk.:

I walked all over to find this last stretch of hidden gardens, The Conservatory Garden.

I got lost and walked across and then back to find my way.

Here's the English garden section with this mini tribute to the English author, Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was surprised to come across this because I grew up reading the Secret Garden and The Little Princess and watching the films based on them.

The Italian garden with its wisteria pergola.

I wish I could see and smell this when in bloom.:

The French garden with the Three Dancing Maidens.:

The Harlem Meer at the top corner of Central Park.

Some swans were swimming around.:

Would've been nice to know Central Park's 51 blocks long, and at the top most end of it my hotel was about 60 blocks away. So I walked 120 blocks and who knows how much I zigzagged throughout the park. It made a lovely day though and I can't wait to go back

Bathroom Renovation

Before and After photos of the Bathroom

Before:

This is also the only before photo we have from when the previous owners lived here. Not much has changed in this bathroom since they first bought it minus new tile and maybe the paint. If that's a new tub I'm not convinced. The walls were white, the drawer hardware was awful and falling apart too. The lights were atrocious neons too.

After:

We went with green and white which complemented the slightly salmon tile. The green is a little bit brighter than we expected, but it looks good to us at least. My shower curtain even matches with some pale grene leaves. Our towels will match one day. :P


The lighting makes a huge difference in here. Andre had to do alot of handy work to get it right. After taking the cover and removing the neons, the wires were on the far side of the box. This means he had to construct a new hole in the center to run a wire so the light would be center.


I just happened to find this at a local artisan's show. It was made by a husband and wife team. He cut the metal and she would paint it. Then he would make the carved design which on this is a flock of birds. It just so happens to have the perfect green to match the walls. I wish it photographed better. This does not do it justice.

Don't forget the nice hardware update. This is just a temporary redo for here. At some point we'll probably renovate the entire thing with new tub, toilet, and sink cabinet. I wish there was room for a big tub, but we'll see. That'll be another year.

Master Bedroom Renovation

Our Master Bedroom Before and After Photos:

Before with a Country feel:

We only have the before photos with the previous owner's furniture, but you can see how big a difference some paint and updated furniture can change a room.

The color looks like a light blue, but when we moved in the big trees outside had leafed out blocking most of the light during the day. The room looked like a seafoam color or as my brother in law called it 'pool color' which sadly fit.

This picture still makes me laugh knowing you can see the toilet from the bed. We keep that door closed...

We put up a high chair rail with 'No More Nails', but since our walls are slightly crooked we had to use a few for where there were wall gaps. The top of the wall and ceiling is a light taupe brown with a much darker brown below. During the day it looks rather dark from our shade trees, but at night it's rather warm feeling and cozy. After painting Andre sanded and nailed floorboards and then revarnished them. They look almost like new again with some shine.

After with a Traditional Modern feel:

Sometimes the upper color looks almost like a light, pale mauve color. And we finally got our new furniture several weeks after living in the spare room. We took down the vertical blinds which they painted to match the seafoam room. The closets were the nice seafoam color IN & OUT. Thankfully it's now fully white like it should be.

It's nice to have all the woodwork be white again and not seafoam.

It's nice to wake up and not see the toilet... :P Originally the doors were not painted. We sanded them down and gave it a good prime and coat.

And this is the most recent picture of the master. We got a golden bedspread to match our curtains. We also decided to put up our triptych painting that Andre's cousin's wife painted which was gifted to us by Andre's parents. It brings in a splash of color.

Around the House Spring 2010

Spring has really been showing itself and it's almost summer now. My hyacinth and crocus have come and gone and I only have 2 tulips left.

I've really grown attached to my Forget-me-nots (myosotis) which is one of the many plants my mother in law has gifted me with. They've thrived so much where they're located in front of my last two pink tulips. The flowers are so delicate with a pretty light blue and the occasional lavender one.

It's funny to see this photo. This was taken of our house about a week before we closed on it. The garden bed in front doesn't lookt he same at all. It just looks like bushes to cover the lower window and you can see the side of the house where there used to be nothing. Asides from the gardening, we added a hand rail so people wouldn't fall the 4-5 feet to the garage level.

and to imagine all these huge rocks were buried in that garden bed all over.

My front garden bed has been doing so well since rearranging it last year. These boulder rocks were mixed all in the bed and we had to dig them out. I removed a rosebush and another blooming bush and the golden bush had a sister which is now right behind it trying to survive. Allt he plants are new plants asides from the golden bush, a type of spirae. There's iris on the far left sprouting next to the blooming phlox, the myosotis in front with what's left of my crocus and hyacinth around it, the tulips, some sedum which blooms yellow star flowers in front of the hydrangea plant, and some geraniums and 1 lonely but surviving jack-in-the-pulpit plant in back. There's also an astilbe that's barely visible among the new mulch behind the hyacinth leaves. The astilbe and the hyacinth were the only plants bought here. My mother in law gave me so much to do last year with all her plant gifts.

This bed did not exist last year when we bought the house. I had too many plants and nowhere to put them. It's a mix of soloman's seal, the tall leafed things on the far right from my neighbor, some lily of the valley from my neighbor too but you can't see them. Half of the rose bush from the front garden is here. It split in 2 and seems to be surviving with a few leaves. There are also more geraniums and some day lilies. I'm very proud with how this side looks.

I love my little tree circle. Maybe in the future it will expand to some other shape if my hubby allows it one day. It's still trying to come together. The squirrels tore up and dug up everything I planted there last year when I created the circle, but a few things survived including 2 baby hosta, some wild violets, and some mystery plant. This year I bought some pretty violets on the right that are purple and yellow and white. On the other side is a "Caramel" Heuchera which the squirrels butchered, but new baby leaves are already sprouted. It's recently been mulched and hopefully the squirrels will dig in it less. Got to love finally being able to put out my solar lights, but I think they have too much shade.

This area needs some help. I recently created the little step down on the side but I'm thinking of putting a baby cedar in the whole behind the green gutter extension or Something. I can't decide what. Maybe another spirae and prune it to be more slender? I'm very happy with the little step down. There's more sedum above, with baby hosta below. I'm waiting to mulch the upper area since I don't know if I'm going to plant a few things there. My rose bushes, the only plants that were around the house when we moved in, are there and I might plant low growing plants between them...or maybe my tomato plants? Is it odd to plant tomato plants between roses? :D

More to come and it's only just Spring.