When It's Been One of Those Weeks....

My week has been spent between a Manhattan apartment housing two sons, the streets of Manhattan, finding quiet spots to write, traveling (that's what I'm doing again today, to see some cute Southern grandkids!) and the last thing I've been doing is cooking....

This is what REAL Manhattan tulips look like.... Being nibbled on by squirrels or rats or bunnies, but I don't happen to see any bunnies in Manhattan. I'm just sayin'...

And in the center of Lower Manhattan is this.... among several sweet churches, and when I went to a 5:15 PM Mass.... there were about 45 people there with me. In the middle of the week, at a time when most of the financial district wants to go home... That church had 5 Masses/day during the week....

Now that's pretty cool!

And these are NOT natural tulips, they're landscaper planted... and so pretty!

Notice that nothing has eaten these leaves, LOL!

The Tall ship in the New York harbor at the Seaport...

Gazing at Brooklyn (and Cate Nolan!!!) from the seaport at the base of Manhattan... I bought a donut from a food cart to go with me on my walk.... (Come on, we know I'm not a health nut....) And he gave me two. So I had one and shared one with a lovely homeless lady on a bench.  Who says there aren't nice people in New York? :)

The spring crews have arrived to change the flowers in MONSTER SIZED PLANTERS along the roadways! This was along Liberty Street... Or Pine.... Note the trees.... The only trees down there are ones like these. Potted in ginormous planters. These guys, a crew of six, I think, were gang-planting and mulching 1000's of pansies, a burst of color in a drab setting waiting for spring!

I told them I was putting them on the World Wide Web... And they laughed. Nice men. And when we finally got a nice day, when the weather and Mother Nature cut us some slack on Friday, look at the crowds of school kids in the financial district! Go them!!!

And the beautiful cemetery outside Trinity Episcopal Church, the famous church that overlooked war battles and has stood strong in the shadows of destruction....

Next week we'll talk about the cemetery.... the 18th century gravestones... how we take so much for granted.

So not much cooking going on. We ordered in for supper and grabbed bagels from Leo's bagels for mid-day.... and coffee.

Always coffee.  :)

I bought fruit from a fruit vendor, browsed in Dress Barn (so delightfully normal!) helped a homeless man squelch the fire in his jacket....

Yes, he was smoldering in multiple places and folks just walked on by.

I couldn't walk by. I'd like to think it's because I'm actually a human.

We put the fire out.... and chatted.

And I was amazed at how many people saw him with his coat smoldering while he was wearing it... and just gave him disparaging looks. As they passed him by...

"When I was naked, you clothed me. Hungry... you fed me. In prison and you visited me..."

So the guy's name was Mike. And he came to NYC because of a lady friend.... and he hopes to meet up with her next fall, once he's pulled himself together.

Bless his heart, may God bless him and all those struggling with the kindnesses of folks like you and me.

And that's it for this particular week.... I'm being treated to North Carolina barbecue on Friday and I can't wait! Let's see how they do it in North Carolina....

And maybe we can do barbecue comparisons between NC and our TEXAS Mindy!!!! :)

Ruth Logan Herne is living her dream of writing sweet books from her castle in Western New York where it is still cold and gray and somewhat sullen-looking skies...  and a weekend ice storm:

Nearly 1/2 inch of ice formed before the temperature climbed.... and then the trees shook like wet dogs in the wind, shaking off their chunks of ice!

And the monster mountains of snow lining parking lots and shelved in north-facing swales are melting.... again.

And that makes Ruthy happy!

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