Good Planets: Home

Posted on 2007-03-15 by admin

Street tree in front of our house

Trying to catch up with some of my blogospheric responsibilities, I realized I totally forgot to link back to Good Planets!

I submitted two photographs from the front of our house. The one above is the street tree in front of our house. Street trees have a tough time, and I worry about it. I’m thinking about plantings I can do in the tree pit (aka “hell strips”) between the sidewalk and the curb which will help the tree. We’re also going to need to make a cutout for the trunk, something I’m sorry we didn’t do when we had the sidewalk replaced two years ago.

Bees and Crocus tommasinianus in the front garden

This one’s a bonus shot of my first Spring flowers, in the front garden. These are part of the heirloom garden I’m building up in the front yard. The crocus were swarming with bees that day. I counted five bees when I took the photo, though I can only find three of them in the photo now.

Friday, March 16: Sustainable Flatbush Kickoff Party at Vox Pop

Posted on 2007-03-14 by admin

This Friday, 8pm-midnight, Vox Pop is hosting the Kickoff Party for Sustainable Flatbush:

Each month (or so) Sustainable Flatbush will present a workshop, lecture, or film on a sustainability-related theme that can benefit our neighborhood… and then, we party!

Future topics and events to include:
– energy efficiency for apartment buildings, houses, and small businesses
– understanding NYC’s arcane recycling laws [I don’t think they’re that arcane.]
– local food, slow food, food justice
– flatbush community garden [This is in very early planning stages already. I’ll post about it when things are more defined.]
– fair trade
– livable streets
– bike month NYC
– freemeet – electronics recycling event
– permaculture and native plants [Yay!]
– rainwater harvesting [Woo-hoo!]
– green roofs [Go team!]
– composting [Yeah, baby!]

SOUNDS AND VISIONS
– Drummerman brings the musical goodness: Brazilian funk and Samba classics, New Orleans grooves, and Latin/Caribbean beats!
– Keka provides a whirlwind visual feast of thematic imagery to feed your head!
– and… if the stars align correctly… live musical happenings!
plus, food and drink specials all night!

Vox Pop is at 1022 Courtelyou Road, on the Southwest corner of Courtelyou and Stratford Road (East 11th Street), just one block east of Coney Island Avenue.
Subway: Take the Q train to Courtelyou Road station, just 4.5 streets away.
Bus: B23 or B68.

Red (#2 of 8)

Posted on 2007-03-13 by admin

Hibiscus, from South Midwood Garden Tour, July 30, 2006

The second of eight installments on the way to creating a photographic rainbow to use as a banner for the blog and other branding opportunities. Pink was the first, and there will be six more: orange, yellow, green (easy!), blue, indigo (tough!) and violet/purple.

“Red” turned out to be harder for me to define than “Pink”. It’s not a simple color. There are so many different flavors of red. Of course, there’s the brilliant, vibrant, almost crimson that screams RED, like the Hibiscus.

There are less saturated reds, like brick red:

Front Porch Detail, from The Front Garden Evolving, January 24, 2007

Some leaves:

Virgina Creeper, from North Carolina Arboretum, October 9, 2006

And even algae:

Algae Pool in Rock, from North Carolina Arboretum Bonsai House, October 9, 2006

I’m having a particularly hard time figuring out where red leaves off and orange begins:

Cormorant on Torii in the Japanese Garden, from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 23, 2006

Maple Tree, 91 Marlborough Road

There are many more flavors of red in the Flickr photo set, so be sure to visit there, too.

Waterfront Museum, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Posted on 2007-03-12 by admin

[Updated 2007.03.14: Added links to Related Posts.]

The Waterfront Museum was one of the highlights of yesterday’s walking tour of Red Hook, Brooklyn, associated with the Historic District Council‘s 13th Annual Preservation Conference. Myself, I could have spent two hours there alone. The story of the barge, not to mention the people and characters involved in saving and restoring it, is fascinating. I want to go back when the water is warmer!

It was also visual overload. I couldn’t capture everything. Here’s what I got.

HDC Red Hook Walking Tour

HDC Red Hook Walking Tour

Posted on 2007-03-12 by admin

Beard and Robinson Warehouse, Beard Street, Red Hook

[Updated 2007.03.14: Changed post title to link to my Collection – a feature Flickr just added yesterday – of my Sets of photos from the tour. Added links to Related Posts.]
[Updated 2007.03.12: Added several images.]

Today I went on a Walking Tour of Red Hook, sponsored by the the Historic District Council. This and several other tours were organized to cap their 13th Annual Preservation Conference, which I attended all day yesterday.

Follow the link from the title of this post to see today’s pictures. I managed to whittle down more than half of the photos I took today. That still leaves over 200 photos. I have massive editing to do. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite images of the day.

Waterfront Museum, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Field Trip: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 23, 2006

Posted on 2007-03-11 by admin

I thought I had previously blogged these photos, but I couldn’t find the blog post. So I’m posting it where I can find it again!

[I would have preferred to back-date these photos to April 23, 2006, the date of the visit, but “new” Blogger doesn’t seem to allow that.]

This is what we can look forward to in another six weeks or so in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Cherry Blossoms

Cormorant, Torii, and Hillside in the Japanese Garden

Magnolia Plaza

Spring Bulbs in the Annual Border of the Lily Pool Terrace

Tulips in the Annual Border of the Lily Pool Terrace

Euphorbia in the Mixed Perennial Border of the Lily Pool Terrace

Lilacs in the Mixed Perennial Border of the Lily Pool Terrace

Redbuds and Spring Bulbs in the Fragrance Garden

Pink

Posted on 2007-03-11 by admin

[Updated: Added captions and links to previous blog posts.]

I’ve been thinking about creating a banner for the blog which I can use for “branding” opportunities such as calling cards. I want to create a composite image from my photographs which recreates the rainbow of curtains across the front of the house.

The original design for the gay pride flag had eight colors: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple. (Only a gay man would insist on including “indigo” in the rainbow!) My first task is to collect photographs for each color. This is the first installment: Pink.

Beetle on Rose, from Field Trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, July 8, 2006.

Cherry Blossoms, from Field Trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 23, 2006.

Tabletop Portulaca

Bee on Echinacea, from South Midwood Garden Tour, July 30, 2006.

Gecko Under Glass

Phlox, from Marie’s Garden, Saratoga, NY, August 26, 2006.

Allamanda cathartica “Cherries Jubilee”, from North Carolina Arboretum

Sunset, from Halloween 2006.

The Pergola, Prospect Park Lights.

Park Circle, Prospect Park Light.

Images of the Children’s Aid Society

Posted on 2007-03-10 by admin

Last night I attended the Opening Night Reception of the Historic District Council‘s 13th Annual Preservation Conference. The event was held at the Children’s Aid Society at 219 Sullivan Street. This is within the boundaries proposed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for a new South Village Historic District.

Today I’ll be attending the all-day conference at Hunter College. I’m already running late! So here’s just a few photographic impressions of last night’s location. More later tonight.

Off-Topic: Cell-Phone Scam

Posted on 2007-03-07 by admin

I put this out there to see if anyone else has experienced anything like this, or has specific information about who has any legal authority to address this.

Over the past week, I’ve received repeated calls from specific numbers which I don’t know. The past few days, I received calls from a 718 area code number, which services New York City. Today I called them. They are not located in New York City.

The woman who answered did not identify herself. She would not say who or what I was calling. She did answer a few questions:
Q: Is this an office?
A: Yes.
Q: Where are you located?
A: Jamaica.
Q: Jamaica, Queens?
A: Jamaica in the Caribbean.

At this point I hung up.

Here are the phone numbers and the information I was able to find about them:

(718)785-5522 is a land-line based in New York, NY, serviced by Allegiance Telecom, Inc, which is owned by XO Communications. This number has been calling me since at least February 26.
(876)498-7629 is based in Kingston, Jamaica. This number has been calling me since at least March 2.

It’s clearly some kind of scam. I’ve already reported this to my cell-phone service provider, to make sure I haven’t been charged for a fraudulent mis-represented phone call to Jamaica when I called the 718 number.

The Manly Shrubberies of Point Grey, Vancouver

Posted on 2007-03-06 by admin

In her blog, Heavy Petal, Andrea Bellamy tells a sordid tale of homeowners – I shall not call them “gardeners” – who so neglected their pruning responsibilities they created a public hazard:

Cedar hedges are so ubiquitous in Vancouver they rarely merit a second glance. But in the tony neighbourhood of Point Grey, there’s one particular hedge that makes me giggle every time I pass it. … See, the hedge in question is made up of a series of three grouped cedars. One columnar cedar flanked by two smaller, round ones. See where this is going?
– Nice (ahem) hedge

This is where the neighbors exclaim in uproar: But, what about the children?!

Seriously, you have to visit her blog to see the photos for full effect.

Flatbush Gardener

Urban Habitat Gardening with Native Plants

Monthly Archives: March 2007