Wishing Everyone A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Green 2011
Yes, I’m still alive, although you would not know it from the activity on my blogs. I owe apologies to many friends for my unresponsiveness. I sincerely apologize for that.
I became somewhat of a recluse in 2010 but this too shall pass. It’s been a difficult and stressful year but I have learned a lot and can’t believe how fast it went by. The older you get the faster the years go by.
Medical issues have consumed much of my time. I still don’t have new knees and hope to have the first knee replacement surgery done by February. The second surgery will be about 3 months later. Yes, I’m apprehensive but know that it will help immeasurably to restore my active life.
It’s hard for me to realize that I was power walking an hour a day a little over a year ago. Now I’m prematurely a wobbly old man. I really miss power walking, street photography and visits to the city for fun instead of medical appointments.
After knee surgeries, I will need to deal with prostate cancer. It’s been detected early, appears to be localized (MRI) and I’m under the constant care of a good urologist.
Activism to promote modern methods of urban greenscaping and urban agriculture continues to drive my life. After making many mistakes, I have rebooted the plans and goals for my urban agriculture activism.
The biggest surprise of my move to NYC was to discover how out of date the horticulture community is here in supposedly sophisticated and hip New York. The local hort community is all about in-ground dirt gardening, clay pots and drain holes. These were modern methods only in the age of the early Egyptians.
Sorry to say, there is no leadership whatsoever regarding modern methods of growing food in an urban built environment. We do not have even one institution where a New Yorker can learn about modern urban container growing methods (sub-irrigation and simplified hydroponics for example). That includes the major botanic gardens in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
To fill this void, my goal is to establish the Center for Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen) as a 501(c)(3). I have two “dream locations” in mind. I plan to solicit the support of people with power to make the dreams into reality.
CuGreen will become the educational institution that is now absent but vitally needed in NYC. It will focus on greenscaping science and technology education and the creation of new green jobs and small businesses. The positive impact potential in these difficult economic times is enormous.
My Inside Urban Green blog will become a part of a new CuGreen website. Blogs are good information sources but too asymmetrical. I’ve spent most of my time recently drafting a new document that better summarizes the scope and mission of “urban greenscaping”. It is tedious work.
I’m also flirting with the idea of writing a book but well aware that writing is introverted work. Book writing will probably wait until more urgent goals are accomplished.
The priority right now is for my more extroverted sales and marketing side to step out front and center. I now have a much better understanding of who to pitch to and will use the many years of experience from my business career. It’s obviously “just do it” time!
I will also get back to blogging on a regular basis. More to come. Stay tuned.
Happy New Year!
Bob
aka Greenscaper
Happy New Year!
New Years Eve – Times Square – 2010, originally uploaded by PostMan1107.
Happy New Year everyone from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, USA, Earth.
Peace,
Brooklyn Bob aka Greenscaper
From the Navy Yard to the Graveyard
I went on my second tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard a week ago this past Sunday and Green-Wood Cemetery yesterday. Both yards are steeped in history and were outstanding tours. Now I have even more pix in my Flickr uploading backlog.
It puzzles me that I was born about 1 1/2 miles away in Sunset Park and don’t think I’ve ever been in Green-Wood Cemetery before. There is an incredible collection of very old trees in the cemetery and it was a beautiful melange of fall foliage to photograph. It is a world class botanical garden in its own right. Living in Brooklyn, who needs to drive to see fall foliage?
It is only recently that the Navy Yard has been open for public tours. There is no doubt that I will be on another tour in the near future. It’s great that they have instituted an outreach program to the community. It is a most interesting place to be with a camera. There are photo ops everywhere, as there are at Green-Wood Cemetery.
Nest Sunday I will go on a walking tour of the Sunset Park Neighborhood where I was born. Now that should be most interesting. The tour guide grew up there in the ’40s and ’50s.
The Results on Ice
This is what he’s looking at.
At the suggestion of dear daughter Karen, I subwayed over to Rockefeller Center skating rink to shoot some pix of the electoral college map. I’ve got lots of photos of the rink and the map to upload to Flickr but this is my favorite. Have a look at the Flickr photo set here. I’m still working on it.
This guy just walked into this photo. There’s nothing posed here. It’s serendipity that he’s alone. Trust me, there were lots of people constantly walking by.
He’s wearing a Top of the Rock Observation Deck coat and I assume he works there. As you can see he’s pondering the map.
What color do you think his skin is?
I’m not gonna tell ya!
Sold out!
I just read that the NY Times sold all their paper edition copies and printed a second run. No problem here. I shot this on my screen earlier today.
A New Day has Dawned!
I can’t remember the last time being in one of these iron maiden voting machines. Living in Southern California for so long, I thought Shoup machines were long gone. Yet another trip down memory lane.
This felt like it was the most momentous voting experience of my lifetime. I’m grateful to be alive and to have participated. It is truly a new day in our country’s history. Bravo!
My Fair Lady
The Queens pix are finally uploaded to Flickr. See them in a set here or click on the photo. This photo was taken with my camera by Myles Devin of Elgin, Moray Scotland who was about to sail on the QE2. Lucky him!
Myles and friends post to a forum at CruiseCritic.com. This is a site search of his posts as screen name CunardQueen. There’s some interesting information from people who cruise the Queens.
The Last QE2 Visit to the Big Apple
What a day! This is a NY Times photo and you can read the article here.
No, it wasn’t “at dawn Thursday”, it was about 5 a.m. and I was there on the 80th street overpass of the shore promenade in Bay Ridge with my camera at the ready. What a sight to see the QE2 and then the QM2 coming under the bridge in the dark. I was the only camera nut in sight.
Then in the early afternoon it was on to the R-D-E trains to Pier 90 in Manhattan. After that on to the E train again down to the WTC stop and over to the river to shoot even more pix of the two ships as they rendezvoused near the Statue of Liberty before departing under the V-Bridge.
I just got in and it was a day of adventure, that’s for sure. How many pix do I have? Let’s just say a “lot” for the time being. Now it’s time to upload them onto my computer and then to Flickr. Yeah, I know…don’t hold your breath. I could spend a week editing and uploading pix to Flickr. They’ll get there sooner or later. Stay tuned.
R.I.P. Paul
Jan 25, 1925 – Sep 26, 2008
There aren’t many obits that bring tears to my eyes. This one did. He spanned my life since the ’50s with professionalism and dignity. A cool and classy human he was.
Civilization Arrives in Brooklyn
Count ‘em, 18 registers and there will most likely be a line at all of them. This ain’t no strip mall store. It used to be a bank. It still is. 
