The Bronx Invasion of Brazil. On Friday We Take Cuba!

by: Eddie C

Mon Feb 22, 2010 at 19:33:48 PM PST

No more snow job photo diaries out of me. Since it is midwinter and everyone can use a little break from the cold, I think a little Brazilian Modern is in order.

How about you? Join me below for more photos and see an amateur review of my South American trip from last year.

Ft. Tryon Park Durning the Snowfall.

by: Eddie C

Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 08:48:02 AM PST

The previous diary was easy pickins' on a clear blue sky day. This represents something a bit more challenging, trying to capture the snow as it is falling.

It's not so easy and I really should have worn a hat and some gloves. But if your in the mood for another snowy park, than take a walk below the fold for a beautiful park in a blizzard.  

Van Cortlandt Park After the Snow

by: Eddie C

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 17:25:14 PM PST

I often write about and I'm very much in love with the undeveloped parts of Van Cortlandt Park. It is the fourth largest park in New York City and just a few blocks from my apartment. I guess the most popular diary so far was called Just a Walk in the Park, Van Cortlandt Park.

Few Manhattanites know of the beauty of this 1,146 acre park located in the Bronx but this New York City oasis should be of special interest to visitors from drier areas of the nation. The green will just blow you away.

You won't find much green in this diary that focuses on photographic composition but I found a little color to make it interesting. In this photo the underpass leads to the Van Cortland marsh where the story ends. An old bridge from the the abandoned "Old Putt" and an oak tree that likes to hold a few leaves each winter improves the composition.

"Old Putt" is the affectionate nickname that hikers and cross country bikers have given to the New York and Putnam Railroad. The right of way for the railroad bed is a trail that runs the length of the park and passes through almost every type of ecosystem that can be found in the northeast.

Below the fold are the best of the 465 pictures I took last Thursday. Most of them on the Van Cortlandt Lake and surrounding wetlands of the Bronx park. Mostly they are photos of geese but I experimented with ways to defeat the the most annoying property of snow, monochromatic and way too bright.

Winter Photos from the Bronx Zoo.

by: Eddie C

Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 18:40:42 PM PST

Have you ever gone to a zoo in midwinter? This diary is a selection of of photos from a three hour trip to the Zoo on a sunny winter day.

I could tell you a winter's tale or two about going to the zoo. I think it is the best time for both interaction with animals and photographic opportunities.

This is not my first Bronx Zoo diary. My point about a winter visit can be made by comparing the photos in that collection from  about twenty visits to the zoo and these from a three hour tour.

Public School Lunches in New York City Tabloid Today

by: Eddie C

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 09:12:17 AM PST

The health-crazed Bloomberg administration often touts how it has overhauled school lunches and slashed calories - but critics charge the standard cafeteria fare is still far from healthy.

The photo in today's paper that is captioned as looking "more like McDonald's than Whole Foods" actually makes McDonald's look good.

That is actually a New York City school lunch recently served at PS 42.

In a city that once portrayed installing Snapple dispensers as a health conscious move for the children of New York City, there are often stories about Bloomberg improving lunch programs but...

So far it's been a good year for Bronx Sunsets

by: Eddie C

Sat Jan 09, 2010 at 18:51:18 PM PST

Hello and Happy New Year. I have no pootie to photograph but I've had a few days to look out the window to see a few sunsets and some of them have looked great.

Here's a view from last night that I thought was pretty spectacular;

Below the fold is the rest of my year in review sunset diary, all nine days of them. Well not even that, just the ones I was home for.

Saying Goodbye to a Central Park Landmark: the Tavern on the Green

by: Eddie C

Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 00:48:27 AM PST

For anyone who has ever had the pleasure of enjoying the flamboyance of Warner LeRoy, the end of this landmark where John Lennon once celebrated his birthdays marked a very sad day.

And so there was a last waltz. With formidable revelry and not a few tears, some 1,700 New Year's Eve celebrators paid $125 to $500 a person for the privilege of welcoming 2010 with a last, vast, rollicking hurrah for the landmark restaurant in Central Park.

None will be as sad as the 400 Tavern employees.

I was not one of the 1,700 but I did walk around outside in the icy rain of New Years Eve with my camera and I'd like to share these photos of this last hurrah.  

The New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show

by: Eddie C

Thu Nov 26, 2009 at 07:49:26 AM PST

Next Wednesday the most famous Christmas Tree In New York City lights up where there was once a Botanical Gardens. Up in the Bronx at the New York Botanical Garden it is already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. On Saturday The Eighteenth Annual Holiday Train Show pulled into town and you can enjoy the delights of a miniature Rockefeller Center Christmas tree already at this favorite for children of all ages.

The star of this New York holiday favorite may seem like the model railway trains chugging through a glass house but children also get to experience the architecture of New York, past and present. Children are inspired by handmade art that is created from plant materials such as bark, moss, twigs, berries, and pine cones.

Below the fold is a photographic guide from start to finish of this year's Holiday Train Show for your children to enjoy and a few old New York stories for you. It's a family outing that definitely has GreenRoots.  

Sustainable Food & Food Justice in New York City

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Nov 23, 2009 at 19:59:29 PM PST

During my time in New York, I met up with several superstars in the national and even international sustainable food and food justice movements. I also dined on some fabulous local, sustainable food. And, I came face to face with the very definition of a food desert. More below...

An Autumn Day Hike in the Bronx: Cloudy with a Chance of Sunshine

by: Eddie C

Sat Oct 31, 2009 at 21:40:35 PM PDT

Hello and Happy Halloween. Would you like to see a little of the color of the northeast?  I had a great walk on Thursday I thought you might enjoy seeing the pictures and hearing my story about how great is is to just get out there, even when it is looking bad.

Is this a political diary? As Ken Burns so aptly pointed out recently, our parks are our strongest affirmation for "Big Government"so perhaps this belongs here. Or maybe I just like taking pictures. This was my ninth DKos diary that is tagged Van Cortlandt Park and a few of them are probably cross-posted here too. But in this diary there are sections of the 1,146 acre park that I've never shown before.

Here's a view I've now shown in all four seasons. In photography just like politics, when you find a good frame you need to stick to it.

As I've mentioned before Van Cortlandt Park is named for the first native Mayor of New York City and is right on Broadway. Just a few stops out of Manhattan on a scenic elevated subway, the last stop on the Number One Train. It is not the only park with hiking trails but it is still a must see for NYC visitors because the views are so similar to the Hudson Highlands.

Below the fold you can see the glory of New York State on a colorful autumn day without leaving New York City. Actually you can see it without leaving your couch and what's better than that on a mellow weekend?  

Got a Happy Story? September Woodland Walking Edition

by: Eddie C

Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 20:08:35 PM PDT

Tonight I would like to tell a story about a walk on Tuesday that was the most pleasant and cleansing walk I had in a long long time. It was also a long long walk that started at a Riverdale gas station and ended with two buses taking one hour to get back home.

Here's a view I've shown before. The last time in Just a Walk in the Park, Van Cortlandt Park the white pepper bush framed the lake. Now in the ragweed season, there is some goldenrod on the side and the pepper bush has gone to seed.

It was the first of September and the whole forest was busy preparing for a transition. I could feel it from the moment I walked in. The summer comfort of the cool forest compared with the city streets was gone. It seemed warmer than being out in the sunlight. Another difference was the return of a familiar sound, a sound that often make me think there must be a waterfall close by in a less familiar forest. But since I know this forest so well, I knew it was the September breeze blowing through the leaves in the blue sky above.

This was a great week for New York Sunsets (photo diary)

by: Eddie C

Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 11:25:33 AM PDT

Hello, is seems a bit early for sunsets but there should be one coming around soon. I hope you are having a nice Saturday afternoon and have a wonderful weekend coming your way. Just in case you might need a little visual to help you decompress, I've put together a collection of the week in sunsets from my Bronx window.

That photo must look like I'm messing around with Photoshop but I wasn't. This extremely hot New York City week had a few sunsets where the sun was not too strong for digital photography. The Monday shot above wasn't even the best. Sunday looked like Jupiter or Saturn without the rings setting over the Palisades. It was also a big week for sailboats at sunset.

I know I'm a little strange but I get excited about that sort of thing. If you like then follow below for my week long celebration.  

The Most Affordable Food in New York City

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Aug 19, 2009 at 15:25:30 PM PDT

While Central Park would be stripped bare if all NYC residents used it as their free grocery store, no doubt a number of homeless or low income folks could improve their health and fill their bellies with just a little bit of foraging knowledge. Below, you'll find my pics from our foraging trip - and I'll rely on Wide Eyed Lib to weigh in as the true expert here, in case I leave out any interesting details that I didn't manage to write down.

Book Tour Update: From Amish Country to New York City

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 09, 2009 at 12:23:36 PM PDT

Eddie C met me at Penn Station and we barely made it two blocks before he pointed out a New York favorite... an Italian-owned cheesecake place that's been making delicious desserts for longer than I've been alive. We stopped in for some treats and continued on to Brooklyn. We're currently at my publisher's place, relaxing a bit before meeting up with Sidnora, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, and the Brooklyn Food Coalition at 4:30pm.

The Pennsylvania trip was wonderful. This is exactly what I wanted from the book tour. Really, the book is an excuse to build the movement. In Lancaster, I spoke to a few guys who were interested in food justice and setting up farmers' markets in low income areas. We've got a market like that in San Diego so we shared ideas from Lancaster, Chicago (where one of the guys currently works... he's just visiting friends in Lancaster now), and San Diego. We exchanged email addresses and I hope to put them in touch with the folks in charge of the San Diego City Heights farmers market.

Later that evening, I gave a talk to about 20 people at a bookstore. The Q&A continued until I had been speaking for a total of 2 hours... lesson learned that I need to wrap things up quicker in the future, but it was exciting that everyone was so engaged. The Q&A gave a really local focus to the event, because we talked about groups people could get involved with locally, Pennsylvania state politics, and PA's Senators role in national politics. Much of the Q&A was more of a conversation between various members of the audience, and that was really exciting. I learned a lot from them, and they filled in local details that I didn't know about. It was neat to hear a Pennsylvanian's point of view about how the people in the state organized to save their milk labels 2 years ago. I was involved in that, but from a distance, and it was inspiring that the people of Pennsylvania got a chance to take action and see their own impact when their outcry caused the Governor to overturn a decision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

I've got a few pictures so hopefully later I'll be able to upload them and share them. If you're in New York, join us tonight in Brooklyn or tomorrow in Manhattan - details are at http://www.recipeforamerica.org

Just a Walk in the Park, Van Cortlandt Park (a photo diary)

by: Eddie C

Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 20:39:25 PM PDT

Few Manhattanites know of the beauty of this 1,146 acre park located in the Bronx but this New York City oasis should be of special interest to visitors from drier areas of the nation. The green will just blow you away.