The building on the right in today's picture is part of a complex of buildings that make up the Pierpont Morgan Library, which I visited last weekend in the hopes of getting some photos. Unfortunately I didn't get many, so I thought at least I'd show you part of the outside. The Library has an interesting collection of artistic, literary, and musical works and they have a great exhibit there now of Irving Penn portraits. The brownstone on the right is mid-19th century and was lived in by Jack Morgan (according to their website.). The building on the left is the Polish Consultate.
I took this picture last weekend of Gramercy Park. It is one of two private parks left in New York City. The residents of the surrounding buildings have keys to the park and they are the only ones who have access to it. (I stuck my camera in through the fence!) It used to be open to the public one day a year, but they stopped that last year. There are some lovely buildings surrounding it. I'll have to go back in the summertime and take another shot.
Not much to say about this one today, other than I think it's a typical New York scene with the elevated train and the water tower in the background. I've been trying to experiment with the black and white effect lately. I look forward to seeing all of your photos this week!
As Olivier mentioned in his comment yesterday, there are some beautiful mosaic benches around Grant's Tomb, created by the artist Pedro Silva. They are quite beautiful and here is a close-up of one of them. Silva was born in Chile and moved to New York in the 1950s. If you'd like to read more about him, you can visit www.psilvastudios.com
Here is a larger view of one of the benches. I wish it were a better photo, but you get the idea!
Do you know who is buried here? Well, actually no one. But, General Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia are entombed here and it is now a national monument. I don't live all that far from here and just saw it up close for the first time last weekend. It is on Riverside Drive in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan.
Central Park is looking pretty bare now, but even in the wintertime I think it is beautiful and a wonderful place for a stroll. On the day I took this photo it was very cold and it felt like I had the Park all to myself!
If you have used the subway in New York you've probably noticed these lights at the entrance to many subway stations. They were intended to indicate to passengers whether an entrance is open at night and has a token booth. The green ones mean the station is open and red ones mean it's closed, or is just an exit. I noticed this one yesterday, but it looks like it could use some cleaning! I hope you all have a nice week ahead.
