Brooklyn vibes swirl around this patch of grass with bright-colored flowers bordered by long rows of old brick warehouses. Ferries, boats, barges, and tugs ply the waters of the New York Harbor. We ate baba ganoush and naan (picked up from the nearby warehouse turned grocery) in this little park with it’s excellent view of the Statue of Liberty. Behind the grocery/warehouse is an old trolley. Once filled with commuters it now sits sadly abandoned, its windows broke out.
The G train cuts through Queens into Brooklyn, avoiding Manhattan, and it dropped us off at Smith and Ninth. (I eyed the riders: a child hopping onto a seat and having the stranger beside give him a smile, workmen, a woman with a dog, a monk in red robes, a young woman with an ornament of two-inch spikes around her neck. A young Mexican woman with a baby on her back went through selling candy. A war veteran begged for money. Young. Elderly. Fat. Thin. Red, brown, yellow, black and white. I saw Laurence and my reflection in the window and thought we didn’t look ordinary either.) The Smith and Ninth train station supposedly has the best view of any in the city from its platform. We then boarded a bus (that goes by the largest of city housing projects) for Ikea. After tramping through Ikea’s maze, we walked through weedy lots to Steve’s Key Lime Pie. It’s a dinky hole in the wall place in a warehouse. Even though it’s famous, I’m amazed that we found it. We had a frozen key lime pie popsicle covered in chocolate while sitting by a picnic table and took a small key lime pie to go. Yum!
The cranes on the New Jersey shore stand ready to unload ships. Staten Island rises across the bay. Laurence says to tell the Kansans about the grain elevators in Red Hook. They were a financial disaster from the time they were built in 1922 and were finally decommissioned in 1965, but they still stand. The Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79 bobs beside us. The historic barge was built in 1914 to move cargo around the New York Harbor and along the lower Hudson River.
I wanted to give you a picture of this place that none of you will likely ever see. You are blessed to live where you do! Berniece
An Ordinary Life 
Good evening! Life is sort of becoming ordinary for us also. Yard work here is never ending as is the heat these days. It’s canning time so 2 bushels of peaches, 100 ears of sweet corn cut off the cob and a few strawberries are in cold storage for later consumption. It’s also tomato time…not doing any salsa for myself but helped Karolee with hers today.
It’s a beautiful country here and we behold some awesome skies as the sun sets behind Mt. Magazine, which we can see from our living room window. We’ve enjoyed some really strong Arkansas thunderstorms a few times already which keeps everything green and growing and us mowing!! Come see us!
LikeLike