Maybe I should have saved this for July 4th.

During our walk home Friday, Bighead and I also came across tree shading a plaque set in stone.

The plaque read:

Historic Marker of Battle Pass. At this point the Old Porte Road or Valley Grove Road intersected the line of hills separating Flatbush from Brooklyn and Gowanus. In the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, this pass was barricaded in front by Dongan Oak and other obstructions. It was protected by artillery on Redout Hill just to the east. Here the American forces stood their ground against the Hessians coming from the south till flanked from the river by a body of British troops. General Sullivan was captured, but most of his troops retreated across what is now the Long Meadow, joining the Maryland and other troops for the final resistance near the old stone house of Gowanus.

Later on down the road we passed a tree with a marker noting it as the "Line of Defense" and my interest was thoroughly piqued. I knew nothing about the Battle of Long Island but I'm glad that I came across that stone which led me to investigate.

I knew that Proespect Park was used by the militia for regiment training and practice but I had no idea that is was the site of the first battle in the American Revolution after the Declaration of Independence.
I really love Prospect Park and lately I've just been reminded more and more of why that is so. The City has so much to offer that even a pleasant evening stroll can get you off and running on some new tangent about it.

I wonder if people do re-enactments in the Park. I think that I'd be really interested in seeing one.

Proud.

Happy Pride New York City!

NYC Bouquet.

On our way home Friday evening, Bighead and I had a nice walk through the park which led us to the south side of the zoo.

There, between the greenery and the zoo bars (and zoo smell) and park foliage was this beautiful orange flower.



Today while on the train to Tarrytown I saw more of these orange flowers lining the tracks in some places.
It was really lovely. The Hudson was on the West side of the train and the flowers were on the East and though I liked seeing the flowers all in bunches it was really more striking to see the lone flower on our relaxing stroll home.

It would appear that the orange flowers are orange lilies and that their beauty belies their malicious meaning.

I found some pictures...

...rather, I saved some pictures that I found as part of a City Room blog post on the NY Times website.

This is what I saw on my subway ride this morning.

And this one is just my favourite.

I get high with a little help from my friends.

Here's something with a picture.


Yesterday's NY Times published the newly unveiled plans for phase one of transforming the Highline from it's current state of pretty much nothingness to a grand urban park landscape.

I think that everyone can agree that this is a good idea. What everyone cannot agree upon is whether or not this is a good idea now (especially cost-wise and in light of the fact that some think that a more efficient use of the space would be for trains or an express lane for cabs) and whether or not joggers should be allowed. Some are even poitning out that perhaps another city park on the west side of Manhattan doesn't exactly send a good message to the rest of Manhattan. I'm from Brooklyn, so I can't exactly share in the pain of Manhattanites about how hard it is that the City is focussing more money and effort for a project for their borrough (again).

But most everyone can agree that park = good. And I think that most everyone is pleased that this wonderful piece of City history is being preserved and moved into the new century.

I wonder if I can check this off of the list.

I saw the Brooklyn Bridge waterfall from the Q train as I was on my way into Manhattan to sign up for an audition at the Equity Office.

It was amazing. I scanned the faces on the train to see if other people had noticed... only a couple did. It was rush hour in NY and the way to surivive it is generally just to keep your head down and push through it.

The waterfalls, though, are a reason to pick your head up and look around.

I hope to be able to post pictures (from Google Images of course) later.

Answers that lead to more questions.

So it appears the Connecticut Muffin is a Brooklyn-based chain.

I'm confused.
Most Brooklyn based companies/brands try and promote, well, their Brooklyn-ness (here's looking at you Brooklyn Industries, Brooklyn Brewery, Biggie Smalls) and this company is bucking that trend.

Or maybe, the idea is that Brooklyn does Connecticut better than Connecticut does.
And that I can get down with.