Today's Scenes from New York...

Its my birthday today!  And these are today's scenes from New York!

It was a rainy, cold and horrible day so I didn't leave the hotel till mid-day; then went with Mum to have some red velvet cake which was lovely, lovely and finally we visited 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' which passed an hour or so before we returned to the hotel to hibernate --- snow is forecast for the end of the week - I'll be home by then though!

To be honest, most of these pics were taken during the past week - you'd be too depressed by the weather if I showed you photos of today.

Set In Style - The Jewellery of Van Cleef & Arpels in New York

Today I visited the Carnegie Mansion (AKA The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, part of the Smithsonian) to view the collection of historical Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery on display there - a fabulous collection of to-die-for precious and fascinating jewels including items that belonged to Greta Garbo, Princess Grace of Monaco, Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor - it was jaw-dropping, really it was - the lushness of these amazing pieces, the size and the design of them was astonishing - the Carnegie Mansion was quite interesting too and the tour guide was worth following around.   I was lucky enough to arrive early, because I as I left, there was a long queue out the front with people waiting patiently to view the collection which was almost as astonishing to me as the collection, I've never seen Americans queue for anything before!

World Trade Centre

Despite having visited New York several times before, I've resisted visiting the WTC until now - it seemed intrusive and wrong, but whilst I was in the area, I walked down there - it seemed to me that the area was so much smaller than I had imagined it was from all the coverage I have seen on the TV over the years; there is a small temporary memorial area, and the building of the first of the new structures is making progress -- not on the footprints of the old twin towers.   The previews of the permanent memorials look lovely, and I hope I will be able to visit them when they are reality in the future.   Its a strange place - firstly its a building site, and now that is what it is foremost, but everyone was walking round quietly, everyone looking upwards, everyone reliving what we saw in September 2001. 

Terrible, really; that sense of this building site being something so awful; it was truly like visiting a graveyard, you just can't help thinking of all those poor people.
It was one of those times in our lives when we will always be able to remember where we were, what we were doing and who we were with at that moment of that day; I can never think of these events without remembering these things, how normal a day it was for us at home, watching these awful things on TV. 
Strangely, it still seemed unreal, unbelievable for being in the actual place where it happened.  The cruelty of the event is still unbelievably staggering, beyond comprehension.

Wall Street...

Whilst down at the Financial centre of New York, visited Wall Street...
saw the Stock Exchange (though you can't go in...)

and saw extreme poverty alongside all this wealth...this man was barefoot, standing in the middle of the road, singing, wearing rags...

Walked the Brooklyn Bridge...

Today I went down to the Financial District and Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.   This is one not to miss in New York and another beautiful day to do it!   The only low spot - I had the sun in my eyes so was walking with my head slightly down and then 'bong', I walked head-first into a metal box on the bridge (phone or electricity box I think) - I hit it with quite a bang and now have a huge, huge bruise on my head.  Ouch. 

Great bridge though.

Street Scenes from New York...

Today's Scenes from New York....

National Museum of the American Indian

Wandering down in the financial centre of New York, I found this interesting museum display of artifacts dedicated to the American Indian - inside a beautiful building were more beautiful, interesting things AND a display about the American Indian Horse Nation.  Well, of course I had to go in and see what was what - beautiful beadwork - including a lady beading in a corner, talking to people about her work and lots of horse related stuff - it was fascinating.

I have to tell you though, this was the scariest doll I ever saw in my life...

Today In New York...

Stuff I saw today in New York..

Empire State Building....very, very tall...

Financial District - very very grey....

More very, very tall buildings...

Cake, cake and more cake...and the last one was all mine...

Just Landing...

This was our view of New York as we flew over the sea and city - what a beautiful day!!

On my way...

As you read this, I am on my way to New York with my Mum...I'm going to be attending a bead show where I will take some classes (and probably do some buying...never pass up an opportunity for that!) and have a few days break too - we've got this great long list of stuff we didn't get round to the last time we were there, so I imagine we'll come back with sore feet.  If you're ordering any jewellery, I'll get to it as soon as I get back on the 24th March - yayyy, I'll get to celebrate my birthday in the Big Apple!

I'll blog once I've got photos and news to share about the trip... xx

Tucson...

The landscape is so different here from other parts of Arizona, the huge Saguro cactus must reach 30 feet or more into the air and they look like sentries as you drive down from the hills - to my (English) eyes they look like an alien species, dropped here from another planet.  The colours are different to those I've seen so far on this trip, but as ever, lovely; sages, silvers and soft, weathered dusty roses and browns; I hope I can keep all these colours in my head once I get home and start to work again; its always the colours I remember the most, the intense blues and red, red rocks of Sedona; the deep greens and wintry, pure whites of the White Mountains - and here, well, different again - always beautiful.

I was hoping it would be warm but its almost as cold as the mountains here right now - brrrrr....the photo above is of a cactus/fountain outside my hotel room first thing in the morning - you wouldn't imagine they could survive this sort of extreme of temperature but it seems they can.

Its off to the gem shows in Tucson over the next few days, this is what I am here for and I am rested and ready for the buying frenzy that will take place!   Tucson (and Arizona generally) is one of my favourite places in the States and is easily somewhere I could live - I had this image before I travelled here the first time that it would be just one big desert, but its an amazing state, full of contrasts and quirks and interesting stuff - you could spend years exploring.  

Still, once I've done my buying it will be back home to get all my bead and findings catalogued and photographed and ready for the site - and back to the mucking out!   Aaaargh.

I'll Be Having Nightmares for the Next 10 Years...

We're in Tucson right now for the gem shows, doing some buying for BeadAddict and of course, just a little light browsing and purchasing for lovely things for SLC Designs whilst I'm at it...the shows are great fun and you get to meet all sorts of people and see the kind of stuff you never see anywhere else (but of course by then, all your pennies are spent...) though I have to tell you, the shows are E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-N-G - now I know you don't believe me, because how hard can it be, browsing beads and buying stuff but I tell you, this stuff seriously, seriously frazzles your brain - I guess its making all the decisions and trying to get them right, negotiating with vendors, and all that walking, walking, walking...I tell you, it feels like I have flippers now, not feet - and we get to do it all again tomorrow - yayyyy!   Every time I am at these shows, I start off with tons of energy and by the end of the day, I tell you, I just could not care less if I never saw another bead or finding ever again; the stuff you walk by at this stage in the day, I tell you, your hair would stand on end. 

What I love particularly about the Tucson shows is the sense of community - you'll be buying something and some random stranger will lean over and have a conversation with you - this doesn't happen often enough in day to day life, and to be honest, when I've tried it in the States in the past (at appropriate times of course), you tend to get blanked - I don't think its something they do much over here. 

In the UK of course, we have the perfect conversation opener of the weather, the state of the roads or some other thing we can have a collective gripe about before exchanging pleasantries with a stranger, often never to see them again - but in the States, they sort of look at you funny when you do that - often when you're in a foreign country, its something you do out of total isolation - you're a long way from home and you just want a normal conversation for a few minutes, however mundane; but hey, I guess that's the way it is here.  The shows though are a great leveller, and I find people are willing to chat about nothing or anything, and even to open conversations themselves on the same lines - that sense of community is what makes these shows so special.

Anyway, the thing that will cause me to have nightmares for the next ten years - well, its not to do with beads or people, its this piece of cake (and the hand isn't there because I can't stop myself, its so you can see how big the cake is)!  It might not seem so in the photo, but this was at least 4 inches high and 8 inches long.

Can you believe this piece of cake is meant for ONE person?   I tell you, I took this photo the first night I was here, then over the next few nights I got six portions out of it, and even then had half of it left over when I left the hotel.  
I just don't know anywhere in the UK you'd get a portion like this - interestingly, I heard a few days ago that there is this big hoo-ha in the news because the US health department has just come out and said that people should try to control their portion sizes - apparently they've never considered this advice worth giving out, because the food lobbies here are so powerful that they were terrified of them.  I love visiting the US, but I tell you, if I lived here I would so be reaching for those fat pants within a couple of months... no offence intended to anyone.  

I felt so guilty as I left the hotel, leaving half of this tiramisu behind...but at least its not actually ON my behind...

Hidden Meadow Ranch, Arizona

Hidden Meadow Ranch

I was lucky enough found Hidden Meadow Ranch by chance via TripAdvisor, and had looked forward to it for weeks before travelling there up into the White Mountains (itself an adventure through the snow). In every way our expectations have been exceeded by the lovely place, the lovely people, the lovely cabins and the WONDERFUL food (thanks Kurt!!!) - even my being a vegetarian was no trouble at all to these lovely people and I have had the best food I have ever had at this place.

It snowed and snowed whilst we were there and Mark went ski-ing in a blizzard at the ski-ing resort next door, taken by bus provided by Hidden Meadow, whilst I attempted to go riding, also in a blizzard, with a very patient chap who was endlessly sweet and kind to me despite it obviously being the kind of weather where no sane person would ever want to get on a horse. I lasted about 3 minutes swallowing tons of snow but I got to sit on a western saddle and I went away happy.

We did a leatherworking class with Logan (I don't think Harry the kitten will never grow into that tiger size collar) and mostly we stayed by the fire and snoozed in the ultra luxe cabins. I nearly died and went to heaven when I saw the bath but in the end, it was so big I just never could fill it with water and in fact, had I done so I probaby would have drowned. Beds were so comfortable it was bliss and have I mentioned the food??? OK, we were actually the only customers there at the time but I daresay everyone feels that way regardless of whether there are other guests there at the time. It was wonderful, and nothing was ever too much trouble for anyone. We were truly astonished to find our car had been cleared from the snow every morning before we went to breakfast (though we didn't move it until the day we had to prise ourselves out of the gate).

We left HMR feeling refreshed and like we'd had a proper holiday. There was no TV in the cabin which initially we thought 'uh-oh' but instead of spending hours in front of meaningless rubbish, instead we read, slept and listened to audio books - and did a lot of staring into the lovely real fire in the cabin.
I highly recommend this lovely place; we felt we made friends there and would not hesitate to return; I hope it won't be 5 years before we get to visit Arizona again, but however long it is, HMR will always be on our 'to do' list - hopefully next time in the Spring or Summer. 
 
(Review written for TripAdvisor.)