Part of Staten Island's awesome Bluebelt system
Taking a stroll through the Bluebelt, we find some raccoon tracks at the edge of a little creek identified as Sandy Brook by a plaque mounted on a nearby stone.
Presumably for the purpose of reducing vehicle traffic in the area, six consecutive intersections along Vernon Avenue are bisected by these diagonal automobile barriers. Another pedestrian triumph over the cars of Staten Island!
One theory: "Queen Anne of England, whose only recorded grace was a 'harmonious voice,' was fat and plain. Her namesake, Queen Anne's lace, is delicate and a marvel of floral intricacy."
Others say the flower's name comes from Queen Anne of Denmark, or perhaps even St. Anne.
A dumpster in a bag. In yet another damning indictment of the modern age, this thing has its own Twitter account.
Did you know that Dumpster is actually a brand name? Not surprisingly, the writers of "The Simpsons" did.
Albizia julibrissin, not to be confused with members of the genus Mimosa (which contains some of the few species capable of rapid plant movement)
Peering through the fence at a detention basin and pond/wetland system in the Lemon Creek Bluebelt. The landscape is so densely treed that I could barely see inside, but it wasn't too long ago that it looked like this.
I had to join these kids on a couple of occasions to keep from catching fire in the blazing heat.
Growing wild, it would seem, at the edge of Bloomingdale Park
The former Young Israel of Jamaica is now home to the America Sevashram Sangha.
Standing out dramatically from the Jamaica streetscape, this house and the park that surrounds it were once part of the estate of Rufus King, a framer and signer of the Constitution (note the words of the preamble running across the top of the fence) and a US senator and diplomat. You can learn about the house's live-in caretaker and see a couple of videos of the interior here.
This massive fence encloses a garden behind the King Manor Museum.
Like PS 207 in the Bronx, this public school (the Young Women's Leadership School of Queens) was originally a religious institution (the Jamaica Jewish Center).
celebrates Surasa's 2,000th mile at the Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race.
Ashprihanal, now in first place, is sporting an amazing hat (much better shot here) as a defense against the sun's brutal assault. The high today was 99-100 degrees, and the runners just kept going.
Scrawled on the window of this '65 Pontiac is the following message:
CAR BROKE DOWN PLEASE DONT TICKET!! THANK YOU :)
I've already paid a pedestrian visit to my grandparents in this cemetery, but I had forgotten exactly where my great-grandfather was buried — until I unexpectedly spied him through this fence at the dead end of 138th Street! That's him on the far right of the row just on this side of the little road, the tall gray stone next to the even taller black one.
Created for the 1939-40 World's Fair, this is the largest lake in New York City (not counting the Jerome Park and Central Park Reservoirs). Visible in the distance are the abandoned Astro-View observation towers that were part of the New York State Pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair.
Another look at the Tent of Tomorrow, with the aforementioned observation towers lurking in the background. Here's a great shot of the towers in action during the 1964-65 World's Fair.
The Vatican Pavilion was one of the most visited sites at the 1964-65 World's Fair, owing largely to the fact that it housed Michelangelo's Pietà, which had been painstakingly packaged and shipped across the Atlantic from St. Peter's Basilica. The sculpture had never been removed from the Vatican before, and it hasn't left again since. It returned from its journey in good shape, but several years later was attacked at St. Peter's by a mentally disturbed, hammer-wielding, Hungarian-born Australian geologist claiming to be Jesus Christ. Typical.
Another feature of the Vatican Pavilion was the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, much of which — most notably the beautiful stained glass windows — has since been incorporated into Saint Mary Mother of the Redeemer Church in Groton, Connecticut.
In 1975, this monument to the pavilion took on new life when it became home to the shrine of Our Lady of the Roses, serving as a gathering place where Veronica Lueken, a housewife from Bayside, Queens, would be visited by the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and an assortment of saints, relaying the often apocalyptic messages received in her ecstatic visions to her throngs of devotees. The group originally met in Bayside, but moved here to Flushing Meadows after a local civic association sought an injunction to prevent the hordes of worshipers, sometimes numbering in the thousands, from descending on the neighborhood. Lueken died in 1995, and her followers subsequently split, bitterly, into two factions. As far as I can tell, both still hold regular prayer vigils here.
Since our last visit back in April, the centerpiece of the 1964-65 World's Fair has come to life, offering the youth of Queens a drenching refuge from the blazing July death-sun.
I saw several kids, like the one at left, using the Unisphere's powerful water jets to launch various objects and articles of clothing into the stratosphere.
from your friends at Gatorade.
(A less colorful version of this.)
I wasn't officially walking today, but I noticed something that I don't think was here when I passed through Queens Plaza early last year: this millstone!
The history of this stone and its companion (millstones come in pairs) is not conclusively known, but it seems likely that they were used in a nearby tidal gristmill that existed from about 1650 until 1861. They've been preserved in one manner or another ever since, spending much of the past century inconspicuously embedded in a traffic island. They were removed and put on display at a neighborhood library during the recent reconstruction of Queens Plaza, but have now returned to their old stomping grounds. (I didn't see the other stone with my own two eyes — I was hurrying by and talking on the phone — but it's apparently sitting somewhere close by here in Dutch Kills Green.)
Another excellently named business run by followers of Sri Chinmoy. Ashrita Furman has set dozens of his records here, including most jelly eaten with chopsticks in one minute and most eggs crushed with the head in 30 seconds. Many of his Guinness certificates can be found hanging on a wall inside the café.
