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Day 1346

More jujubes

September 6th, 2015



I've now seen two of these trees today, after never having noticed one before in my life.

Day 1346

Forty Five Seventeen

September 6th, 2015



One Hundred Fifty Ninth Street

Day 1346

Dangling cucurbits

September 6th, 2015



Bottle gourds and bitter melons, I believe. You can take a closer look here.

Day 1346

First ripe figs of 2015

September 6th, 2015



It's looking like this year is gonna be another sad one for NYC's figs. But not as bad as last year: the five or so ripe figs in this photo (zoom in) exceed the total I saw in all of 2014.

Day 1346

Two eras of call box lights

September 6th, 2015



Here we see an old pole-mounted fire department call box (retrofitted with call buttons for both the fire department and the police) accompanied by two different types of lights indicating that a call box is nearby.

The older, presumably nonfunctioning, light is mounted on a scrolled bracket that would have once supported an old street lamp. The newer light is the orange-pink cylinder — the thing shaped like a can of tennis balls — on top of the modern street lamp.

(To ward off potential confusion for anyone who starts inspecting street lamps more closely, I should note that you can find on just about every street lamp a shorter cylindrical thing, often colored orange, that resembles a laundry detergent cap. These have nothing to do with call boxes; they're photocells that turn the lamps on and off depending on the amount of daylight. In fact, if you look closely at the newer call box light above — or the one pictured more clearly here — you'll see that it has an orange photocell perched right on top of it.)

Day 1346

Plywood domino train wall

September 6th, 2015



The LIRR's Port Washington Branch passes by just beyond the wall.

Day 1346

Jujube tree

September 6th, 2015


Day 1346

Portal of the day

September 6th, 2015


Day 1346

Them apples

September 6th, 2015


Day 1346



Day 1346

Evergreen Community Garden

September 6th, 2015







This massive community garden (where things aren't always as peaceful as they look) has seriously come alive since I passed by in mid-April.

Day 1346






Our heedless and destructive acts enter into the vast cycles of the earth and in time return to bring hazard to ourselves.

These two neighboring playgrounds, along with the public school across the street, are named in honor of the conservationist Rachel Carson"a trained scientist with a poet's wonder" — and her groundbreaking 1962 work Silent Spring.

Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.

Day 1346

Repurposed fan cage

September 6th, 2015



The second such gourd hammock we've seen

Day 1346

Peaches on Blossom

September 6th, 2015



This is one of three prolific peach trees growing on the north side of this block of Blossom Avenue. (Reflecting Flushing's horticultural history, this area is a cornucopia of plant-themed street names, most of them arranged in alphabetical order.)

Day 1346

High Class Steak & Shrimp

September 6th, 2015



Kane's Diner. The menu, which is mostly what you would expect from a classic diner, makes a bold claim about the potency of the food: "The Miracle of the World ----- Your Body ----- Healthy, Economical & Rejuvenation of Your Sex Life". If miraculous rejuvenation is what you're after, you may want to consider ordering the 16-ounce "Viagra" steak with three eggs.