Kensington Blogade

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2008.03.17: Added more links to posts from other attendees.

The Kensington Blogade
Kensington Blogade

I’m overextended. Too many pokers in the fire. Wearing too many hats. No room for another pig in the sty. (I just made that one up. Blog Widow and I like pigs.)

It’s going to take me most of the week to catch up with my weekend. Saturday I attended Making Brooklyn Bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And I’m writing a post about that, really I am. But this post is about yesterday’s Kensington Blogade.

We pretty much filled the space at the Old Brick Cafe at 507 Church Avenue, between East 5th Street and Ocean Parkway in Kensington. This was the second-closest Blogade for me, about a 10 or 15 minute walk from my home. (The closest was the inaugural event.)

Kensington Blogade

I was glad to see several new-to-the-Blogade bloggers there. Most I had already met virtually, several were also neighbors. At least two were completely new to me.

Joyce Hanson of Bad Girl Blog organized yesterday’s event.
Joyce Hanson, Bad Girl Blog

Each host chooses if and how to structure the event. Joyce asked each of us attending to present something we had published on our blog.

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Brenda from Flatbush, Crazy Stable/A Year in Prospect Park

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Most were readings, but there were also two media presentations, on laptops setup on the bar. My laptop is a heavyweight, or I would have done the same with my photography.

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Tom Hart, HutchOwen

Related Posts

At yesterday’s Blogade, I read Barbara Corcoran Hates the Earth and Back in the Day.
My other Blogade posts
My Flickr photo set from yesterday

Links

Attending:
Blogade Review from the Laziest Girl in Town, Bad Girl Blog
Blue Barn Pictures
A Taste of the Blogade at Old Brick, Brooklynometry
Crazy Stable
Creative Times
Brooklyn Blogade last Sunday, Found in Brooklyn
HutchOwen
Story Time, Luna Park Gazette
Poking My Head Out, Midnight Cowgirls
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Self-Absorbed Boomer
Kensington Blogade, Shellytown
Washington Square Park
Sheepish, A Year in Prospect Park

Cortelyou Crocuses!

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This morning I took a slight detour from my commute routine to check the tree pits along Cortelyou Road for blooming Crocuses. I was rewarded:

Cortelyou Crocus

It may not look like much, but this is only one of the 400 Crocuses neighborhood volunteers planted last fall in some of the tree pits along Cortelyou Road between Coney Island Avenue and East 17th Street.

It also has a companion blooming in the same tree pit:

Cortelyou Crocus

Until the rest of them start blooming, if you’re not looking for them, you’ll probably overlook them. Here’s how they appear in situ as you walk by the tree pit:

Crocus blooming in a treepit on Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
Crocus blooming in a treepit on Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn

The Crocuses have been up for a month; these are the first blooms. The Daffodils are also emerging in several of the tree pits.

Someone’s (or someones’) been doing a good job keeping the tree pit fairly clear of garbage. Nevertheless, you can identify several fragments of urban street detritus, including chewing gum, bits of plastic straw, and um, organic material.

This morning I didn’t see any bags of garbage in the tree pits themselves. When I see this, I try to stop and lift the bags out to place them on the outside of the protective fences. But for the past few days I’ve also seen a bike locked to the inside of the fence, right where the bulbs are coming up. I want to make up some signs to put along all the tree pits to remind folks:

LIVE PLANTS
NO TRASH
NO BIKES
NO DOGS

The bike locked up so it’s crushing the emerging bulbs deserves its own sign.

Over the next two weeks we should see a succession of different Crocus blooming. These yellow ones look like Crocus chrysanthus or something similar. Other may be purple, blue, or even white. I purchased “mixed” Crocus for this planting, so that’s what we should expect!

Related Posts

Cortelyou Road Crocus Watch, February 4
Tree Pits are not Dumpsters, November 18, 2007
The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, November 4, 2007
1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road, October 27, 2007
The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5, November 26, 2006

Links

The Daffodil Project

New Blog on the Block: lolAJ

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lolAJ is my current favorite read. Described as:

new york city + stuff that is political? + wtf why is it so weird to be a transsexual

Race, class, politics, post-queer deconstruction, and lolcats. It cannot be described in mere words. It must be experienced.

And not a word about real estate.

total pwnage.

PS: Re: “And not a word about real estate.” No, not in the sense of Brownstoner’s buy/sell flamers and trolls. Yes, in the sense of racial, ethnic and class disparities and outright bias in land use policy and the economics of real estate.

Just so you have some idea of what to expect.

Weather Alert: Flood Watch Tonight and Tomorrow

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Brooklyn Category 1-4 Coastal Storm Impact Zones. Yellow areas are most at risk from this storm, especially during high tide tomorrow morning.
Brooklyn Category 1-4 Coastal Storm Impact Zones

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch which includes Brooklyn starting later tonight and continuing into tomorrow:

The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch beginning Tuesday, March 4, at midnight. The Watch is expected to stay in effect until Wednesday afternoon, March 5. Rainfall totals may reach 2.5 inches in New York City, with localized flooding possible, and minor coastal flooding likely at high tide on Wednesday morning.
– NYC OEM email alert

New Yorkers should exercise caution, as heavy rain may knock down trees and power lines, and may create hazardous driving conditions. People should avoid walking or driving through moving water, as six inches of fast-moving water can knock people off their feet; two feet will cause most vehicles to float.

Links

NYC Office of Emergency Management:

This Sunday: The Kensington Blogade

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This is a reminder that the next Brooklyn Blogade, our mostly monthly meetup of Brooklyn bloggers and community members, will be this Sunday, March 9, in Kensington. Joyce Hanson of Bad Girl Blog is hosting this month at Old Brick Cafe, 507 Church Avenue, between Ocean Parkway and E. 5th Street:

Time for “Show & Tell”: Bloggers are encouraged to be brave and give a reading from one of their best blog posts. Or bring along your laptop and a screen and show us your best pics. Or just tell us about your best post. Please plan to limit your presentation to about five minutes so everybody can have a turn.

RSVP by THIS THURSDAY. See Joyce’s Blogade post for details.

This Saturday: Green it! Grow it! Eat it! at BBG

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Fountain and Palm House, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Fountain and Palm House, BBG

On Saturday, March 8, from 10am to 4pm, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts its annual Making Brooklyn Bloom, a FREE day-long series of speakers, workshops, films and resources. Presented by GreenBridge, BBG’s community horticulture program, this year’s theme is “Edible NYC: Eat it! Grow it! Eat it!”

The conference is free; admission to BBG is free with a conference flyer [PDF], which you can download and print from the Making Brooklyn Bloom page.

Register early at the Palm House for workshops. Workshops are held at 11am and 3pm and will include:

  • Extending the Season with Cold Frames, Barry Rogers, BBG; Garden Apprentice Program participants
  • Urban Soil Health, Testing, and Amendment, Uli Lorimer, BBG Native Flora Garden; Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust representatives
  • Edible Landscaping, Patrick Cullina, BBG vice president of Horticulture
  • Savoring Home-Grown Herbs all Year Round, Sandra McLean, Slow Food NYC
  • Grow it Anywhere in Windowboxes and Containers, Jennifer Williams, BBG gardener of Interior Displays
  • Community Composting Systems, Charlie Bayrer, Hollenback Garden; Amanda Hickman, Greene Acres Community Garden; Roy Arezzo, Carleton Avenue Brooklyn Bears Community Garden; Claudia Joseph, Garden of Union
  • Raising Chickens and Bees in the City, Owen Taylor, Just Food; Sarita Daftary, East New York Farms!
  • Best Vegetables and Fruits for Brooklyn, Gerard Lordahl, Council on the Environment of New York City
  • Brewing Compost Tea, Karla Osorio-Perez and Luke Halligan, BBG Brooklyn Compost Project
  • Canning to Preserve the Harvest, Classie Parker, Five Star Community Garden
  • The Sky’s the Limit: Growing Food on Trellises, Caleb Leech, BBG curator of the Herb Garden
  • Integrated Pest Management, Jackie Fazio, former BBG director of Horticulture
  • Seed Starting and Propagation, Solita Stephens, Olympus Garden Club
  • Fruit and Nut Trees in the City, Paul Glover and Phil Forsyth, Philly Orchard Project
  • Sustainable Watering Practices, Lenny Librizzi, Council on the Environment of New York City

Other activities include:

  • View exhibits from New York-area greening organizations
  • Enjoy Willard Traub’s Remnants of the Garden photos in the Steinhardt Conservatory
  • Check out the Gardener’s Resource Center
  • Visit the Exploring Food Systems photo exhibit in the Rotunda
  • Enjoy interactive Discovery Carts in the Garden
  • Visit the Gift and Garden Shops
  • Seasonal Guided Walking Tour of the Garden (1–2 p.m.)

When Brooklyn WAS Flatbush

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Yesterday afternoon I caught the beginning of “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” a 1964 film set during World War II. The film mixed live action and old-school cell animation. It starred Don Knotts as the piscophile Henry Limpet, who gets his wish and is magically transformed into a fish.

After he falls off a pier at Coney Island (loving the fake, Hollywood 1964 version of a 1940s era subway ride!), his body is never recovered (because he turned into a fish) and he’s presumed dead. His obituary reveals that he resided at “1313 Pleasant Avenue, Flatbush,” a non-existent street in Brooklyn.

But when he first meets his friend Crusty, the hermit crab:

Crusty: Say, what are you, anyway? You related to the porpoise family?
Henry: No, I’m a Limpet. Henry Limpet from Brooklyn. You know, Flatbush.

Oh proud Flatbushian, Henry Limpet, laying claim to all of Brooklyn, we salute you!

Crusty goes on to call him “Flatbush” for the rest of the film.

This was one of my favorite childhood films. Of course, I identified with Don Knotts’ character, a bookish, withdrawn person who identified more with the animal world than his human clan. In particular, I lived in Florida at the time and loved fish and all things aquatic. Later, during my adolescence, I maintained several aquariums; I wept when my pet Oscar jumped out of the tank for the last time. When I was 12 years old, my answer to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was “either a marine biologist or a neuro-surgeon.” Needless to say, I’m neither, today, but the interests remain.

15 Years Ago Today …

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… the World Trade Center was bombed.

At 12:18 p.m., terrorists detonated 1,500 pounds of explosives in a rental van in the parking garage of the World Trade Center, blasting a crater five stories deep and half a football field wide. While the terrorists fled the area after lighting the bomb’s fuse, they left behind six victims, including a pregnant woman, and one thousand injured people.

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center will also memorialize those killed in the first attack in 1993. I invite you to join me in supporting the memorial through the the Gardeners for Recovery cobblestone campaign I started:

Gardeners for Recovery recognize the importance of gardens and gardening for individual, community, and global healing and recovery.

Check out the Gardeners for Recovery widget near the top of the sidebar on this blog. There you can get more information, track our progress, or contribute. We’ve already raised $300. I will match the first $500 contributed toward the $1,000 goal: every dollar you contribute is worth two.

Related Posts

Announcing the Gardeners for Recovery Cobblestone Campaign, September 2007
on 9/11
on Ground Zero
on Recovery

Links

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center