By Caitlin Hawke

This is a call for your pictures of Manhattanhenge as seen from Bloomingdale.  The American Museum of Natural History has published dates that the sun will set directly at the end of our numbered streets given the slightly northeasterly-southwesterly access of Manhattan.  The Block Association rolls out the white carpet each December to fete the Winter solstice. You can read about that in this post here.

But now here's a neighborhood nod to the Summer solstice, albeit adjusted for Manhattan's axis. Neil deGrasse Tyson explains it all in the video embedded below. (If you are reading this in an emailed version of the blog feed, click on the title of the post or here to see the video.)

So go out and shoot some photos on any of these days, and send me your pictures. Or maybe you are a watercolorist and want to paint it.  I'll post all depictions of this ancient pagan celebration of the longest days of the year.  Email them to me at: [email protected]

Summer is nearly here, folks.  And as a lagniappe, I dug up a video of the lovely ginger, Teddy Thompson (son of Linda and Richard), covering a favorite song of mine by Kate McGarrigle, Saratoga Summer Song.  Scroll on down and enjoy.

And don't forget!  Best 'henge viewing is on wider streets, but leafed-out trees on one-way cross streets might make for interesting shots:

May 29 - 8:13 p.m. - half sun.
May 30 - 8:12 p.m. - full sun.
July 12 - 8:20 p.m. - half sun
July 13 - 8:21 p.m. - full sun



h/t to neighbor and blog-reader David O. for sharing the schedule

By Caitlin Hawke

A free concert in Straus Park is coming up on Wednesday, May 24th at 5 p.m.  I am sure The Blues Vipers will be terrific.  But am I the only one wondering when the Friends of Straus Park will organize a Strauss Waltz Party?  Strauss in Straus.  Come on, admit you love to waltz.

In the meantime, come get your fill of the blues -- The Blues Vipers of Brooklyn, to be precise.  Who knows, there might even be a few numbers in 3/4 time.

By Caitlin Hawke

I was trained as an archeologist, only I dug in limestone caves of Southwest France for 100,000 year old human fossils.  But it doesn't matter!  A find is a find and the euphoria is the same.

I had that exact same thrill when, at Hedy Campbell's suggestion, I headed over to the Bloomingdale library branch and leafed through old printed editions of the Block Association's newsletters.  Curated and preserved by neighborhood gem and resident B.A. archivist, Ginger Lief, and somewhat at the behest of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group's Win Armstrong I am guessing, the archive has wonder upon wonder which I'll be unearthing here for the next while.  But no better place to start than Volume I, Number I of the newsletter in its entirety.  I realize that the photos below will be hard to read so a downloadable pdf is also included here.

Things changes. Things stay the same. Neighbors age, others move in. Friends move "up". And Bloomingdale goes round and round in the Cirle Game that Joni Mitchell sang about: "We can't return we can only look behind from where we came. And go round and round and round in the circle game."

And this Block Association has moved 46 times round the seasons.  And as you'll see from the half-century 0ld content of this issues pages, we're all captives here on the carousel of time.

With my thanks and respect to several women who love our history enough to allow me to find this treasure with nearly no effort at all: Ginger and Win and probably to Hedda too, this one's for you!

And to the founders of this block association, where'er you walk, thank you for the legacy of this association. Long may the painted ponies you left behind continue to go up and down.

To see the lagniappe video below if you are receiving blog posts directly to your email, go to the blog.

By Caitlin Hawke

The day you've all been waiting for will not be a rain-kissed slog! We have seasonally-appropriate weather in store all day tomorrow.  Come on out and support your Block Association. Find treasures from your neighbors. Stop in at the Bloomingdale Aging in Place table.  Hang out with a few jaunty dogs who always make the strut down the street.  And just come be a member of this wonderful small town we all call home in this crazy place we call Planet Earth.  It's local.  It's free. And it is all waiting for you all day Saturday, May 20th from 10 am to 4 pm.

 By Caitlin Hawke

Upon occasion, I like to feature -- irregularly, I grant you -- somewhat random things seen in the neighborhood. Visiting a neighbor's home, I looked out the window across W. 103rd Street and saw this baby up close for the first time.  It's atop a brownstone just two doors east of the Master. If you scroll down, you can see what it looked like in May 2016 via Google Streetview.

Speaking of which, my friend Peter turned me on to the three-dimensionality of Apple maps.  This new construction isn't there yet.... But it will be soon.

By Caitlin Hawke

You are hereby reminded!  Saturday, 10 am-4 pm, is the signature event of the Block Association: a Block Party on W. 103rd from Riverside Dr. to West End Ave. 

By Caitlin Hawke

Some of you might think I am a little stuck on this topic (having covered it here and here), but I still love the story of this shop.  Today is 18 years to the day that the owner died.  Either way you look through the windows, it's a time capsule. Note the Food-O-Rama across the street in the automat building where the doc-in-a-box is now, or look at the barber pole just outside the door (when was the last time ou saw one of those?). Or take a look at Mr. Kay himself or the interior of his shop.  All of an era. 

I am tagging this as a Throwback post just because.

By Caitlin Hawke

Note to readers: This is a reposting of an event that was sidelined by the March snowstorm now rescheduled for May 16th.

OK, so maybe it's not technically Bloomingdale, but West 91st Street boasts a little slice of Manhattan history in that it is the site of the Trinity School, originally founded downtown at Trinity Church over 300 years ago.  Our friends at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group have a treat in store with this presentation and a special behind-the-scenes tour of the school.

Come on out for it this special event!

Discover the History of the Trinity School
Tuesday, May 16th at 6:30 p.m.
Trinity School, 101 West 91st Street
between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.

Founded at downtown Trinity Church in 1709 and now one of the oldest schools in the US, the school moved uptown in 1895 occupying
a series of lots on West 91st Street in the midst of the rows of
townhouses of turn-of-the-century Upper West Side.

Learn how the school evolved from church-sponsored to ecumenical,
from a charity school to a private school, from all-boys to co-educational and
to a school that now prides itself on its diverse student body.

Presenters will include:
Kevin Ramsey, Director of Communications,  
alumna and two parents of alumni, one of whom is a former teacher and
the other of whom is a member of the first class of girls at the school
and a member of the Board of Trustees.

A tour of the school will follow the presentation and is accessible to all.
Please note: the tour includes stairs.

For more information: (212) 666-9774.

By Caitlin Hawke

It seems like one day is not enough for the annual tradition of "Earth Day."  I mean if "Dental Awareness" and "Confederate History" get a whole month each, shouldn't the 4.543 billion-year-old third rock from the sun -- at a minimum -- get 31 or even 365 days of our attention?  Just sayin'.

No matter how much time we are allotted in the great calendar of commemorations, it's really about the time we make to show our reverence. Virtually without interuption since its inception in 1971, the Block Association has been thinking globally, acting locally, and revering.  Thanks to Ginger Lief, I can prove it since she squirreled away a non-digitized back catalogue of the Block Association newletter archives and preserved these documents at the Bloomingdale branch of the library.  There and utterly incredulous, I found Volume 1, Issue 1, which I'll post on May 20th in its entirety.  But as a preview, check this excerpt out...the roots of "Planting Day" from that inaugural issue!

New York is a different animal today so recalling back 46 years to the concrete jungle when tree beds didn't exist is harder for newer New Yorkers.  Make no mistake!  This BA and these neighbors have been at it, out there, mucking about in the soil, doting on trees and their beds, nigh on a half century.

As you'll see when I post that inaugural issue, there are a lot of current BA traditions that were laid down right then and there in 1971.  And while faces have literally changed, the spirit is, more or less, the same.  Plus the stooping, crouching, kneeling and schlepping remain a time-honored right of passage into Spring.

All this to say: Thank you, neighbors -- new, old, big, small -- for your efforts right here in the catchment on Earth Day 2017. And thanks to Mark Schneiderman for coordinating it all.  You volunteers are all now a part the collective memory that some blogger will be writing about in 2063.

For all other neighbors, how can you help?  In the short term, water the beds!  In the longer term, plan on coming out for the Fall Clean Up Day.  To recycle words above from 1971: "try and come…(we're friendly) and help make this a more beautiful area."  Details will be on our homepage in September.

Without further ado, here now is the garden of delights.  If you have other pictures, send them to me and I'll add them: [email protected].

Spring Planting Day 2017!

And below are the blooms from hundreds of bulbs that neighbor Ira planted in Riverside Park.

Daffodil photo credit: Ira Gershenhorn