Yesterday, I had a meeting scheduled in Manhattan. I’ve got a short gig in July where I’ll be working with the cast of an upcoming production of Much Ado About Nothing – two days of tablework with the actors, director and me. I’ve been talking on the phone with the director and yesterday we finally got to meet.

Don had an audition in the city, so we were able to travel together.

Isn’t he adorable? Kind eyes, sweet smile. He has a birthday coming up on Monday.

Getting ready to head into the Lincoln Tunnel; that’s the Empire State Building.

Upon arrival, we split up and went our separate ways. Don’s audition took no time at all and he headed back home on the bus long before I did. I was headed for the Upper West Side, my favorite part of Manhattan. Actually, I was headed for Central Park West, where the director lives. For those of you who are not that familiar with Manhattan, an address on Central Park West is most definitely coveted. Who wouldn’t want a view of that glorious park from their windows? As I walked toward my destination, I snapped some photos (on my iPhone) of the beautiful examples of architecture that abound in NYC.

Brownstones abound, each one different, each one with wonderful details that we no longer see in modern architecture.

One of the entrances into Central Park.

These buildings face the park. Check out the wonderful detail, the bay windows, the rooftop garden.

Be still my heart. I love this Art Deco-era building. The corners are curved and the windows follow that curve. Could I live there, please?

Oh my. Stunning.

I took this shot while standing in the park. I’ll take the penthouse apartment, please.

In my dreams, my wildest dreams, we would have a pied à terre in Manhattan, as well as our little cottage. I really love the city and I have a push/pull kind of feeling about it. I love living in the country but there is so much beauty and stimulation in Manhattan. There’s so much to do, so much to see and much of what Don and I do is centered there. But the three of us squeezed into a teeny-tiny expensive apartment? Not too crazy about that idea.

This director, who runs a respected theater in the Berkshires, lives in a huge apartment overlooking Central Park. She and her husband bought it many years ago, when the Upper West Side was still sort of dicey and prices were fairly reasonable. They converted two apartments into one. It’s gorgeous. Could I live in an apartment like that? Oh yeah.

The view from her living room window. That’s Central Park. That road you see is within the park and the expanse of water is called the Reservoir. That’s the Upper East Side in the background. At one point during our work session, a summer rainstorm occurred. Afterward, the light over the Park was glorious – a late afternoon golden glow.

Oh yes, I could live here.

After about 3 hours of text work, I headed back home. All in all, a lovely day in Manhattan.

Today, more work on the script, some lawn mowing, some cleaning. Do you find it hard to keep up with cleaning when the garden beckons? I sure do.

I’m debating adding the Pin It button to the end of my posts. I added the Pin It option to my browser long ago – it allows me to pin photos from various websites and blogs, though I don’t do a whole lot of that. If I add it to my posts, it will be at the end of the post, not the kind that appears when you hover over a photo. I find that so irritating. When I’m visiting a blog and my cursor somehow lands in the direction of a photo that I’m focusing on and that photo suddenly gets a sort of white film over it with a big old Pin It button on display and I have to move the cursor off the photo; well, I get irritated. It’s annoying. I find myself yelling, “Stop it!” I figure that if I find it annoying, you might, too. I like Pinterest but I certainly don’t want my blog to be about Pinterest. If you know what I mean.

Okay. Got to get moving. We have a wee ant problem that needs some attention. And a dog corral that needs mowing.

Happy Tuesday.