Spared by Sandy

Astoria/LIC was spared by Sandy (relatively). However, we still took some punches. Here the top floor of a facade was pulled down by a gust from behind the parapet above. Sucks for the car below, but it's an SUV so I don't feel so bad. 29th St and 41st Ave (just north of Queensboro Plaza):

A couple big trees came down, pulling wires down with them. Some cars were fortunate, others not so much.

One of the things that makes the LIC Bar garden so amazing are the weeping willow trees on 46th Ave. THANK GOD two of the three survived! Sad to see one go though...

I always look for silver linings, and I found this one:

Garden Update

It's late August and the summer has brought a fair amount of excitement to the land of the fire escape. A view from below shows a summer of growth.

Much of the growth has been due to the wet summer we've had, and regular watering to offset the super hot days. Although, the rain has been hard to manage, especially for my compost when it comes in hard and sideways.

But most importantly I got fruit this year: Mostly cucumbers and peppers.

However the other day I found something peculiar. One of my tomato plants was gnawed to the stems. It was completely stripped.

After a quick investigation. I found the culprit.

A tomato hornworm. Turns out these are pretty damaging machines, as I had learned the hard way. Although fortunately for me, there are these braconid wasps out there who like to control the tomato hornworm population by laying their eggs on the worms and slowly eating out their insides. I didn't really believe it when I heard it until I looked out the window and saw it being done...twice...pretty intense sight to see.

But all in all, the garden is still well. If only I could grow some friggin broccoli...

Wasted Space

Just like fire escapes, a roof is a terrible thing to waste, especially one this big.

This is atop PS 199. Just think of the wasted possibilities, whether it be gardens, terraces, rain catchment, solar panels, etc...At least re-coat it to make it light colored, save some money on AC in the warmer months.

Tumble Tree

60 mph gusts may not seem much to somebody in Miami or Chicago, but in NYC that's enough to turn a Christmas tree into a tumble weed...

It was even less fun standing on an outside terrace 200 feet above street level with that monsoon. Even with a balcony above, I was still getting rain straight to the face. Not fun.

Why I Hate Umbrellas

Nuff said.

Sky-tastic

After being stuck at work late supervising an escalator repair in the Barnes & Noble at the Lucida, a severe rain storm rolled in, which only exacerbated the chaos in that 86th St lobby. When the work was done, I wandered around the store to wait out the storm. Shortly after, I returned to the lobby, saw that the rain had stopped, but saw some people outside looking up in amazement. I walked out and looked up and saw this (that's the Lucida on the left)...

Here's another one from a little later on: