Weekend Tales

On Saturday, Kate and a college friend reunited and planned to go to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.......Rob offered to drive them in and I seized the opportunity to ask if he and I could check out the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market on West 39th Street..........so off we went.....the 45 minute drive produced beautiful views and we even got to see the parade of the Tall Ships which were on their way up the Hudson River to Croton-on-Hudson to the Clearwater's 2009 Great Hudson River Revival.

We dropped the girls off near Central Park West where they met another friend and then Rob and I headed to our own adventure.......

The flea market was fun and interesting....Rob bought me this little book from the Netherlands with wonderful illustrations......





and we found this French enamel clock face.....

Within sight of the market and upon the recommendation of one of the dealers....we stopped for what turned into a delightfully long lunch at the most wonderful little Trattoria.....
The restaurateur was outside tending his grapevines that were strung up and over the sidewalk.....he had window boxes of parsley....tubs of basil and tomatoes growing on his little piece of real estate there in the middle of NYC......
The only customers when we arrived were three police officers seated at a back table......One of them jumped up and showed us to a table .... he produced menus and alerted the owner to our presence......We were served an exquisite meal....complete with homemade Pinot Grigio. Issac also makes homemade Sangria and Grappa with flavors of fig, prune, rose, pineapple and apricot........Issac was charming, hospitable and gracious. He told us all about his history....his cooking and his singing career......He is very proud of his establishment and claims to make the best Paella in New York....I do not doubt him!
We really had a great afternoon.....and are making plans to come back with family soon.....

Sunday morning.....we inexplicably became involved with cleaning out the garage which was filled to the rafters and housed everything except cars........the effort ended up taking the entire day....



This old garage with its dirt floor is home to all sorts of critters and three generations of stuff...... it was a dirty and exhausting job......



But it yielded treasure.....

I discovered things that I hadn't seen in twenty years!

We managed to clean out a lot of junk.......and consequently made room for more!