NYC – everydaysparks

I love New York. I don’t have the t-shirt or mug or hat with that message plastered on it, but I really do heart New York. So many amazing things to see and do and watch and eat and drink, but today I wanted to tell you about a book shop (book store, if you prefer). It’s called Book Culture, and it’s brilliant.

But first, here’s Central Park under snow this week…

Anyway, my favourite link in the Book Culture chain is the store on Columbus. If you’re in town, it’s a great place to look around and spent some quality time with books and gifts and trinkets and cool things. Even if you’re the fussiest fuss-pot, or if you’re looking for a gift for said fussiest fuss-pot, I’m pretty sure you’ll find something (or things) here.

I was lucky enough to visit again this week, and wanted to share a couple of examples of their awesomeness with you: a blind date with a book; and a beautiful desk with stationery and encouragement to sit down, relax, and write a letter.

The “Blind Date with a book” table is full of different novels wrapped in brown paper. On each mysterious package is a note that helps you choose the best match for your date: with a list of three other novels (if you liked them, you’ll like this book too). Like an old-fashioned book match making service / lucky dip. Love it.

And then there’s this desk, with a note encouraging letter writers to sit, write, and have their letter posted by the good people of Book Culture. With nearly 2,000 letters sent from this very spot, it’s clearly helping to rekindle the art of letter writing. And they have included some political addresses, but you could also write to your granny, kindergarten teacher, or boy next door. (Or anyone else.) Such a great idea.

And now here’s the city lit with a few touches of green on St Patrick’s Day. (The beautiful view is from the fab Top of the Rock experience.) Just because.

‘Til next time, NYC. Love ya.

I’ve timed this trip really well, weather-wise, as I’ve been fortunate to miss ‘Frankenstorm’ Sandy and her follow-up act, Athena. There was some snow on the ground at JFK airport (courtesy of Athena), but it was neatly piled into frozen hills, rather than all over the runway. There are still people in New York without power (two weeks after the initial hit) and the nightly news shows heartbreaking pictures of a lot of homes and businesses damaged by flooding.

No real sign of it in the part of town that I’m in, though – the only real sign of the storms that I’ve seen so far has been the giant trees in Central Park that were uprooted and have been cut into pieces and cordoned off with police tape. It gives you an idea of how powerful the winds must have been – although, as a couple walked past behind me and looked at one huge upended tree, the lady said in a fairly nasty, disapproving voice, “Well, I can’t believe those roots were holding up that tree – look how shallow the roots are.” So maybe it was the trees’ fault, after all.

The weather has been beautiful – a nice chill in the air in the evenings, but sunny days that are perfect for walking around. Which is good, because I’ve discovered Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels. Here are some pics from my trip so far…