Back home now, stimulated by my visit to LA and NY.

I’d forgotten how much I love both those cities. The expression “New York minute” refers to the hectic pace of New Yorkers’ lives. A New Yorker does in an instant what the rest of us would take a minute to do. My 10 day visit passed in one of those minutes. It was much too short but packed with inspirational moments and wonderful people.

This new Santa Monica gelato bar is like a Corvette, colourful and cool. So very L.A. Note the “cash only” sign on the counter. I saw these in a surprising number of places, especially cafes. Could it be that businesses and consumers are reacting to the ever increasing charges banks are imposing despite tax payer/government bailouts?

I took the wrong lane on the 10 freeway and had to make a fast exit to get back on track. As luck would have it, I found myself on Grand Street, downtown LA, looking at this curvaceous beauty shimmering in the late afternoon light. Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of the LA Philharmonic.

What a different scene in New York, all vertical and horizontal lines. Here’s the magnificent Brooklyn Bridge as seen from the windows of my Thanksgiving dinner hosts’ loft in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

and a peek at the fabled Statue of Liberty beyond the bridge..

I couldn’t visit the US without a visit to Anthropologie, my favourite chain store that doesn’t behave at all like a chain store. It’s more like an artist’s loft that has stuff for sale, and every store is different. The attraction is not so much the merchandise as  the decor and displays which are always highly inventive and spectacular. This season it’s snow drifts made of paper cups.

Habu beckoned. India and I spent some time there, ordering all kinds of goodies for South Seas Knitting: new yarns (linen, linen paper, linen steel, cottons, bamboo lace weight and more) and kits which should arrive here in the next couple of weeks.

Here’s Bruce, a handsome French Bulldog I met outside Pioneer market in Brooklyn. Irresistible in his stylish quilted parka, he’s prepared to tolerate a strange woman taking his picture..

until, harumpf, he’s over it, or is he just basking in the sunshine?

My most beautiful day in NY came at the end of my stay, a sunny and brisk Sunday afternoon spent at

In the far northwest corner of Manhattan, they’re set in Fort Tryon Park, on a rocky hill high above the Hudson River. The Cloisters house a collection of medieval art assembled by John D Rockefeller, including the famous tapestries depicting a unicorn hunt.

The tapestries are huge, intensely colourful and intricate. I cannot do justice to their beauty here. You have to see them. I found them strangely touching. Here’s my favourite: the Unicorn in Captivity

The building housing the collection is itself a work of medieval art. It’s made from several medieval French cloisters which were reassembled in 1938. The gardens are planted according to horticultural information taken from medieval documents and artifacts.

Here’s the terrace outside the Cloisters, overlooking the Hudson River. Across the river in New jersey is another park, also on land donated by Rockefeller for the purpose of preserving the view for the museum.

The inside is serene and beautiful.

and here I am with India, so happy to be in the company of my lovely daughter once again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under inspiration, yarns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.