The High Line is a linear park made from the remnants of an elevated freight rail line that ran from the Meat Packing District on the West Side of lower Manhattan all the way up to midtown. The first segment of the park just opened to the public and goes from Gansevoort Street up to about 20th Street. Currently you have to enter the park (as seen below) from the Gansevoort Street entrance. Eventually the park will go up to 33rd Street.

For decades the rail line was unused and ever decaying. As if humans needed a reminder that we are superfluous to life on this planet, it also proved to be a repository for all kinds of wild flora eager to take back this thin slice of Earth. Any seed with even a little bit of moxie managed to find fertile soil on the tracks turning the abandoned line into an urban meadow. The truly wild meadow is no longer there, but the park designers, and the great Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf did an amazing job recreating a space that manages to maintain the wild spirit of the High Line.

Entering the High Line at Gansevoort Street one is greeted by the Standard Hotel which straddles part of the line.

Hudson River looking over at New Jersey.

The skyline of Jersey City.

The Statue of Liberty.

Tenth Avenue (I think).

The Empire State Building.

One thing you get on the High Line are some juxtapositions that you wouldn’t get at street level.

I love how the Frank Gehry building peeks around the corner of the old brick building in the left foreground.

This rogue weed growing out of an adjacent building is a reminder of the High Line’s wild past.

Philly’s hometown boy, Thomas Eakins is well represented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He did many portraits throughout his career but is perhaps best known for images of the male form (rowing, wrestling, etc.) and a few large works depicting medical lectures such as the The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic. The photo below of The Agnew Clinic is just a detail of the much larger painting. The major action in the painting (shown in the detail below) very dramatically takes place in the lower right corner of the canvas. The lecturer (not shown in the detail) is similarly illuminated as the surgeons, but is off to the left away from the action. The steeply raked rows of observers fill most of the painting and provide a darkish background that makes the surgical team and, to a lesser degree, Professor Agnew almost glow on the canvas.

It is too bad they placed the information placard so close to this lovely bas-relief sculpture by American artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Kind of messed up my photo.

Although we get plenty of butterflies and bees in our terrace garden, except for one Robin who grabbed a worm once, we haven’t really been able to attract any birds. I won’t let John put out seed because I don’t want to attract rats (or any more of those damn squirrels). So it was quite surprising and satisfying to see these little Gold Finches clinging to the stock of the verbena bonariensis and feeding on the blossom, probably for seeds. The photos were taken through the window and screen so they look a bit fuzzy. And the dead plant in the background is the result of the plant sitter not watering it…nothing to do with John’s green fingers.