Author: Harry Bartlett

Trains

There’s a train yard in Queens next to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. Looks like mostly subway trains but I’m not sure – could be commuter rail as well. You can take the subway to the US Open and the station is right next to the train yard.

Queens is an interesting city that I know little about except – it’s home to the US Open, it’s supposedly the most diverse city in the world, it’s becoming popular and more gentrified, and it’s where Trump is from. I think to understand Trump you have to understand Queens, a tall order. I like to think if he didn’t become the real estate guy he became he’d be one of those guys on the street corner with a jacket filled with watches trying to sell you a fake watch, you know one of those classic New Yorker types.

Anyways the train yard is impressive – the pattern and reflective light off the steel, not only graphic and modernist but also the gritty essence and industrial faceless massiveness of New York.

Making Pesto

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.4.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]Each summer I plant basil between the tomatoes. Pesto is a great way to use up all the basil. There are some varieties like citrus basil that have a fresh fragrance otherwise the standard basil you see in grocery stores is very good especially for pesto.

The basil recipe I use is lots of basil, olive oil, garlic, asiago or any hard cheese, walnuts or pine nuts if you want to splurge, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and lemon. I’m not strict about measuring the ingredients just add them proportionally to a food processor and adjust to taste.

Pesto works well with most everything – here are stuffed portabellos with tomato.

 

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Amalfi Coast

Returning by ferry to the Amalfi coast from the island of Capri in Italy. This always reminds me of the song Tales of Brave Ulysses by the band Cream and the line ‘how his naked ears were tortured’. The myth was that Ulysses needed to be tied to the boat so he wouldn’t jump off and drown in pursuit of the ‘sirens sweetly singing’. Whenever I see those mountains I think of that song.

Moroccan Mule

This was taken in Morocco, southeast of Marrakesh near the Atlas Mountains. The way the mule looks out and the web of green grass has a surreal quality to it that I find intriguing and hard to pinpoint why. Mules are an important part of Moroccan life since it’s mostly agrarian in the south.

This was taken on my second trip to Morocco and first time south of Marakesh. A truly beautiful and mysterious country.