My cousin Lynn, RIP

 Lynn Rowland, April 11, 1952 - May 8, 2013

Cousin - friend - cohort- fun person to be around. Family. Making fun of family. Laughing in that deep booming throaty sexy voice. My cousin, my sister. My cousin. My friend.

My grandfather married her grandmother when we were both eleven. The grandchildren picture says it all, 7 of us posing (at Bachrach's!) all dressed up and smiling. While our mothers sipped sherry in the vestibule "To take the edge off."

Lynn was exactly six months older than me, to the day. In that picture she'd reached puberty and I still had pigtails. We were connected from that moment on. And forever.

What to say about my cousin. That she was smart, funny, loving, real. That you knew where you stood. That she was honest, kind, appreciative. Musically and artistically talented.

She was brave. She was forthright. She was concerned. She loved her parents deeply. Happy the last years of her life were spent up in Maine, near them, caring for and being cared for. A gift for all of them.

She called me at the beginning of May, or maybe it was April.
 "Coz, I've been thinking of you, are you okay?"

I am more than okay, but she wasn't.
I'm so glad we spoke. And that I sent her one more photograph of the backyard where we'd grown up and hung out together.

I miss her.

spring in connecticut

the backyard
may 4, 2013
a beautiful spring morning

moonrise over backyard

moonrise in connecticut, april 20, 2013.
how lucky i am to get to be in the country each weekend, and see the change from week to week, season to season, morning to night.

leach hollow road, sherman, ct. april 13, 2013.

23 skidoo

23rd & broadway @ fifth avenue, 100 years ago

an amazing little film from the metropolitan museum's "street" exhibition. the corner of 23rd just east of the flatiron building, men's hats and women's skirts flying. for real, on film, then, now, always.

sparrows

sparrows

i've started to photograph sparrows and other small birds (mourning doves) whenever i see them, which is nearly everyday during the week as i walk to the subway or around town. i hear them before i see them - a sweet high-pitched plaintive sound. they seem to live in the bushes and play on the fences. this photo was made on washington square north, just west of university place. 

from the westside highway

taken from the car, friday february 8, 2013. from the west side highway as we passed below chittenden avenue. the apartment house where i grew up, in washington heights.

as i remember, the wall on the other side was about 4 feet high and 2 feet wide -low enough to climb onto. one day i walked back and forth on it, following my friend who was not scared of heights. i had nightmares for weeks.

it was a ten-story building; my grandmother lived there too and her studio apartment faced west- three of those windows were hers- two from the main room and one from the kitchen. she had a gorgeous view of the hudson river and the george washington bridge.

i have memories of sitting on her floor and playing with her button collection. i wish i had had the idea then to ask her about her growing up- (she was born in manhattan in 1875). but hindsight, like memory is 20/20. i didn't ask and she didn't say. but i do have some old family pictures to piece together clues.