My Neighborhood- a primer in creativity
Posted on | August 26, 2009 | 9 Comments
Almost three years ago I was dragged kicking and screaming from my home of 25 years in the West Village. Well it wasn’t quite that dramatic except in my psyche. The brownstone I had been renting for all that time was going to be sold and I had no choice but to relocate. I was miserable and looked everywhere to find someplace that made me even a smidgen as happy as living there had, I didn’t think it was possible and was alternately angry or comatose. I focused lots of my misery on Marc Jacobs as he was omnipresent and I was certain if he hadn’t opened 40 or 50 stores around the corner, I could still afford to live where I wished to. It was an awful time. But, then I got lucky- I came upon Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and while I did swear that I would never be one of those obnoxious outer-boroughers that went on and on about how much they love being out of Manhattan, I have fallen deeply, and madly in love with it. A particularly fetish of mine has become the front gardens that Carroll Gardens is famous for, I adore them.
The amazing part is, each front garden is almost identical in size, the houses are set back from the street about 30 or 40 feet and the space before the front doors is around 20 by 20 square give or take a few feet. What an outrageous and eclectic array of choices my neighbors have made! It’s truly astonishing and amuses me no end in my wanderings. I choose a different way home every time I go out shopping so I can encounter a new variation.
It’s an obvious metaphor I know (what we all do with more or less the same space), but I couldn’t resist sharing it with you:
Here’s what you start with.
Some keep their gardens with homespun appeal,
while some Carroll Gardeners grow minimalist, elegant odes to nature.
Several grow vegetables.
There are a lot of Zenish habitats,
so Zen, there are Koi ponds
or just perfectly-balanced rock gardens.
There are hunting lodges,
monochromatic wildflower fields,
and wildly colorful ones.
This being still an Italian Catholic neighborhood, there are lots of odes to God and Country.
There are perfect “secret” gardens.
And my personal favorite, the one that gets me every time:
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9 Responses to “My Neighborhood- a primer in creativity”
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August 27th, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
I’m in a tiny apartment in a town house in Park Slope now, but I walk through this neighborhood sometimes on sunny Sundays and think: “One day…”
August 29th, 2009 @ 5:57 am
I left comment for this on the wrong post! I’m used to finding a place to comment at the end of a post not the beginning.
Sooooo – I love this post and your neighborhood, and hope to come back soon on a permanent basis.
xo xo
PS Your blog is great, but please get rid of security letters when one leaves a comment
September 3rd, 2009 @ 2:43 am
Your post could not have come at a better time. I am considering relocating to NY and I told my son I would probably look in Brooklyn. He was not impressed! Now maybe he’ll understand.
October 7th, 2009 @ 1:20 pm
You must live within steps of our friends! These are some of the favorite snaps that I pass each time I visit them. What a great place to live!!
October 8th, 2009 @ 8:49 am
Too fun!
There is a house on 16 mile in Troy, MI that has a yard much like the last photo. It’s got so many yard decorations that it’s famous, people actually know the house from miles away!
I bet that house has the same there in your neighborhood.
Even though it’s strange, once the house here in Michigan sold to a new family, the took down a lot of the decor. The big pieces are still there but it lacks the energy it used to have. Here’s hoping yours keeps its kitschy charm!
October 8th, 2009 @ 8:50 am
Meaning the one in your neighborhood-not that I assumed that was yours personally….
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