Black Shadow and White Hawk

Today the river is still, shadows crossing it like hand puppets on a movie screen.

An arrowhead on the river reveals an airplane above.

A helicopter casts a fast-moving dragon fly down on the water.

A honey-colored hawk with a white breast and stomach nips past my window and heads towards the bridge, disappearing until she shows up again in contract against the black stripe of shadow, a finish line stretched from east bank to west, just waiting for the rest of the pack to catch up.

Bright Grey Sunrise

A red sunrise is pretty, sure. But a bright grey icy sunrise pulling up over Gotham? That makes more sense.

A beautiful quiet look at our morning river.

Snowy Tug and Barge

Last week I woke up, opened my curtains, and saw big fat snowflakes coming down. Through the fog and the mist, a tug dragged a barge through the mid-March winter.

Strangely, it wasn't snowing anywhere else on Manhattan that day. No snow at Rockefeller Center where my boyfriend's office looks out over the ice skating rink. No snow at Battery Park or over Brooklyn. Just a little hour long flurry at the top of the island. And one lonely tug towing his barge by a long lead.

West Side Perigee Moon over the Hudson

6am the day of the perigee moon a couple weeks back, I woke up accidentally early and saw this great big moon hanging over the George Washington Bridge. Later that night, the moon hung even bigger and lower... on the other side of Manhattan.

Hazy Morning on the River

It's a grey and misty morning on the river. Very Pacific Northwest, which is sort of comforting for a girl like me. When the weather gets cool and rainy, I always feel the pressure come off.

Oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast with a good cup of coffee. A good morning all around.

Barge Central

The river was filled with barges this week... from bright barges this weekend to little barge trains during today's hazy rain. Here are pictures of some of the fun.

Two happy barges pass in the sunshine

Little Toot doing his job

The George Washington Bridge on a sunny Sunday

A tug pulling a little train of floats (Thursday, March 10th)

Close up of tug with coal floats

5:30am: Numbers

I don't know how, but by some trick of the light and the movement of the waves, the light from the street lamps on the bluff made reflections in the shape of 7s and 2s in the water.

The sunrise is burning off what's left of the night. The sky is mixed with a touch of red. The cliffs are lit from below.

It's a new kind of day.

Hudson River, 4:41am

A steady stream of trucks crosses the George Washington Bridge into the city, the bright fronts of their cabs followed by the darker shadow of their trailers. The bridge casts its own shadow on the Hudson, great stripes reaching north across the water.

But the most beautiful thing is that the soft and powerful glow of the street lamps along the bluff are casting their own warm lights down on the river, and they are crisscrossed by the shadows of trees.