Thursday, April 11, 2013

Return of the Sunshine, and This Blog

There's something about the lack of sunshine, freezing temperatures, and wet outdoors that really sucks the motivation out of you. I'll make that part of my excuse that I haven't updated this blog in nearly 5 months - though laziness is part of it too. I've been actively posting on my Instagram however, and aren't pictures worth a thousand words? It's been really easy to snap a moment, and upload everywhere important... except here of course.

So this is going to be my approach from now on: it's not drastic, but I will aim to tell some of the stories behind the pictures on this blog, on a more regular basis. I will also look to return to some of the things I've missed since November, and before - including the small matter of my wedding! After all, the sun is returning, the weather is improving - so the motivation is rising as fast as the temperatures. So what better place to (re)start than a look over the source of this new found inspiration - embracing Spring!

Truthfully of course, the first chance I've had to properly enjoy Spring has been more like Summer - freakishly high temperatures more at home in August than April - yesterday was a high of 28C (!) in New York City, and just a little less in Jersey. I just had to get out at lunchtime and enjoy it, so two days ago I had my first outside lunch of the year, over by the food trucks at World Financial Center.

Sun! BBQs! I love it.

I didn't grab food from this barbecue, but it spoke to me of a summer to come! The temperatures continued into the next day - I took my lunch inside, but followed it up with a walk to City Hall.

Something's going down

All the benches and fountain-side spaces to sit were taken, but something else was clearly going on at the Hall. I continued on to capture some of the more decorative buildings in an area I had not really explored yet.

Old before new

Ornate

That did it for lunchtime - but come 5pm work was done and I needed to go out again. I took my wandering to Jersey City this time, thinking I would take a scenic route home. L and I had noticed many nice apartments and riverside views between Exchange Place and home, so that seemed as good as anywhere.

Rail terminal, lady liberty, big ol' clock.

Miss Liberty again, amongst boats.

Views of Lady Liberty galore! The first pic shows the slightly garish landmark of the Colgate Clock, and the latter is a marina outside some rather expensive apartments. Not a bad view to wake up to at all! I was not even halfway home when a fellow Jersey resident back in the office called and suggested we meet at a new bar, for L and I anyway. It is only 3 blocks from us, but we never visited when the weather was grim. It is the sort of bar best left to savour in sunlight. The name? Zeppelin Hall Biergarten!

Biergarten kinda people #jerseycity #nj #sunshine #beer

We stayed here until the sun finally left, and long after that too. Armed with steins of lager, we heralded the return of the sun, warmth, and outside social niceties. The storms have started today, and the temperature has dropped back to normal, but we've been shown much promise of a nice Spring and early Summer, to be enjoyed whatever country we're in (more on that later). And I promise to share more of it, too.

1 comment:

  1. Lucky you......our spring has just been an extension of Winter, with temperatures not even reaching double figures during the day.
    We are promised it will turn milder in the next few days, and in Scotland that means rain.
    I think I prefer the cold dry wintry Spring

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