Vendors's Day

Today in NYC, we celebrate our vendors. We're paying more attention to the men and women who man the food, ice cream and pretzel carts around the city since two vendors notified the police when they noticed smoke coming out of a parked van. Sure enough, a would-be terorist was trying to set off a bomb in our Theatre District. The quick-thinking vendors saved the day.

The carts offer every kind of food from hot dogs to Chinese food to tacos to falafel, vegetarian to kosher, spicy to bland.

Then there are the gentlemen who sell inexpensive watches, imitation purses with a design logo, scarves, jewelry, gloves and what about those I Love NY tee shirts that sell for the reasonable price of three for a dollar?

Near the museums, you'll find reproductions of famous pieces of art, crafts and original paintings. Near the theatres, caricaturists will be happy to immortalize you.

Tel a visitor that the design items are fake and they'll tell you--Hey! it's NY.


Bests,

Elise

Scene Stealer, my eBook, is available at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version is produced by Audible.

POCKETS

What would a writer do without pockets? Whenever I went on a trip I wore pants. Pants with pockets. Especially useful when I was writing a travel article. One pocket held a small notebook and ballpoint pen that would later jog my memory when I sat down to write about an interesting story, statistic, tragic or humorous event that had taken place on that very spot or area. Another pocket held a record book--normally used to jot down check numbers. The book's latest use? To record the number of the photo and a note about where the picture was taken or what the object was or who I was trying to capture. I tried using a recorder but found the noise of a motor or engine would drown out my words or the words of a guide and sometimes I became so interested in the subject I didn't realized the tape had run out. Another pocket would hold a few small bills and around my neck I wore a grouch bag that held more money and a passport if there were no safe in the hotel. Water and sun lotion resided in a bag or backpack. A sweater was tied around my waist and a sun hat guarded my face from the hot rays until I lost it after removing the hat to take a photo. Some trips I lost as many as three.

Sometimes a trip would reap a lot of material and a major job was getting the photos on the computer and labeling them. Great fun and great memories.

What is your favorite outfit for trips or interviews?

Bests,

Elise

Scene Stealer, my eBook cozy is available at Carina Press, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and wherever eBooks are sold. An audio version has been produced by Audible

http://www.amazon.com?_encoding=UTF8&tag=eliswarn-20

Tulip Time

One day we were in the Jordaan area, thought to be named for the French Le Jardin (garden). Most of the alleyways and canals in this section are named for flowers and I visualize fields of tulips before we step through the door of Amsterdam’s Tulip Museum and meet the museum’s knowledgeable director Sjoerd van Eeden who brings the amazing history of the tulip to life.

A relative of the lily, the tulip did not originate in Holland but grew, wild and free, in the central Asian highlands. Brought by Sultans to Istanbul from Persia, the tulip thrived and reigned supreme in their gardens inspiring the admiration of Augerius Busbeguius, a Viennese Ambassador sent by the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Busbeguius introduced the tulip to Europe. Flowers grown from the seed the Ambassador sent to Vienna became enormously popular; before long seeds and bulbs were carried to many parts of Europe including Antwerp, Brussels, Paris and Prague. The wealthy were captivated by this entertaining pastime and western European gardens blazed with the flower by 1630. The tulip had become an icon of prosperity bought and sold by specialists and academics.

Carolus Clusius, a biologist from Vienna, became the director of Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, the oldest botanical garden in Europe, in the 1590s. He had a background in medicine and in Leiden, he researched medicinal plants. Clusius was one of the first to grow tulips, introducing the bulb to Holland. He experimented, performing crossbreeding and propagation with different species. Displaying his sizeable collection; he presented bulbs for sale in 1591. The price, Clusius asked for the bulbs was high and no one knows whether the bulbs were sold or stolen from his garden but the citizens of Leiden began growing bulbs that to this day remains a principal industry in Holland.

Sjoerd tells us the Sultans thought the flower resembled an upside down turban called dulban or tuliban and the name developed into tulip. By the 17th century, many outstanding selections of tulips were developed for the prosperous by horticulturists and were desired for their elegance or delicacy, varied hue, rarity and social standing. Tulipomania in Holland led to speculation (traders often earned as much as 60,000 florins (approximately $61,000) in a month). Tulip bulbs were traded until the cost reached the price of a house. Financial disaster followed in the crash of 1637; in less than two months, thousands of Dutch businessmen were bankrupt but the cultivation of tulips continued and today is run according to standard business practices.

Many of the tulips that stirred the speculation are still in existence and history’s tulips may be planted or, if you’re inspired by the Dutch Masters, painted today. They can be purchased through mail order catalogues and garden centers.
The tulip is a member of the onion family and during World War II was fried and eaten when food was scarce; gardeners may notice that squirrels and deer consider the flower a delicacy. Deer are not as attracted to daffodils, alliums, lilies, snowflakes and scilla.

Travelers passing fields of tulips, after their first bloom, may be surprised to see stems without heads. Tulips are allowed to flower for seven to ten days before mechanical harvesters clip the flower stalks to preserve nutrients for their bulbs. The flowers are often fed to cows; they prefer the red ones. The big business in Holland is supplying bulbs not flowers but the Dutch fill their gardens with magnificent blooms and purchase fragrant bouquets for less than five Euros and as I passed flower stalls in the daily markets, I longed to fill my hotel room with nature’s vibrant works of art.

The museum offers a film that takes the visitor to the tulip fields of the Netherlands and a modern tulip farm. The museum’s gift shop, Bloembollenwinkel (Bulb Basket) offers prints, books, mugs, antique tiles, delicate cups and saucers, vases and note paper in addition to bulbs. Prices range from 2.50 euros for a keychain to 14 for a T-shirt to 35 for a handbag. The keepsakes make lovely gifts and are a sweet remembrance of Holland’s favorite flower.


Scene Stealer is available at Carina Press:

Christchurch, New Zealand

Vacationing in Australia and New Zealand a number of years ago, my husband and I stopped in Christchurch, called "The Most English City Outside England." This morning we turned on the radio just as news of the earthquake that killed and hurt so many residents and visitors was broadcast. Our thoughts turned to the people we met during the time we spent there, the magnificent ever-changing scenery of the Central Otago of New Zealand's South Island. Spiny, thickset shrubs of yellow gorse, beautiful but hated by farmers, grows everywhere. Pink, purple and white lupines, randomly thrown from some nature lover's vehicle, dot the sides of the road. Sheep lounge on the hillsides and lull bus passengers into a state of tranquillity.

We listened to stories of gold bearing quartz veins that found active faults formed by earthquakes--I had never thought of earthquakes again in this lovely land until the broadcast this morning but the history of gold in the Otago goes back 150 million years, when it was as mountainous as the Alps. Our tour was headed for Queenstown and the rays of the sun bounced off the 7,550-foot peaks of the Remarkables Mountain Range and shimmered across Lake Wakatipu which means Born Of Gold. The lake is the third largest in New Zealand stretching for more than 50 miles.

Torrential rains had washed away parts of the road leading into Queenstown, along with shops, homes, streets and restaurants, but the town was busy reconstructing and wherever we went we could hear hammers, drills and saws playing a jaunty tune, a tune, I'm sure they will soon be playing again.

Jade, New Zealand's "Stone of Peace," carries spiritual and healing qualities--a belief held by the Maori. We will hold that belief in our hearts and wish New Zealanders well.