Still Life: as if it were animate

a Herm at Montauk Point: the boundary marker

perceptual uncertainty of knowing

fractured light searching darkness

floating: light as a feather

Wooster Street, Manhattan: how changed it is

two phases in a flower's life

constrained then liberated

A deer in a Forest : a painting

Bess and Plato's Cave: a conundrum

The Life Cycle: youth, maturity, old age, near death

ALERT: Again, Pollution in Tenafly, Bergen County, N.J.

Seen on Monday August 22, 2011, in the Tenakill Brook. Petrochemicals floating on the surface. The Tenakill Brook is a feeding stream that United Water uses as a source of water for Bergen County. These chemicals are harmful to the environment and even trace amounts in drinking water have serious potential for contributing to myriad diseases, such as cancers and possibly to autism. Where do the petro--chemicals come from? It is said that people pour such matter into sewers. Is this true? Perhaps some of it leaks from gas stations , but a considerable amount is on roadways, where trucks leak gasoline as do cars. This washes into roadway drains, and thence feed into streams, such as The Tenakill Brook. What can be done to solve the problem? Surely, not acknowledging that a problem exists is not a solution.

The petrochemicals are visible in the slick areas, where grey matter is visible.

The measure that is visible in the first picture was introduced to record water levels. It was never used, apparently, and over years has declined to the right and has long been a collector of debris that has accumulated around it. It has been noted. When Rutgers University sent teams to study water in Tenafly for pollutants, in particular E Coli, the measure was pointed out to them, but it was not removed. It was also brought to the attention of Tenafly and it still remains in place. Why?

"the times they are a-changin": Bob Dylan, 1963/1964

"the order is rapidly fadin And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin"
Bob Dylan, 1963/1964

so we thought. but now look.
yes, Jim Crow laws are gone but racism is alive and well; women want to be droids like Barbie, clicking along in those shoes whose points rival the Empire State Building's antenna and money is the coin of men, men who can buy anything and their deity is sports

Diogenes where are you? Searching for an honest man were you not? Is that why you became a Cynic, you old dog.

A Tickle in the Garden of Eden

Looking for Love

Memory: what might have been

a memory: hibiscus flower with rain drops

frayed and dying: the skeleton remains

a coat of thorns

The Dove River: where Izaak Walton fished

seeing red: the red landscape

Roses: a family portrait

weeping blood: so young yet already bloodied

T. B. and Susan Joan Rosen: Garnet Lake, New York

Toby and Susan were best of friends. Both of attended Hunter Kindergarten. Our parents were also very close friends. Here we are on a farm situated at Garnet Lake, in the Adirondacks, New York Sate.What amazing times those childhood days were.

Paul Peter Rosen, M.D.: Happy Birthday

Peter, as he was known in his family, in his delighted mother's arms. Beate Caspari-Rosen was a physician as was Peter's father George Rosen. Peter was born in Brooklyn in 1938 on August 16. The second picture shows our family in Sullivan Maine. Peter was a terrific fisherman and loved his fishing rod and gear which he shows off in this picture. We are standing outside of the inn where we summered near Acadia National Park, the section of the park on the coast. I am holding a funny little panda bear that my best friend T had given me before she moved to Mexico, where she still resides.

Wickedness emerges from its den

The Cosmic Navel

A Unicorn at Vaison La Romaine, France

accidents will happen

Eve after The Fall

after The Fall: Eve covers herself

an assault

high wire act

the red darning needle

Storm Clouds, August 1, 2011

The Tenakill Brook in Tenafly (07670): Pollution, as always

The problems of Tenafly's Pond, its pollution and algae have now reached the Tenakill Brook, a stream that carries water directly to United Water, Tenafly's source of water. I am posting pictures of the connecting stream between the pond and the brook and then of the algae entering the Tenakill Brook.

Tenafly Commons: Pollution in Bergen County, 07670

Tenafly has grown a barrier around its Pond to hide pollution, I believe. Originally the idea was to prevent water fowl, that may carry the bacterium e coli from swimming in the Pond by planting bushes and flowers around the pond's perimeter. But the fowl are long gone, eaten by hawks and killed by chemicals and other pollutants in the water. What Tenafly has lost is its Pond, one of the most charming aspects of The Commons, the one park where old and young, visitors and residents, could relax and recreate. When I moved to Tenafly in the early 1970s a few ducks swam in the water in the spring and summer and in the winter the pond froze, making it a lovely natural skating area, used by many of the families of Tenafly. It gave the town an old- fashioned "homey" feel that has been lost as more and more fenced in areas have taken away what was once a the pastoral, the ideal of the greater garden designer Frederick Law Olmsted.

The town residents were never told or consulted about the municipal government's plans for the Pond. But now its policty is apparent. Plants and trees sown in fall 2010 that are inhospitable have completely encircled the pond and threaten to make the pond a marsh as the plants advance into the water. Trees resembling locusts are covered with piercing thorns; wild asters are rampant. Lovely to look at in the early fall, when blossoming, the asters are a menace once the flowers drop and the seeds appear. These too are sharp and attach to clothing and to fur. The height of all these plants is astounding and the pond now can only be viewed from bridges at the east and west ends of the pond. (It is ironic that Tenafly's presence on the Web shows the Pond with cherry trees in bloom and the water clearly visible from all sides.) Pity the child who wanders into this 6 six- foot high jungle and cannot find a path out. How terrifed that youngster would be, especially if it wandered towards the water and fell into the pond. It could not be seen and its parents would be horrified by what had transpired. In fact the paths are gone that ringed the pond last year. Apparently no thought was given by the Town Council, the Mayor and garden maintenance to what could happen, what dangers existed in this absurd growth. If the aim was to prevent refuse from falling into the pond, the plan has failed. There is refuse at present; the same plastic bags and bottles are still bobbing around in the water and green tennis balls too. The oxygen in the pond is low as algae bloom attests and as always there are chemical flows that can be observed on the water's surface. As the Council and Mayor may know, the wildlife that once lived in the pond is dead and despite the attempt to plant some flowers to "prettify" the greenery, the birds that once lived in the pond area are gone as are the turtles, the fish--except for a few goldfish that were dropped into the pond to give it a semblance of life-- and most notable of all is the loss of butterflies. These have been eaten by carnivorous dragon flies. Yes there are many bees and that is a good thing, but for most persons who would like to look at the water as they were once able to do, the bees will certainly give them pause. Local towns such as Demarest have solved the goose problem and today their waterway, the Tenakill Brook, looks lovely. The government in Demarest planted aroudn the perimeter but did not use overkill to keep the birds at bay. Tenafly has gone over the top and now we truly have a mess that few in Tenafly enjoy. How many people want to see "weeds" where once they could sit at their ease and gaze at the floating world, the water with all its reflections.