Spring!

New York has really come into its own the last few weeks now the sun is shining, the winter coats have gone into a suitcase at the top of the closet and the flowers are out.

It's lovely watching a new city go through each seasonal change for the first time.

Look at this view of the Chrysler building from outside the office where i volunteer. 

5pm, leave the building and look up. 

Compared to this 5pm just two months earlier.

We haven't been doing anything too dramatic lately. Real life has kicked in and there has been work and colds and regular day to day stuff going on. Which is nice in itself, to be starting to build our own new routine.

But here are a few photos snapped on my iphone over the last week or so, of spring in the neighbourhood, the novelty of working freelance from home (or the library, or the coffee shop) for a while, the University in full blossom bloom and a couple of early evening strolls in Central Park.

Pretending to be a student

Now that I'm job hunting and working on various projects I find I'm at my most productive when I follow Dave to the Columbia Library where he works a few days a week. It's right at the end of our street in the gorgeous main university campus. 

There is something about a library, especially a university library,  that brings a sense of calm over me. I'm one of those weird people who actually look back fondly at the period of my undergraduate finals. Now there are noticeably fewer piles of books on the desks (and many, many more MacBooks).

 If you look closely you'll see Dave was working on some very technical and important volcano data... 

After a morning's hard work a sandwich in the quad, soaking up the sunshine whilst enjoying a spot of eavesdropping was the perfect addition to my faux-ivy league career.

Morningside Heights

Our new flat is at west 115th and Broadway in a neighbourhood called Morningside Heights, at the top end of the Upper West Side.

For two people who have spent their whole adult lives studying or working in universities it's pretty great to have the Columbia University campus right across the road.

There is loads to see, eat and shop in our new area too. 

Here are a few photos.

Our busy stretch of broadway.

Regular local produce market at the end of our street.

Sunday bagel queue!

One of many local 'gourmet' food carts