What are you doing today?

[Innesfan]

What interests me is where @Innesfan lives . He posted a picture of his roses sitting on a windowsill looking out at New York City . To my eye it looked much like the opening scene in Green Acres where you see New York from Oliver Wendell Douglas’ penthouse . I don’t think I’d like to live in NYC but I would like to see it . There’s everything there for everyone .

That window doesn't provide the best view that we have but it does provide afternoon sun, so I move the roses there midday. As for NYC, I'm born and raised. I left only for college in PA. I love it here. And yes, there's everything for everyone.

By way of example, I was reading a NYT review of a new restaurant (there are over 20,000 in the city) and a sentence stopped me in my tracks: "This is likely the best Sudanese cuisine in the five boroughs." And I thought, "There's more than one?!"

Similarly, I remember some years ago, on my way home from NJ, exiting the Holland Tunnel and stopping at a red light before turning uptown onto the West Side Drive in Manhattan. And staring me in the face was a huge sign, "Future home of the New York School of Trapeze Arts." And I said out loud, "It's official; NY now has everything."

All that said, where you live has always fascinated me. Montana is one of the few states I have not visited and I very much want to.

Here are better views, from our living room and kitchen windows.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

That window doesn't provide the best view that we have but it does provide afternoon sun, so I move the roses there midday. As for NYC, I'm born and raised. I left only for college in PA. I love it here. And yes, there's everything for everyone.

By way of example, I was reading a NYT review of a new restaurant (there are over 20,000 in the city) and a sentence stopped me in my tracks: "This is likely the best Sudanese cuisine in the five boroughs." And I thought, "There's more than one?!"

Similarly, I remember some years ago, on my way home from NJ, exiting the Holland Tunnel and stopping at a red light before turning uptown onto the West Side Drive in Manhattan. And staring me in the face was a huge sign, "Future home of the New York School of Trapeze Arts." And I said out loud, "It's official; NY now has everything."

All that said, where you live has always fascinated me. Montana is one of the few states I have not visited and I very much want to.

Here are better views, from our living room and kitchen windows.

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I find it interesting how big cities sort of replicate the grandeur of mountains. There is something in us that loves unfathomably big scenery. I’m not much of a city person, all the humanity stresses me out, but those big skylines are beautiful.

 

[jaylach]

I find it interesting how big cities sort of replicate the grandeur of mountains. There is something in us that loves unfathomably big scenery. I’m not much of a city person, all the humanity stresses me out, but those big skylines are beautiful.

I'm not a city person either. If I were I guess I wouldn't be living in Wyoming.

 

[Innesfan]

NYC had legendary aquarium stores. I hope some still survive.

Sadly not. All the legendary ones are gone. There are some post-Golden Age shops still here, Pacific Aquarium on Delancey St most notably, but the ones you know of and were referenced, advertised and written about in the magazines are a distant memory now.

 

[MattW]

I see a Union Jack. Is that the one building we managed to keep in NYC?

 

[Back in the fold]

@Innesfan I have read many times that New York City has the best tap water for aquarium fish that there is . The reason being , for the most part , or so they say , is because of the wood storage tanks on the top of most buildings . What do you think ?

 

[GaryE]

I'm an urban beast at heart, but I've never lived in a highrise building.
I spent the first 63 years of my life in the city, with one 8 month stretch in a rural area for a job. But I never lived higher up than the third floor.

Now I'm in the country and I see "the best Sudanese restaurant in the five boroughs" and I think, "Big deal. We have more than five burrows here."
Yeah, city living and food - it's a good thing.

 

[Innesfan]

@Innesfan I have read many times that New York City has the best tap water for aquarium fish that there is . The reason being , for the most part , or so they say , is because of the wood storage tanks on the top of most buildings . What do you think ?

In part, I'm sure the cedar and redwood water storage tanks contribute to water quality. Though those tanks only appear on high-rise buildings. If you live on a low-rise, townhouse or brownstone, water comes straight from the main. I've been told the greatest contributing factor to NYC's good water---and it tastes great and makes a fine cup of coffee--is the source; the reservoirs north of the city, mostly in the Catskills. It comes out of the tap soft and, in my building, slightly acidic, usually about ph6.8. We do have a massive cedar water tank on the roof. So if that suits the sort of fish you keep--and it does mine-- it's excellent.

The fishkeeping-friendly water of NYC has been praised for years and is often mentioned in the early literature. What surprises me is how many of the veteran breeders of old, many livebearer specialists, found such success with it. Paul Hahnel, "the father of the fancy guppy" developed all of his strains in NYC. He was widely published and I've never seen any mention of him doctoring the water in any way to suit livebearers. BTW, for all of our thinking that water changes are a modern practice, in the 1950's Hahnel wrote this about how to raise quality guppies, "When you pass the tank from the right, feed them. When you pass from the left, change some water."

@MattW : Regarding that Union Jack, it flies above a fancy private school. I just looked out the window and it's not flying today--just the stars and stripes. That's an old photo and I suspect it was flying to honor the passing of QEII.

 

[GaryE]

I'd argue that the limited range of fish kept by old time aquarists contributed to a lot of stories about great water. In Montreal, we had medium hard (tds 140 - and 140 ppm on the test kits) tapwater, and all the older guys said WE had the best fishkeeping water. But all the stores had platys and swordtails galore - beautiful ones.
NYC was where the tetra breeders were said to be.

If you look at the species in Innes, they were generally (not always) tough and adaptable fish. They set the table for all the many weird and wonderful fish that came in from the 1980s til around 2000 (the fish in Baensch), before the loss of competition because of the chains, and the loss of 'photo book' culture made the hobby fearful of new things and very conservative.

 

[GaryE]

On another note, the Province just closed all public lands, following a fire ban of a few days. It's tinder dry around here, with stands of dried pines and no rain forecast for a week. In normal times, we rarely go three days without rain, but we're now over a week with nothing here. In the interior of the province, where the large forests are, they've had dry conditions during our coastal rains. The wildfire danger is through the roof.

I was just walking the dog, and the grass is crunching like mid-winter snow.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

There’s a fire ban here too. It’s been a pretty dry summer. No huge wildfires right around here yet, but last week we had smoke and ash fall. Not sure where it was coming from.

 

[jaylach]

There’s a fire ban here too. It’s been a pretty dry summer. No huge wildfires right around here yet, but last week we had smoke and ash fall. Not sure where it was coming from.

Even after a very mild winter we have had a lot of rain in Sheridan. No local fires as far as I know.

 

[GaryE]

We have one out of control one about 2 hours away, but nothing close at the moment. It's very lovely to live in a world of trees and meadows, but when they catch fire, yikes.

We had a dry winter, but buckets of rain through early summer. Our soil is very sandy and drains fast, so our recent run of sunny, cloudless days has a quicker effect than on places with better soil. We also have manufactured forests. The forestry industry brags about planting enormous numbers of trees, and that's true. But they are all one species, planted for harvest, and stressed by climate change. They used more northern trees, not expecting south to move this way ecologically.

So sparks from ATVs, campfires, smokers and really dumb people combine with lightning to make these interesting times. Nothing yet, touch wood.

I have a handful of black neon tetra fry in a 10 gallon out back. Neat to see them develop. They grow at a gallop. Today, water changes and trying to keep the daphnia cultures alive. They don't like these warm days and have fallen back to being too few to feed to the fish. I have to nurse them through a couple of weeks so I can have lots again in September and October.

 

[Back in the fold]

dang near impossible to work with, but too much potential for amazingness to pass up.”
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Sounds like most women

 

[jaylach]

Sounds like most women

I'm ducking and hiding as the arrows begin to fly...