Welcome to my Blog! I’m very excited to have you on board! Central Park Story is a young adult adventure series whose main character is a sixteen-year-old boy named Christopher Middleton. It’s also a treasure hunt/romance/historical adventure/fantasy/humorous tale all rolled into one! I put a lot of time researching the backdrop to the series which […]
The Alice in Wonderland statue you’re probably most familiar with is pictured to the right, but there’s another, lesser known statue hidden away in the Sophie Loeb Children’s Playground. Unless you’re a five-year-old, you probably aren’t aware that it even exists (see second photograph). The more familiar bronze Delacorte sculpture (created in 1956) is generally […]
I’s not that difficult to imagine the horses at the Central Park carousel springing to life! The present carousel (this is the fourth iteration of the carousel in the history of the park) was made in 1908 by Solomon Stein and Harry Goldstein and is one of the finest examples of American folk art in […]
I’m not going to dwell on the obvious when it comes to the design of the Central Park Mall. Probably you are already familiar with the concept of its being an open air cathedral buttressed by elms with the Naumberg Bandshell acting as a choir loft in the apse and the Bethesda Fountain and the […]
There may or may not be a secret map of Central Park. I will leave that up to your imagination. What is clear is that Vaux designed the Mall to point in a straight line (due north, as a matter of fact), starting from the Olmsted Flower Bed and heading straight past the Bethesda Terrace, […]
It’s hard to justify history giving second billing to Calvert Vaux, Olmsted’s partner in the creation of Central Park, but that’s exactly what happened, at least in the 19th century. Vaux approached Olmsted, asking if he would partner with him in submitting a design for the contest. In addition to collaborating with Olmsted, it was […]
This pic shows one of the results of giving an oral report at school. I’ll let you imagine some that are much worse. Better yet, I’ll let you read Central Park Story, Book One and find out for yourself when Christopher gives his report on the design and construction of Central Park. Link to this […]
If you think mowing the lawn is a pain in the butt, how about making Central Park out of what you see to the right? It makes mowing the lawn look kind of like, well, a walk in the park. It took moving 2.5 million cubic yards of stone and earth, planting 270,ooo trees and […]
Exactly how and where the bard makes his appearance is something I’ll let you discover as you read Central Park Story Book One, but he’s too important a person not to give top billing in my book, so I have him appear (unexpectedly, of course) in several of my scenes. The statue to the right […]
The Delacorte Theater is an amazing cultural venue in the heart of Central Park. Performances are free (tickets are on a first come first serve basis) and it offers a wide range of entertainment, including many of Shakespeare’s plays… Okay, I admit I’ve never actually been there myself. Not that I haven’t wanted to go. […]
Hansel and Gretel has to be one of the most awesome children’s stories every written. First of all, two kids find themselves abandoned in the deep, dark woods of Germany. Scary stuff, indeed! Then they find their way out by following a trail of breadcrumbs that they purposefully left behind. Pretty neat trick! Last but […]
