Jane's Carousal

This September, a fully restored vintage carousal opened down in DUMBO and I have been dying to go check it out! It was originally built in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio. It's named after Jane Walentas, who rescued it at auction in 1983. She and her husband have been scraping off layers of amusement park paint and repainting the entire carousal since 1984.  It sits in the Brooklyn Bridge Park in a beautiful Plexiglas pavilion designed by Jean Nouvel so you can even ride in the rain.


Tickets are $2 per ride, and the staff is very friendly. In the row of 3 horses only the two on the inside "jump" and the larger horse on the outside is stationary. If all the jumping horse are full, they'll run the carousal with the empty outer horses so everyone can get a chance to ride.

It was marvelous! I felt like I was back in time, enjoying some fresh air from the back of my steed (except no one was making me ride sidesaddle in a floor length skirt).

 

Once they had scraped all the layers of paint down to the original coat, they recorded the original color and where it was on the horse. Then each horse was painstakingly sanded and repainted so the entire carousal isn't just restored, but it looks almost like it did in 1922.

 

Here's a view from the carousal looking out the pavilion. The bridge you see is the Manhattan Bridge. The steel and Plexiglas structure seems like it would be at odds with the carousal, but DUMBO is so industrial that it works with the surrounding architecture and acts as a frame to the carousal.  If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a visit!

Weekend Recap

Alright, it shames me to admit, but several things just did not happen over the weekend. The two main things being the Blessing of the Animals and finishing my Think Pink project. But I am so close! I'll finish tonight and get pictures up by tomorrow morning, I promise. And it looks so good you'll forgive me; I'm sure of it. I'm all assembled, and just have to finish the hand sewing bits.

And the reason I didn't accomplish either of the items mentioned above? Mike and I went out of town for the day on Sunday and didn't get home till late last night. Hooray Day Trip!! Our friends invited us on a hike, a picnic, and then to go apple picking since they had a rental car for the weekend. Who are we to resist such an invitation?

We hiked up Mount Tammany in New Jersey, it's about a two and a half mile loop. Of death. The view was great once we got to the top, but I'm clearly not cut out to be a hiker, everyone else seemed fine. I felt so guilty being at the end of the line the whole time that I was hurrying to catch up and just didn't enjoy myself on the way up or down. But for those 10 minutes at the top it was wonderful. Here's a shot of the Delaware Water Gap from the top.

Beautiful! We were standing there watching hawks soar below us. It was wonderful to get out of the big apple for the day.

Speaking of the big apple, wait till you see how many apples we brought home with us! Later this week we have plans for a pie and the rest will become apple butter. We bought about 35 pounds, enough to fill a boat and tote bag from L.L. Bean (don't worry, our bag isn't monogrammed, we're not those kind of people).

And here's a photo of the always dashing Mike, pulling double duty as picker and bag carrier while I waste time taking photos. We stopped at Longmeadow Orchard in Hope, NJ. The apples at this orchard were really sad. In the past three years we've been picking in the area, we've never seen them with this much blight and worms. I've been reading about how bad a year it's been with all the rain and the hurricane damaging crops, but I hadn't seen it first hand yet. It's so unfortunate. Our CSA announced this past week that they wouldn't be offering winter shares this year due to the weather. I guess when root vegetables get too much rain too fast they rot really quickly once they hit storage. So no winter CSA for us.

Oh well, so now to close this post with some good news! We also made banana bread last night! The change your morning kind, which I might be enjoying at this very moment and it's helping me keep a positive outlook on this rather early Monday morning. Maybe a picture and recipe to follow this evening? We'll see how far I get on my project first!