Happy Spring

Eideh Shoma Mobarak!!
(translation: Happy New Year!!)

This week is the official first day of spring.  While the weather warms up and flowers start to bloom, the Persian community celebrates a new year or "Norooz".  This holiday dates back thousands of years to the Persian Empire and many families, including mine, still celebrate it today.  Even though Iran is the only country that recognizes the calendar (it's technically 1391 this year), I think it's cool how the new year corresponds with the first day of spring.  It has a sense of "rebirth" and starting fresh with the cycle of seasons.

Traditions include, doing some massive spring cleaning, taking time to visit family and friends, lots of food and parties, spending time outside, and putting together the traditional Norooz table setting "sofreh." 

I grew up with a sofreh that was detailed and colorful, so trying to replicate that was a challenge.  I live in a typical Manhattan studio where my kitchen, dining room, living room, and bedroom are all in one closet-size space, so I wanted to put together something.

Here is my sofreh "haft-seen" on the corner of my kitchen counter.  Each item symbolizes (7 of them begin with an 's') something for the new year.

There is supposed to be real goldfish (symbolizing life), but I was a little lazy and opted for goldfish crackers.

Colored eggs symbolizing fertility.

Hyacinth flowers, the standard flower in the sofreh.

"Sabzeh" symbolizing rebirth (I used wheat grass) 

Being in the spring mood, I wanted to celebrate by going outside and really experience spring.  It's been absolutely beautiful out the past few days and I had to take advantage.

Performers on a lovely day in the park.

First signs of spring in the park.  The picnics are starting.

The tree that I see outside my apartment window.  I love watching this tree change every season.

I also have a yearly tradition of cleaning out my closet as a part of spring cleaning and donating clothes that are still in good shape that I no longer wear to Goodwill.  I really dug through this year and found shirts that I haven't worn since the first couple years of college!!! (aka, a long time ago)

The bag of clothes I donated.

Can't wait to see what the new season brings!  I actually have no major events set in the next few months, guess that just means that I'm in for a lot of surprises!

Typical Day in the Park

I think I just had one of the most relaxing weekends that I've had in a while.  I had no set plans with anyone so I just decided to spend some time cooking and doing other domestic things that I normally put off.

I also got to do one of my favorite things in the city, which is walk around town and just observe everything around me.  This weekend's chosen neighborhood, the upper west side.  There's just something about this area that makes me feel so calm.  Even in my worst mood, I will cheer up instantly.  There's a perfect ratio of shops, restaurants/bars, park space (it's sandwiched between Riverside Park and Central Park), and it's fun place to people watch in an area of mostly senior citizens and families with small children.

One of the things I usually avoid in NYC are the typical tourist attractions.  After living here for almost 3 years, I have discovered so many things that this city has to offer, that I don't even go near tourist areas unless I have out of town visitors.  This time, however, I wanted to test out a new telephoto lens that I recently got as a gift, and I figured Central Park would be a great spot.  The zoom on this lens is so ridiculous that this place would be perfect for someone to walk around with a "paparazzi" dslr.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day:

I love how candid this one is! It's like one couple going in, one going out.

While I was in Colorado during Christmas, I took a similar photo, where the lake was completely frozen, and there were children (and my two siblings) walking on the ice, can't do that here.

An opportunity to use the 300mm zoom across the lake.  The father and son were throwing bread to the ducks, and I thought that was so cute.

This guy was playing guitar and a harmonica at the same time, I hung around to listen as I was taking pictures, but everyone else seemed to just walk by.

 

I don't particularly like how the tree branch is in focus and the people are not, but I thought it would be fun to photograph other people taking a photo.

After I left the park, I decided to go get my groceries for the week, but of course I got sidetracked by something else.  I was passing by a flea market that is only open in a school yard on Sundays, and I couldn't help but check out what unique things it had to offer.

About to head in to browse.

Rack of classic fur coats - using the hipstamatic app on my phone.

I couldn't resist.  A flea market find for only $10!

So that was my weekend!  How was yours?