Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

Enough already with winter. Actually spring  begins in a week in the northern hemisphere where I am.

Here in north eastern Pennsylvania, winter's grip is as tight as ever. It just will not let go. As Met fans say, wait until next year.

I love to photograph in Coney Island in the off season and at this time of the year, it begins to wake up and get ready for the  new season. It betrays noise of workers getting things fixed up and there's an increment of visitors who will venture out on nice days to offset the cabin fever of winter, These photos were shot with a Nikon D-200 a few years ago in March.

Everywhere you look, if you keep your eyes open and train them to see, you will find photos. These were just shot at a plant nursery near by and although the flowers were pretty but these statues caught my eye. I want to share them with you.

I love the soft focus filter on my Olympus EPL-2. It creates a dreamy, romantic effect that works in some images according to my feelings at the moment. These are from the Planting Fields Arboretum here in near by Long Island, N.Y.

This has been a winter from hell and fortunately New York has a plethora of places to escape at least temporarily  the nasty winter that I abhor. This is the Frick Collection Museum, a wonderful space not to mention a major cultural institution with a superb permanent collection and with many new shows.  It's one of our favorite places.

As I have stated many times, I love this wonderful city full of life, energy and diversity. This is a shot of Central Park South taken from Fifth Avenue along side the park.

We ate too much meat this week and tonight's dinner had to be light and meatless. My wife suggested pasta con zucchine , but I had some cherry tomatoes that had to be used soon so I decided to combine the two and came up with pasta con pomodorini e zucchine . Simple, healthful and deliziosa. Olympus EPL-2

These are shots taken today of the Camellia House at the Planting Fields Arboretum on Long Island. We go see the camellias  every February to warm us up on a wintry day. Our February visit was futile since there was so much ice on the green house that it was dangerous and some panes had actually collapsed under the strain and the place was closed. We returned on Saturday and were able to enjoy these magnificent flowers. I want to post first a few images of this old, classic green house and a few flower images will follow in another post. We just love this place that belonged to the Coles family and was bequeathed to the  state and turned into a public park.