Ivy climbs Tudor facades and antique street lamps cast golden light on a brick-paved square. Along with stone churches and stained glass diamond panes, these features define Forest Hills—a slice of old England nestled in the heart of Queens. With camera in hand, I wandered her enchanting streets this summer after unexpected factors nudged me back there.

Last summer I visited Prospect Park in Brooklyn for the first time in decades, photographing its zoo’s animals and walking through neighboring areas, Grand Army Plaza and Park Slope. I also visited the Brooklyn Museum of Art to finally see a pair of statues flanking its entrance: Manhattan and Brooklyn, by my favorite American sculptor, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). Capturing these allegorical female figures had long been on my bucket list.

“Take me to that large fountain in the middle of the city,” I told a cab driver parked outside my hotel during a weekend trip to Philadelphia last summer.

The day before, I spotted the fountain from a taxi, my refuge from the unforgiving June sun, humidity and temps flirting with triple digits, enroute from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to a Marriott downtown.

My favorite 16 photos I snapped in Central Park last fall capture diverse scenes and people: a geisha posing gracefully for pictures, Schiller's bust framed by blazing autumn leaves, sleek Billionaires Row skyscrapers looming above Wollman ice rink, a woman crafting poems on her vintage typewriter, and musicians making melodies on wind and string instruments.

My original idea for this photo blog was to capture people reading hardcover and paperback books, particularly young people who grew up in our ever growing digitized world.