A Walk in the Park

On Tuesday I went for a wonderful walk in Central Park with Frances of CityViews/ CountryDreams.

Lovely to see the mist of unfolding leaves - so delicately overarching.

Lots of people out and about enjoying the day.

Blossoms unfolding too

and delighting the eye.

A birthday salute to Wm. Shakespeare!

What a blessing Central Park is!

How picturesque

and how pretty!

Sunday in the Park with Jo

It's embarrassing how rarely we get to Central Park when it's not difficult to get to at all. I always forget what fun it is.

So, yesterday we descended the long steps that lead to the pond...

and felt what a difference from the bustle of the street.

It was very GREEN.

Wind ruffled the surface of the water and there were ducks.

What a strange, tall building next to the Essex House!

Of course there were thousands of people there - lots of them taking photos like me.

There was a fun fair with rides...

and The Dairy looking like a Victorian railway station.

A beautiful day for just lying around

or getting cool information from the partially obscured tour guide.

Lots of generic and bad-for-you snacks. YUM.

And the piece-de-resistance - the angel presiding over the round pond with the boating lake beyond.

Now for a short quiz a la Where's Waldo.

Can you find:

1. the bride

2. the two dog walkers

3. the muscle man

4. the boy with the bike helmet

Tuesday in the Park with Frances

A beautiful, astounding sunny day

Go up to the seventies by subway to meet Frances, painter, knitter extrordinaire, Anglophile, all round interesting person. So we check out her neighborhood --here the Ansonia....

A bar with a  wonderful harp --it will be St. Patty's Day soon but we

go to the knitting shop opposite instead and start thinking green.

When we get to Central Park we discover that lots of people have got there before us...

but here's Frances looking elusive in her astounding (hand knit) sweater.

Daffs springing from fallen leaves

and the Lenten roses I'm addicted to.

The rose briars are a wonderful purply color

and the catkins dangle prettily before distant buildings.

They are out on the lake already

and having lunch beside it.

Imagine........

The temperature was about 70'F

Celebrity sightings for PBS types: Robert McNeill (McNeill-Lehrer Report)

walking by the lake.

Ken Burns sitting on a bench contemplating....

Central Park

Those not addicted to foliage may want to skip this overlong post.....

Tuesday morning about 9am. we enter the park near the natural history museum.

Admire the rustic fence

and the little mist of wild michaelmas daisies.

Then the trees! My heavens, the trees!

Almost too much like Samuel Palmer in spring at Shoreham.

How they glitter in the sun.

How the pond makes a mirror image of itself.

If I were a painter.....

More....

We chat to the young woman whose very old dog sits daily 

eyeing the ducks.

I wish the designers of the park could see it now.

Such a glimpse of the sublime

as we head for the museum

Wet Indeed

Like lots of other parts of the country

we have had a great deal of rain. So much rain that all the raincoats and jackets are soaked

and my welly boots have sprung a leak. These photos were taken from the M4 bus

going down 5th Avenue by Central Park on Wednesday afternoon. 

They were taken on my phone since I know from experience that

 getting a camera wet is not a terrifically good idea.

But you get the general idea

I think. More rain forecast today!