City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York.

What a cold and windy afternoon it is. A day to wear woolen layers, and perhaps later on it will also be a day to keep an umbrella handy.

It is also my mother's birthday today, and I have just been speaking to her over the phone. She lives hundreds of miles away from here, and I hope that the usually reliable UPS folks will manage to deliver my gifts to her this afternoon. One of these gifts is something I crocheted and it is pictured below.

I would like to keep this flower theme and show some photos I took yesterday, a day that began grey and then breezily cleared to a lovely afternoon. I crossed Central Park via bus and met a friend at the Metropolitan Museum. Just across Fifth Avenue from the Met, I saw some mature tulip blooms and could not resist taking their photo.

On the other side of Fifth, just next to the entrance to the Met's underground parking garage, stands this marvelous Noguchi obelisque. The lighting makes this sculpture even more powerful than usual.

While in the Metropolitan, we saw several interesting exhibits, the favorite being on of illuminated manuscripts of the Limbourg Brothers. These were exceptionally beautiful, and the exhibit is very wisely arranged to encourage folks to really look. The captions were well written, very witty, and had a way of calling attention to many story lines depicted in each manuscript.

We looked at some other exhibits, had salad lunches and then went outdoors to find a blustery atmosphere, and lots of blue sky. The picture below is of the miniature boat pond. These little ships are propelled by mobile power. Some folks also bring their own non-electric model boats to these waters. The pond is also home to some families of ducks. It featured prominently in the classic children's book Stuart Little.

We sat in the sun and talked away as old friends can do, sneezed a bit (lots of pollen blowing around) and then finally decided to stretch our legs a bit more, and walked up the hill from the pond, encountering this stunning tree. Isn't its shape just iconic?

I like that tree so much I have posted another picture of it ... see how it stands out in a crowd? Also, please note that beautiful sky.

We strolled a bit westward to the Bethesda Fountain area, and found many, many azaleas in full flower. The variety of greens and foliage is very rich at this season.

The following picture looks down over the Fountain's plaza to show the lake beyond. It is so strange to see that metal hair net scaffolding around the beautiful Fountain. I surely do hope that this project ... whatever it is ... will soon be completed.

Lots of folks were taking advantage of the many refreshment stands along the various Park pathways and roadways. The menu includes hot dogs, pretzels, ice creams, various sodas and water. Again, just look at that sky!

Many of the Impressionist painters made much of using fresh ways to show light effects. The photo below shows a cherry tree whose petals have formed one of those gorgeous pink carpets. As the sun shone intermittently from behind the quickly passing clouds, the pink carpet had such a great dappled effect ... the shadows really did look purple.

And here is more color ... that green, that blue!

There was something in the shape and the shadowing of the next tree that led me to see a bird in the line of its trunk. Do you see it also?

What a marvelous day! My final photo is of yet more tulips that are planted near the West 72nd Street entrance to Central Park. There are hundreds, if not thousands of these tulips. Some are in color blocks, and some are mixed colorways. All are beautiful.

I do hope that each of you has been having a grand springtime. Best wishes.