City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

I have now been back home for almost two weeks.  I have returned to work.  I have tried to resume familiar routines.  Yet...my recently nourished Country Dreams continue to remind me of another land, with expanses of land and sky.  Not too many buildings, and not too many people.

I continue to thank the lovely people who treated me so well.


Part of being back home is telling my New York friends about how much I enjoyed my holiday.  I have made phone calls, and visited with folks.  I have bought a curious little droopy-limbed succulent plant, and am pretending it's a tree that I can draw.  It gives me an alternative landscape possibility while it sits on my windowsill.

Perhaps this close up view will let you have an idea of why I brought this little plant home from the Union Square farmers market last week.

Eventually, I may get the watercolors out and try some mini-landscape painting.

It was very warm while I was in London, and since my return to New York there's been a bit of a chilly span, and now, as of today, we are experiencing heat that seems like summertime. This is creating some sort of havoc with the spring blooming schedule.


For the past few years, I have tried to get over to Park Avenue to take photos of the tulips that annually bloom in the middle of this elegant boulevard.  I do this photographic summary  for lovely Merisi, who writes the magnificent blog Vienna for Beginners.  If you have not yet visited Merisi's Vienna, you are in for a treat.  If you have visited this site, you will agree with my opinion!

And so, I now offer you all a few views of the giant yellow tulips that now grace Park Avenue.

The tulips share their mid-avenue garden spaces with trees and shrubs.  This avenue is quite beautiful during each season.

The fully bloomed tulips were as large as my hand.

I took this journey to the East Side between four and five-thirty this afternoon, and loved the effect that the westward bound sunlight had on all that I saw.

As I took my photographs, other passing pedestrians smiled.  They also loved the look of these extravagant flowers.

I just happened to notice that one golden tulip had a bit of a scarlet accent.  

Leaving Park Avenue, I began walking westward back towards Central Park, and noticed a rather extravagant expanse of flowers in a little garden in front of a sumptuous East Side mansion.

Closer to Fifth Avenue, this Ducati showed me that tulips were not the only ambassadors of golden yellow gleaming in the afternoon light.

The next photo is for Gretel, whose Middle of Nowhere blog is another magical place to visit. I know that she is a fan of the Stuart Little stories written by E.B. White. and think she might enjoy seeing this view of the model boat pond where Stuart had a harrowing sailing adventure.

The pond looked tranquil and breeze free this afternoon, and I made note of the rather amusing sign posted nearby.  The remote-controlled model boats sailing in the pond must have had some sort of exemption to this warning.

Continuing on my walk, I passed by beautiful Bethesda Fountain, surrounded on one side by flowering trees and shrubs, and on the other by the Lake where rowboats and one gondola were sailing.  None of these were motorized by other than person-power.

Getting closer now to Central Park West, I took this photo because I liked the look of the back lighting on the familiar statue of Daniel Webster.

You can perhaps also see the umbrellas in front of the tree.  These mark the location of three  vendors who most likely did a wonderful bit of business today, selling hot dogs, ice cream sodas and water.  I thought these fellows deserved a bit a of close up.

I crossed over into the Strawberry Fields area, and made my way past the usual collection of tourists paying their respects, and having their photos taken near the Imagine mosaic.


My hopes that the nearby wisteria, that luxuriantly wraps itself around a rustic wooden archway, might still be in bloom were answered positively.

Can't you imagine how this sort of tangled wisteria might have inspired many Art Nouveau artists?  I also very much admire wisteria left to just be a shrub.

Nearing the western edge of the Park, I came upon some additional showy groups of tulips.

Yellow is not the only color that tulips favor.

Just before leaving the Park, I noticed these demure little blue beauties.

Not long thereafter, I was home, and able to take another look at another treat I brought back from the East Side.  I think that these macarons are flown in daily from Paris.

When I checked my mailbox, I found an additional treat...my Federal income tax refund check had arrived!

I return to work very early tomorrow, attending a meeting, and will try not to drift off into continuing Country Dreams.

I do hope that your mid-April days are equally pleasant.