City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

It's a much more pleasant evening than was yesterday's.  Humidity took a little holiday today, and I was fortunate on my day off to be able to enjoy more time outdoors.  Once my laundry and other chores were taken care of, the day was mine.

Over on the East Side of Central Park, I visited an exhibit at the Michael Werner Gallery.  The featured artist, James Lee Byars, who gained fame as in the conceptual art world, was someone I knew way back in the 1970's.  It was fun to help Byars with some of his conceptual "happenings" and to learn from him a bit about the workings of the art world.  As his fame increased, earlier friendships drifted.  I think that such evolution can happen amongst folks in many disciplines.

It was fun to visit the gallery, and have a bit of a nostalgic smile.

Back on the Upper West Wide, I had bit of an urban gardening experience that I will share with you all.  In midtown New York City, Broadway is associated with bright lights and many theatres and lots of crowds.  Up in my neighborhood, Broadway is more of a shopping boulevard.  It's a friendly sort of avenue, with its uptown (north) and downtown (south) lanes divided by a series of planted areas...somewhat like the more elegant Park Avenue, but with benches for weary pedestrians.

The green, yellow, red vehicular traffic lights are complemented by walk/don't walk LED signs for pedestrians attempting to cross Broadway.  The pedestrian lights have recently been upgraded with very helpful countdown signals telling you just how many seconds you still have to cross the avenue, or at least get to that median divider with the benches.  These timers give us an opportunity of quickly pondering whether to seek the wise safety of waiting for the next WALK signal, or testing our sprinting talents to beat the flashing clock.

And so, as I prepared to cross Broadway at 74th Street, when I noticed a large abandoned potted plant resting against a median barrier, I noted how many seconds I had left, got my camera out of my bag, and snapped a photo.

I don't always take my camera with me, and often miss some good urban photo ops.  Not today.  As I neared the safety of the median, I clicked one more photo of this transplant. 

With both feet firmly planted on the median divider, I thought to take some photos of the decorative seasonal planting now in place just behind the stationary benches.

It seemed to me that some of these leaves looked a lot like those of the abandoned potted plant.

In this view you can have a better notion of the planting.  The little green notice board gives credit to whatever local merchant has paid for this greenery.  In the background you can see the blue awning of my marvelous Fairway Market.

And then, I felt a pleasant breeze move through the air, and heard a nearby bump.  I looked behind me, and saw that the catalyst for this series of photos had fallen.

There was no way that I could have lifted the plant back into vertical orientation.  No way at all.  What I could do was take another little picture.

I've been enjoying reading about so many country gardens this week, gaining more appreciation of what is involved in creating a garden.  Here in this city, someone had donated a very large bit of excess green to anyone who might have had the appreciation and the strength to rescue it.  In a way, I felt that I'd experienced a bit of West Side conceptual art, although I might just be indulging a bit of my own nostalgia.

How I do hope that someone with a strong back and arms did pass by Broadway and 74th Street this afternoon, and was able to give this magnificent leafy green giant a new home.