City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

What a long cold winter this has been.  How glad we now are to find temperature readings above the freezing point during the day and night.  The ice and snow are melting.

I was encouraged by what I've been witnessing on the uptown and downtown streets and sidewalks over the past few days to see how the meltdown was progressing in Central Park.

No gloves were required as I took my midday walk.

The sky was somewhat overcast, and the color scheme that greeted me just inside the 72nd Street entrance to the Park was a study in neutral shades.  Any signs of spring were quite subdued.

Even so, I encountered several groups of tourist groups, many of whom seemed to be students on their spring holiday break.

These young folks gathered in the Strawberry Fields area to hear their tour guide tell them tales of John and Yoko, while a contemporary of Mr Lennon sat on a nearby chilly bench and played his guitar and sang some of those familiar old tunes.  I was happy to see some snowdrops had survived the recent weekly snowfalls.

The Lake's frozen surface was still covered with snow.  Some ducks were walking on the lake, while a few had discovered swimming possibilities on the shoreline.

Three young fishermen were looking for the same fish that eluded the ducks.

In the following photo, you can see the glow of the midday sun in the sky even though my eye spotted very few colors that told that spring would arrive in ten days.

It was all a bit grim color wise, although some of the tree bark was quite lovely.

Not all of these trees have survived the winter.  I saw evidence of several departures.

Continuing my walk around the west side of the Lake, I liked the look of the subtle colors of the railings.  The design always reminds me of xo xo, etc.

Here is one more southeastern view across the snow covered Lake.

Something about all that I saw around me reminded me of Bruegel paintings.

Over in the Shakespeare Garden, I found no flowers, but did spot a man in a gold suit and top hat having his photograph taken.  I also saw him dance around a bit.

Still looking for some sort of preview of spring, I was glad to see the buds on this tree, in front of another tree.  I think that the budding tree is a tulip magnolia.

Here's one more distant view of the man in gold.

I'd been walking for about an hour and realized that more thawing would be required before I would see some green shoots or tiny flowers.  I did see some odd reflections in tiny pools formed by the snow's melting in low spots.

Nearing the Central Park West exit from the Park I did see a few sweeps of green lawn in spots that had felt the sun for a few days.

Another view of a green sweep

And here's a cheery green sign stating what might seem obvious.

I do promise to get back over to the Park within the next week, as it is very likely that I'll see some dramatic changes.

Meanwhile, I will leave you all with this somewhat graceful view of a dried arrangement of branches that have withstood all the winter ferocity.  Another study in neutral tones,

Thank you all for your visits and comments.  I very much appreciate hearing from you.