City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York.

Today is a cloudy Saturday, with rain promised for later today, and more rain tomorrow.  Fortunately, earlier in the week sunny days meant more pleasure could be found during some Central Park walks.

The recent rains have encouraged lots of grass and leaves to grow.  Spring breezes have blown blossoms from the trees.  I liked the pattern of pale lavender and yellow green on the lawn.

I could almost believe that I was not in the middle of New York City.  Lots of pedi-cab pedaling entrepreneurs were hoping for some patrons.

Park employees were busy with all sorts of maintenance.  Some of this work involved noisy machinery.

I know I have shown you all pictures of Bethesda Fountain before, but the scene is still pretty.

Just south of the steps down to the Fountain's plaza is this walkway beckoning us to stroll toward lots of green.  Folks have left their red bicycles by the railing; perhaps these bikes are for hire.  I don't know.

I strolled through that entrance way to another plaza to investigate whether I might find some wisteria still in bloom.

Yes!  There were still quite a few blossoms hanging from this arbor.

The wisteria that enjoys some shade was the part still in bloom.

I am still amazed to see the base of these venerable wisteria vines.  This one has the look of an underwater denizen.  

Here is one final glimpse of 2016 wisteria.  Isn't it lovely?

A few steps away, I saw another Parks worker doing some trimming.  The latest Ghostbusters film just had its NYC premier, and somehow I wanted to sing the title tune to the fellow in the following photograph.

I could not resist a photograph of this marvelous sky.

The horse drawn carriage trade was doing rather well.

The deep red of that single tree is so striking, particularly on a sunny day.

My Park walk had a specific destination on the east side.  I passed by the always beautiful flowers decorating the railings outside the Greek Orthodox Church headquarters.

Here is another view, giving you all a better idea of how extensive these plantings are.

In the past weeks I've been doing some drawing and watercolor paintings of flowers and thought it would be helpful to take a few close up views of these spring beauties.

I also like all the shapes of the leaves.

A bit farther along East 79th Street three strong, patient and skilled young fellows were transferring a large canvas in, or perhaps out, of a van.  There are several prestigious galleries along this block.  The former NYC Mayor lives just across the street.

My destination was not the Church HQ, or a gallery or the Mayor's home.  I was returning a book (Diana Athill's Live Alive Oh) to the library, and borrowing two more books, Graham Swift's Mothering Sunday and a volume including Edna O'Brien's The Country Girl Trilogy.

I am falling behind with some of my intended reading, because I have been steadily working on my knitting commission.  It is almost finished!

To take more advantage of the beautiful day, I also walked home, rather than taking the crosstown bus.

I'd not been in the Shakespeare Garden in about a month, and soon realized I had already missed lots of its prime spring show.  What a pleasure to see that the show was ongoing.  The quince blooms are favorites of mine.

A fellow blogger from another part of our shared world has told me that these agapanthus flowers can be invasive.  I am very glad that some have settled into Central Park.

It was great to see this fancy tulip had held on to its petals.

Various tall flowers stretching up into the midday sun kept to a close color harmony against the brilliant green.

It seems to be a very good year for ferns.  These were almost as tall as I am.  Truly.

Nice to have just that bit of pink accent peeking through the lattice work.

Soon, more iris will enter the stage, but this one had a starring role during my visit.

I took this picture just to indicate the density of the planting in the Shakespeare Garden's sloping area.  I was very glad to be able to encourage some international tourists to stroll through this area as I left it on my way home.  They were in for a treat.

Clouds continue to gather this afternoon.  I am glad to have an opportunity earlier today to get some outdoor errands done and also to visit the current Howard Hodgkin exhibit at the Madison Avenue Gagosian Gallery.  I've been looking at Hodgkin's paintings and prints for a long time, and am glad that he is still painting.  Colors interest me whether found in nature or in man made creations.

Now I must get back to my knitting commission while my head is full of color inspiration.

Thank you all for your visits and comments.  I am happy to welcome some new followers, too.  I am astonished to find that June is just around the corner.