Les cérises
Les cérises sont très belles, oui?
After lunch, I went for a walk in Carl Schurz Park. Every year, I hope to get at least one really good photograph of the cherry blossoms, and I must say that I'm content with the photograph above, at least at full size.
I entered the Park at Gracie Mansion. Here we see a corner of the reception hall, which was built not too long ago, and the more recent brick wall, a sterling improvement over the cheap wooden palings that used to assure mayoral privacy. (Mayor Bloomberg, of course, has a much nicer townhouse in a ZIP Code to the south, and does not live here. Neither did Rudy Giuliani, after he screwed up his marriage to Donna Hanover.)
Here is a very poor photograph of one of the Park's most curious features, the circular cul de sac with a statue of Peter Pan in the center. I'm not even sure that it's Peter Pan, but I do know that some local kids uprooted it ten odd years ago and managed to haul it up to the John Finley Walk, from which they tossed it into the East River. Divers (FDNY? NYPD?) retrieved the statue; don't ask me how they saw what they were doing. I read not long ago that the East River is so long and capacious that it is not flushed clean by the tides. Instead, it just gets dirtier. A cheering thought.
On the John Finley Walk, some gentlemen were having a conversation at the top of their voices. That didn't bother the occupants of the squad car nearby though. Squad car? WTF! I made bold to ask the officer in the passenger seat what he was doing there. My I'm-not-really-as-big-as-I-look act must have worked, because he answered very cordially that "We're here!" Then he admitted that he's not with the local precinct. Heaven knows what they're looking for. Terrorists mining the FDR Drive? Phantom fellucas?
At the big-dog run, I followed the antics of this tongue-lolling pup, who loped around the enclosure like the adolescent goofball that he obviously was.
Finally the cherries. I know of nothing more opulent in nature than these feathery pink clouds.
Under the allée.
Comments
Dear RJ,
I've not come over for a while. I've busied myself too much. I've been to a conference where I gave a paper and am writing another paper.
I want to thank you for the pictures, especially the last.
Ellen
Posted by: Ellen | May 2, 2007 09:15 AM
Oui, les cerises de Carl Schurz ( or is that "der"?)sont belles, but y'all should take a gander at the magnolias (albeit Japanese) behind the MMA in Central Park, superb! They also reflower later in the season and are even more spectactular by the light of a full moon, which you will find when exiting the Park after a play at the Delacorte.
The crabapple allees in the formal gardens of the Park at Fifth Avenue are also quite lovely and provide exquisite shade to the benches that line them.
Posted by: LXIV | May 2, 2007 10:47 AM