I Love New York in the Springtime

7 May 2019

With apologies to Cole Porter.

But really, New York City in the spring is incredibly beautiful.  Yes, it's still chilly and often grey and drizzly.  The city is ever busy and bustling and never sleeps.  

But there are flowers EVERYWHERE!  Up and down Broadway, the median is full of budding trees and tulips.  The tree-lined cross streets (versus the north-south avenues) are crowded with more tulips, pansies, and even small hydrangeas.  Other streets and avenues have flowering trees like ornamental cherry and crab apples in varying tones from white to pink.  

Sidewalk cafés are defined by small barriers featuring primroses, pansies, daffodils, narcissus, hyacinths, all kinds of multi-colored flowers.  Imagine sitting on a busy street, sipping a latte in your little floral oasis, as the crowds of New York hurry by in fast motion while you are experiencing life in slow motion.  So relaxing, so peaceful, just a small vignette in the movie of our lives.

And then Central Park!!!!  Central Park is the backyard of the city, and is home to winding paths through groves of Sakura cherry blossoms, dogwoods, all kinds of gorgeous trees covered in white, pink, rose, and almost fuchsia flowers!!!

I spent two afternoons in Central Park, one with a friend wandering through the paths and eventually finding the Conservatory Garden.  I had never been there, it's up on the northeast side of the park so it's a bit of a walk.  But absolutely worth the time to visit and bathe or bask among more flowers than you can imagine!   

The Conservatory Garden seemed to be a series of circles within circles, each built around a fountain.  One fountain had bronze dancing women, surrounded by rows and rows of pink tulips and creamy white daffodils. Outside the flowers was a hedge, with various colored tulip beds around that.  Then more flowers, more hedges, the whole thing ringed by lilac bushes!!!!  SO fragrant, and ranging in color from pale pink (pink lilacs!!!!) to medium bluish purple to deep deep purple!!!!  The different color lilacs had somewhat different scents - and the medium light purple lilacs had the best scent.  It really was my favorite section of the garden, because even though I love all flowers, lilacs are my absolute most adored flower of all!!!

Another fountain was dedicated to Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of "The Secret Garden," "The Little Princess," and "Little Lord Fauntleroy," to name her best-known works (which are all considered children's classics).  Perfect for the center of a garden, and most likely representing Mary and Colin, the protagonists of "The Secret Garden."  (Or he might be Dickon, who is a child of the moors and the catalyst for the person growth our protagonists undergo.)  Flowering trees surround this fountain, another ring of hedges, then beds of daffodils, narcissus, and jonquils in various shades of cream, yellow, and peach - all ringed by grape hyacinth in lavender and purple tones.  One more ring of hedges, and more and more tulips in every color of the rainbow!!!  

Yes, I probably photographed every flower bed or bush we saw.  It was just so gloriously fresh and colorful and alive in the midst of newly budding trees, and then the huge buildings of New York in the distance.  Quintessentially New York!!!

Plus certain scenes almost work better in black and white.  Central Park has a certain timeless quality to it.  I can picture people walking these same paths and looking at the same trees some 100 years ago.  (And many of those large buildings actually date back to the beginning of the 1900s!)

The Japanese have a practice of going into the forest for forest bathing, communing with nature and replenishing their spirits and psyches and souls.  

So I like to think of this time as flower bathing, basking in the beauty and perfume and peace.  Replenishing my soul and eyes and psyche and spirit.  

My second visit to Central Park was for my annual ride on the 100+ year old carousel.  And of course I found the one horse with a basket of pink roses on his (or her?) flank.  Because this was my spring of flowers, I guess.  It just seemed to fit.

We had a great time, even though the weather tended toward grey and wet.  There was a street fair one weekend, complete with blocks and blocks closed to traffic, with booths selling food, jewelry, clothing, and giving out neighborhood information.  People were out if full force with children on scooters and dogs on leashes, happy to just be outside after the long cold lonely winter.  (Although there wasn't much sun to welcome.)

Oh, plus there was a new street sign!!!  Of course I had to visit!!!

We spent time with some family and friends, but didn't quite squeeze in everyone between Passover in Pennsylvania and then rushing off to Boston for a wedding.  It was a whirlwind visit. 

Even the subway stations had flowers growing on the walls!  Okay, they were mosaics, but so beautiful!

(And the mosaics at the stop for Lincoln Center were even more amazing!)

But we haven't had springtime in the US for a long long time, so it was a luxury to spend time with all of the flowers.