Stroll Through the Park II

As promised, more photos from my indulgent photo day in Central Park. Part III from this series to come. Stay posted for the darker moodier shots.

Stroll Through the Park I

Yesterday was one of those beautifully overcast days made for photography and nature! I spent, what was meant to be a brief interlude, a full day being completely absorbed with this strange early Spring in Central Park. I went a little nuts- always a good thing in my opinion. The next few posts will be dedicated to what I saw there along with abstractions of light and nature. If you don't really fancy this type of thing, please forgive me for digressing into a self satisfied visual masturbation of the joy of photography but it's what I brought home for eye-tapas for the next few days. Hope you enjoy :)

Rambling On and On....

The weather was absolute perfection today. My sister and I walked through the park and I took her through the Rambles. I hadn't gone there in so many years that it was hard to recognize with all of the fenced pathways. Every time we saw a little side path we'd wander off the designated ones. I explained the history of as I knew it,
" It used to be where the guys would meet for unmentionable rendezvous hence nicknamed in the 20's as "the fruited plane"- then it became quite dangerous and several tabloid murders occurred there."
Personally, it was always my favorite destination in the park and I'm glad I experienced it before the fences were put in. When the park was originally designed Fredrick Olmstead created this as ........"as a woodland walk through highly varied topography, a "wild garden" away from carriage drives and bridle paths, to be wandered in, or to be viewed as a "natural" landscape from the formal lakefront setting of Bethesda Terrace or from rented rowboats on the Lake. The 38-acre (150,000 m²) Ramble embraces the deep coves of the north shore of the Lake, excavated between bands of bedrock; it offers dense naturalistic planting, rocky outcrops of glacially-scarred Manhattan bedrock, small open glades and an artificial stream, The Gill, that empties through the Azalea Pond, then down a cascade into the Lake. Its ground rises northwards towards Vista Rock, crowned by Belvedere Castle , a lookout and eye-catching folly.

The Park's most varied and intricately-planted landscape was planted with native trees— tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), American sycamore, white, red, black, scarlet and willow oaks, Hackberry and Liriodendron, — together with some American trees never native to the area, such as Kentucky coffee tree, Yellowwood and Cucumber magnolia, and a few exotics, such as Phellodendron and Sophora.^[1] Smaller natives include Sassafras. Aggressively self-seeding Black cherry and Black locust have come to dominate the Ramble.^[2]

The 20-acre (81,000 m²) Lake unified what Calvert Vaux called the "irregular disconnected featureless conglomeration of ground".^[3] It was excavated, entirely by hand, from unprepossessing swampy ground transected by drainage ditches and ramshackle stone walls.^[4] Through the low-lying site the Sawkill flowed sluggishly from sources under the present American Museum of Natural History and in the prospective park south of Seneca Village, originally exiting the park under Fifth Avenue about 74th Street, where Conservatory Water lies today, on its way to the East River.^[5] To create the Lake the outlet was dammed with a broad, curving earth dam, which carries the East Carriage Drive past the Kerbs Boathouse (1954), at the end of the Lake's eastern arm, so subtly that few visitors are aware of the landform's function. After six month's intensive effort, the Lake was ready in the winter of 1858 for its first season of ice-skating. Its center was seven feet deep, with terraced shorelines to lower levels for skaters' safety.^[6] Originally, in other seasons a tour boat picked up and dropped visitors at five landings with rustic shelters: four have been rebuilt and rowboats are rented at the boathouse.

...wiki

Late Long Loving Spring

Central Park

Allegheny Mountains; NW PA
Photo by Paco Rodriguez

Jersey City back yard and massive old magnolia tree.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.~ e.e. cummings

Easter Sunday Part II

Yellow Magnolia Trees and friend

Bed of Candy Colored Tulips and a young Birch Tree

Bleeding Hearts in the Brambles

Mock Orange

Viburnum x carlcephalum ( Fragrant Viburnum )

Williamsburg Sky

After sleeping in late today my best friend stopped by and we took a walk to the park. It's nice how it's blooming bit by bit this year. Everytime I go there's something new to see. Today the Yellow Magnolias at the entrance of 72nd St were at the height of their regal elegance and the Willy Wonka epiphany of candy colored tulip beds around the perfectly white peeling birch trees was delightful. Bleeding Hearts, Lady's Lockets, Snowdrops, Blue Bells and Forget Me Nots were hosting their own party for fairies by invitation only.
A little deeper in the mock orange was making an early appearance. The leaves are so beautifully textured this time of year, they call to mind Mary McFadden dresses. And finally I ran down the slope from Strawberry Fields as the rain set in to see a splendid display of fragrant viburnum. Oh the scent of these clusters are so powdery and feminine as I inhaled I felt like I was immediately cast back into childhood! Then the droplets began and although we hadn't made it very far into the park we were satisfied with our little flower fix. I hopped on the A train and headed back to the studio to finish a ridiculously early delivery for tomorrow for my favorite client.
Back in Brooklyn the sky was so pretty with a gilded sun peeping out through pale blue patches swallowed by smoky cloud puffs. At mission control, the Easter Lilies filled the air with an intoxicating intensity! It was a lovely fragrant and colorful Easter.

Winter Wonderland in Central Park

My alarm was set so as not to miss the sunrise in Central Park after the blizzard last night. I ventured out into the yet untouched aftermath of the storm which suspended all city buses, schools and the LIR. Living near West End Ave my plan was to make it to the Bethesda Fountain and return. Once I made it to the bridge which looks out onto the fountain and pond I realized my toes where starting to hurt. Below was one single person and yelled out, "Is it worth it?" to which she shouted, "Hell yeah!" So down it was filling in the tracks that she must have left. It was treacherous but sometimes the adventurous hubris gets the best of me!
At this point I realized that the frost nip was progressively getting worse and that there might be refuge at the boathouse-I imagined drinking a hot tea and literally thawing myself out. Well the boathouse idea was a bust and I had to make it back on foot because there were no buses. So MAN -UP I did and tried not to focus on the pain which actually did subside as my feet became numb! Not good. My beloved camera reminded me to keep my eyes tuned which yielded so many photos that it's hard to choose which to post here. I know this has nothing to do with weddings but nature is so astonishingly beautiful at times like these that I feel compelled to share this self assigned photo-journalistic journey. All the photos can be viewed through my personal flickr account. Here are just a few more of my favorites.


The moral of the story is to get proper footwear when attempting to hike in a snow laden park!
My toes finally returned to their original pink and all is good now. Regardless I am happy I caught these shots which I invariably sent to my family and friends living in the warmer climates. Sure it's nice they could see it in a photograph but there really is no comparison to being there in person. Another reason to love this awesome city we live in!