trees
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Red Hook
The Weeping Willow at Van Brunt and King St., an old friend, has come down in the storm. The Red Hook neighborhood, an island at high tide during colonial times, was quite inundated last night and looks miserable today, but not crushed like the Jersey shore or the burned out neighborhoods on the Rockaway peninsula.…
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BBP Eye Candy
Take away a little green pigmentation and what do you get? You can open these up to fill your Monday morning computer screen by clicking on them, because you probably need a little boost to the start of your week. The last image would make a particularly good mini trifold screen, and since you’re using…
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Early Fall
Yesterday morning around 10, it was under 60F and cloudy. The bumblebees were not quite warmed up. Some didn’t move at all, others were quite sluggish. Burly little things, with lots of muscle, which is one of the reasons they are one of the first flying bugs in the spring. They can warm themselves up…
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Re-blooming
A resurgent Magnolia bloom, as sweet smelling and disconcerting as early spring. Yesterday afternoon, Atlantic Avenue entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
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Pulling “chestnuts” out of the etymological fire
The Chestnut Oaks, Quercus montana, are ripening in Prospect park. This species’ common name stems from the leaves, which are somewhat chestnut-like, although the acorn, over an inch long in this species, is all oak.The remains of a squirrel feast on what I believe is Yellow Buckeye, Aesculus flava, in the Vale. Included here because…
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Corner Pocket
A fairly representative New York City tree pit. “Pit” is definitely the word here. The hard-pan — calling this sterile-looking misery “soil” would be an insult — looks like something you’d find in a draught-ravaged desert. And you can imagine the gallons of poisonous dog piss that have been poured in over the years. It’s…
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Pelham Bay Park
“Only the dead know Brooklyn…” but you can say the same thing for the rest of NYC. Five massive boroughs: it’s a full-time job to explore them all. Last Saturday, we journeyed up to the eastern Bronx to visit Pelham Bay Park. Pharaoh — or should I say “Tyrant,” based on the Greco-design of the…
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Sweet, Tart
Local fruit trees bloomed early this year… but then they were lucky, because they did not get hit by a frost afterwards. See third picture down on my March 22 post for this plum in bloom. Now it’s full of fruit. Other places were not so lucky: this year’s tart cherry harvest in Michigan, New…
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Green-Wood
Fringetree. Galls clustering on a hickory. The leaves of one of that cluster of Common Persimmon trees. A Great Egret being photogenic as always. Water Lily in the Valley Water; there were only a few blossoms yet. American Lady butterflies amid a horde of honey and bumble bees.
Backyard and Beyond 