Yesterday, the first warm day of spring, I had the brilliant idea to go take a walk in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens with Margaret and Alyssa. Next Sunday is Sakura Matsuri, The Cherry Blossom Festival, and the garden will be massively crowded with families, cosplay folks, and photographers, both professional and selfies alike. That would be all the people who show up to free events around town that I studiously avoid because I don't do crowds.
Spring has been so cold here that the cherry trees are just beginning to think about blooming now. I do hope they get it together in time for the festival, but today, people didn't care. It was such a beautiful day, they came out in droves anyway. There were picnics and weddings in progress, and a giant collective, "Ahh..." could be heard.
There are a few cherry trees that bloom early, and Margaret called them "Selfie-Central." We waited our turn, quickly took some photos and moved on out of the way.
Margaret pointed out these little flowers blooming right out of the bark.
But there are millions of other kinds of trees and plants in the BBG, and many of them were quiet and available for lengthier contemplation.
Get it? Lengthier? These are Dawn Redwoods. Interesting story about them. Once thought to be extinct, someone wrote a paper about a fossil which didn't look quite like the other redwood fossils, and thought perhaps it was a separate species. In the 1940's, during WWII, they were found growing in one town in the interior of China. From there, they were propagated and are now found all over the world. An extinction story that turned out to be incorrect. That's what I call a happy ending.
We saw seven turtles and one beautiful Great Blue Heron.
Many, many magnolias, even a hybrid yellow one! I want to go back in a few days with my Canon camera to shoot these when they're really in bloom.
Here's a gorgeous old hybrid oak in a field of daffodils.
Camellias which will bloom in just about any kind of weather.
These were my favorite tulips of the day. Anyone seen Tulip Fever on Netflix yet? Gorgeous flowers and stunning sets, circa 1648 Holland.
Here's an ancient metate, or grinding stone from Arizona. I don't understand why anyone would want to repurpose it as a birdbath. It is a lovely thing just as it is.
When I left the house in the morning I came across the best yarn bomb I've ever seen. And oh wow, did this corner need it!
And to end the day properly, as I was walking home from the subway, a few blocks from my place I was hearing a marching band. Dunno what it was about but they were giving a concert in the park on my corner! I love New York.
This sounded like Saturday night in New Orleans. So much about NYC makes me crazy, but on a day like this? I love my home town. https://youtu.be/Vxn5ymMHCmY