In Brooklyn

These three colors--green and two members of the brown family--figure prominently in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood which I visited last Thursday.











A friend from college has been living there for a number of years. He's moving back to California soon, and I was lucky enough to catch him while he was still there. We had a fine lunch at Campo de' Fiori--salads, the cured meat sampler, and square-cut Roman pizza--and then we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

He said people call this "the California market" because it has a parking lot and people can fit down the aisles side-by-side. I had to take a picture of the California market. It's funny that California is the reference point, because grocery stores are like that everywhere outside of New York (even in other dense cities, like San Francisco).



Brooklyn has meadow scenes too, just like Manhattan.



That bed was in front of the Brooklyn library.



Near here, I very much admired these urns. Want!!



The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was more like an estate garden than what I'm used to seeing in a botanic garden.



Lots of roses.

















And there's a large greenhouse complex...



where they keep all the plants we grow outdoors in California...







And many that we do not.









"The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden is one of the oldest and most visited Japanese-inspired gardens outside Japan. It is a blend of the ancient hill-and-pond style and the more recent stroll-garden style, in which various landscape features are gradually revealed along winding paths." Link.



It was lovely indeed, but at this point I needed to hydrate so we did not linger long.

The High Line

Do not visit the High Line in the middle of the day. Go early or late, I think.



Even with the sea of humanity, it was still a thrill to visit my first Piet Oudolf garden. Since I am not afraid to make bold pronouncements, I will go ahead and call this the greatest new public space of the 21st Century. I can't be the first person to say so. What else could possibly push it out of the Number 1 position?



From now on when I visit New York, I will try to come here first thing in the morning. It sounds like Guy's job will be happy if he goes to New York at least once or even twice a year. I will tag along when I can. I think we might go in October. In the meantime, I will fondly recall a blazing hot Saturday in June.























Good for you, New York.

High Line, I look forward to our next meeting.

Washington Square Park

in Greenwich Village. Guy had to go to New York for a few days and I tagged along. You may know that I'm ambivalent about the world east of the Sierra Nevada. Here is proof that I get out once in awhile.

It was hot and humid and...well, you probably know what it's like as I gather from reading your blogs that the summer climate across most of the country is rather uniform, varying only by degree of dreadfulness. (And I did live in Atlanta for 1.75 years, including 2 summers.) I tried to get out in the morning for pictures and sight-seeing before the day grew too oppressive, but that was hard because I drank so much liquor at night. Drinks in Manhattan are not cheap, but they mix 'em strong. It's a full commitment.

We stayed in lovely Soho so I passed through Washington Square few times on my way to the subway. The park, like the rest of New York, is packed with people most of the day. That's fine for people-watching, but get out before 11 am if you want to admire the gardening.





The last time I was in NYC was about 10 years ago and I didn't pay any attention to the landscaping. It seemed clear that meadow plantings are the rule for seasonal beds in public spaces right now, and whoever is in charge knows what they're doing.

















"This monument is dedicated to General Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), the 19th century Italian patriot who crusaded for a unified Italy during the European era of state building..." San Francisco, flush with money by the end of the 19th century, erected lots of bronze monuments on granite pedestals as well. Good ones have a lot of character; I like them.



The main monument in Washington Square belongs to you know who. There is Washington the war general, accompanied by wisdom and justice,



And Washington the commander-in-chief, with fame and valor.



After this, I got on the subway for the Museum of Natural History. I'm not sure why it called to me... Seems like a place I would go, right? I only saw art museums last time. Like everything else in New York, the Museum was packed. Unlike many museums elsewhere, you can take pictures in most of New York's. I took a picture of this carved stone from Latin America using my iPhone without noting the curatorial remarks.



Tiring of the crowds, I left the museum and wandered south through Central Park, where I got no relief, despite what this picture would suggest.



There were more bronzes. I snapped two pictures of George Blackall Simonds' The Falconer.





That's when I noticed the clouds. Rain was on the way. I brought an umbrella with me but I did not want to get stuck in the rain. And my feet were tired. I got a tasty carnitas torta from a food truck on 9th Avenue near 56th Street and went back to my room. I napped for an hour while it thundered and poured.