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If you go to NYBG in late summer prepare to get happy.
It is almost impossible to feel down when you visit. The New York Botanical Garden always has something new to see. Or something not new but ever-fresh. A bee on a blossom. Yes, the flowers are flowering. The dahlias. The hydrangeas, some more exotic than others. The lilies. Especially nice when you bring someone who…
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Why fry by the ocean when you can scorch on the NYC sidewalks?
I hadn’t been to Manhattan in quite some time. Returning, I see all its contrasts as poetry. The old side by side with the new. Burned out church, new construction. Antiquated evidence of New York’s beaver-rich past in the Astor Place subway stop. A million year old hotel, updated several times. The struggles of nature.…
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A tree inspector has only to drop in briefly for this takeaway:
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park neighborhood surely has some impressive trees. I stand awed in the shade of a gigantic weeping willow in a tiny neighborhood enclave. And some interesting characters, at least on my job site, one of five during a day dedicated to corners. That is, replacing the old sidewalks at intersections with colored pedestrian ramps…
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Just to let you know about my event tonight…
It’s a FREE Virtual Event — there’s STILL TIME TO REGISTER! Don’t miss the third installment of Save Ellis Island’s exciting new virtual speaker series Preserving New Jersey. Tonight, July 6 at 7p.m. (EDT) meet Katherine Good, Senior Project Manager/Historic Preservation Practice Leader at Michael Graves Architecture, the award-winning global leader in planning, architecture, and interior design based in Princeton, New…
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I recently went for a saunter
(taking a cue from John Muir, who preferred the word saunter to hike) in the largest old-growth tract in Dutchess County New York, the South Woods at Montgomery place in Annandale. It was called the Spirit Wood by the Indigenous people who occupied the land before the Livingston family bought it in 1802, with its…
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Do you love hot dogs?
Still time to sign up, all you hot dog aficionados, for my conversation with Lloyd Handwerker tonight, June 8 at 7 EST– free, virtual, one hour, part of Save Ellis Island’s Preserving New Jersey series. Lloyd is the grandson of Nathan Handwerker, founder of the Nathan’s Famous hot dog empire. He wrote a biography of…
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I greet the trees
on my regular saunter around the Catwalk estate. John Muir preferred the word saunter to hike. Guess what? Have you ever had a wonderful dream, then woken up, then fallen back asleep and had the same wonderful dream continue? That’s what I feel like. Catwalk called and said someone had canceled for the next session.…
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Trouble, trouble, trouble. Trouble.
Really? How can you complain when you find yourself in the most beautiful place on earth? Can there really be trouble in paradise? It’s like this. I got some feedback on a just-drafted chapter from someone I trust. He said what I wrote was not perfect. It’s hard to write about nature when you’re in…
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In my skin
as it were – and having exercised my brain enough for today I thought I would exercise my legs by making my way down the scant-mile-long trail to the river. Magic hour. Just before nightfall. It is a wonderful path, carefully marked with delicate ribbons by Chuck, who takes care of the property. I’m hoping…
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I am in Heaven
and thus not able to file regular blog posts. You’ll understand. Catwalk Institute is a ravishing place to have a writing residency. I think I will be far too consumed with writing chapters of Heartwood here to do much else. Perhaps exercising my daydreaming muscles too. Part of the creative process, don’t you know. My…
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If you happen to get this RIGHT NOW
I am about to be featured as moderator with a fascinating historical preservationist, tonight at 7 EST (virtual, free, one hour) as part of a series I’ve organized for Save Ellis Island called Preserving New Jersey. I’ve spoken with Aidita Milsted and she is very smart and it should be a lively conversation. Please consider…
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When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall,
wrote Thomas Carlyle, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze. Here at Lasdon Arboretum in Katonah, New York, foresters, ecologists, gardeners and volunteers are giving that breeze a little bump. To wind up with an oak forest you need to start small–even tiny, with seedlings that look more like sticks…