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Been doing some thinking about squirrels
and especially squirrels as pets. John Singleton Copley painted his delightful subject, nine-year-old Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, in 1771. You can visit with the imp at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, and I often have. Perhaps because I’ll dealing with some especially dark subject matter these days in my professional life, my mind likes to veer when…
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Sometimes you et the bur
and sometimes the bur ets you. Sitting beneath the drought-drooping branches of a bur oak in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery, we tapped our feet a bit impatiently, waiting for the trolley we were told would take us to the jazz concert in the catacombs. William Parker, freeform bass player, had been scheduled to perform. Nice view,…
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Shelter, below and above ground
is fundamental on this Grand Concourse construction site, where I am the resident arborist. I’ve always had a penchant for the plywood trenches built for the crew to go down into the bowels of the earth to repair the sewer pipes. They look so much like upside down houses, and the carpenter on this crew,…
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Dollar coffee
is a bodega staple I’ve always thought is among the best things in the Bronx. Hot, strong, milky and cheap. It’s universal in the borough, along with the chopped cheese sandwich (also known as a chop cheese), a mess of ground beef, melted cheese, tomato, lettuce, a mystery sauce and some other things on a…
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Outside of NYC
you wouldn’t guess we have native plants waterfalls towering old trees (this one a kentucky coffee tree) wildflowers magical floating spheres amid reeds more wildflowers But we do. When you come to New York, go to Times Square or the Statue of Liberty, by all means, but visit the Botanical Garden in the Bronx if…
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The grand dame
that is the Grand Concourse in the Bronx has certainly seen better days. But there is still an awful lot of life there. Crews are installing new sidewalks and new medians separating the wide boulevards (2 lanes and a service road in each direction). They need a tree inspector to make sure no harm comes…
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Nooks and crannies
pretty much define what’s so great about the Metropolitan Museum. Everyone who has gone there a lot has favorites. It’s hard not to love the Atrium outside the American Wing. You can drink ridiculously overpriced coffee and gaze out the bank of windows at Central Park in its summer glory. But your personal favorite might…
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Bringing a forest to NYC