Posts Tagged New York City

Path and Pond

Path and Pond . . .

Tulip Tree Flower
(NYC 05 2019)

Spring season stalwarts of the wildflower world are in full bloom throughoit the city as the month of May comes to a close.

Two of the most iconic can be found along two distinct spots: the shaded path and the sunny pond.

The park trail may well be lined by the subtle reds of the bushy wild red columbine, Aquilegia canadensis.

Aquilegia canadensis
(NYC 05 2019)

By the water, the full sun fuels the rich nectar of the wild iris Henry David Thoreau called the yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus.

Iris pseudacorus
(NYC 05 2019)

These are just two of the many wildflowers to be found flowering in the West Village and the rest of Manhattan during these salad days of spring. These living still lifes in situ make a great excuse for a walk in NYC’s park(s).

— rPs 05 31 2019

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May Day 2019

May Day 2019 . . .

Lush Lawn Still Life: Taraxicum officinale
(NYC 05 2019)

Today, the first day of the fifth month, a century to the day after the Cleveland socialist riots, the set date of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s epic novella May Day.

“May Day!” — def: distress signal

Here. Now. Happiness. Everything green seems to be in bloom in the West Village along the verdant basalt bluffs of the Hudson River.

Winged Liberty “Mercury” dime minted in 1919.
Once in the pocket of F. Scott Fitzgerald?
(NYC 05 2019)

— rPs 05 01 2019

Postscript: Link to an online copy of “May Day” by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/May_Day_(Fitzgerald)/Chapter_I?fbclid=IwAR35fVS-XMY_htrkXtSPFV7YkhvRi5zvnkVG6_2NhO8uOyHRK-8Ezu5X8nw

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Earth Day 49

Earth Day 49 . . .

The author of Philadelphia on the Fly celebrates Earth Day “by the book” . . .
(Planet Earth 04 22 2019)

Earth Day has reached the cusp of a human’s middle age. The planet remains older, larger, and more important than all of us people put together. Let us try, at least try, to be stewards and gardeners and protectors rather than mere users of our one and only green, white, and blue home.

Trout lily and others spring into being.
(04 2019)

Earth Day 2019.

— rPs 04 22 2019

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Happy (9th) Anniversary

Happy 9th Anniversary . . .

Lichen Spring
(NYC 03 2019)

March 22 on the calendar marks another year, nine (9!) years, of Wildflowers of the West Village.

Happy Anniversary . . .

The weather today, cold, wet, under a white lid of sky, matches the scene in 2010 when this monthly, sometimes more often adventure in urban botanicals began.

The blog format was a fresh, relevant way to spread one’s written words and images in 2010. Social media had yet to spread its petals in full. Outdoor writing from the perspective of sport had by then through two books established my published, authorial voice, a voice that enjoys harmony.

Wildflowers, such a part of the setting of fishing and birding, have always been in my sight, perceived by scent, and a favorite subject of line drawings. Wildflowers hold a diaspora of fascinations with the added advantage of statis for the visual artist. Fish and birds are difficult to capture. Plants, fixed, quiescent, make much more agreeable sitters for the still life sketch and the photograh.

The impact of one blog, one post to that blog, would be just like a snowflake stuck on a window if not for the incredible archival capability of this online internet format. The weight of nine years, some 165 posts, gives one the feeling some good natural fieldwork has been done. There may even be a book in there!

The year now sees the first snowdrops and croci have appeared along the Hudson. The first dafodils have already been sighted. Bright and dry, or white and damp, the sky and air of Manhattan again the freshest of the year. Again the pastel colors emerge to season the brown, white, and blue palate of the cold leafless months. Again another year of Wildflowers of the West Village.

Sprung!
(NYC 03 2019)

— rPs 03 22 2019

Postscript: Revisit the post that started it all by following this link:
https://wildflowersofthewestvillage.com/2010/03/22/welcome/

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Ides of March 2019

Ides of March 2019 . . .

Liquidambar styraciflua
(NYC 03 2019)

for New Zealand

Quiet,
Silence.

Riot,
Violence.

Lost cause.
Lost mosques.

Christchurch;
We search.

Gentle
Islands;

We are
Crying.

“Kai su,
Teknon.”

— rPs 03 15 2019

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Lichen the Weather

Lichen the Weather . . .

Lichen in Bloom
(NYC 02 24 2019)

Punxsutawney Phil predicted on February 2nd an early spring. He has been correct but for two spells of clear, cold artic gale.

The freeze left behind the windswept spells softens after just a day or two of damp, soft rain warm enough to compell the morning doves to coo.

The air is crisp, damp, clean, and cool enough for the lichen to flower in the West Village. Ground level, too, starts to stir, sprout, and shoot.

Sprouts
(NYC 02 2019)

Shoots
(NYC 02 2019)

Winter Spring: a new subseason?

— rPs 02 27 2019

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There’s Moss

There’s Moss . . .

Moss Blooms Green
(NYC 2019)


January can be a month of peaks and valleys in terms of temperature. 2019 has been no exception. One day was damp and in the 50s, a few days later, there was gusting wind and single digits.

The green lining to the warmer days is a brief flowering of the moss, the bright green being the first kind of blooming to be seen in the West Village this new year.

Where There’s Moisture, There’s Moss
(NYC 01 2019)

— rPs 01 31 2019

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Holiday Rosettes

Holiday Rosettes . . .

Dandelion, Taraxacum
(NYC 12 2018)

The artful symmetry of plants has compelled my lifelong interest in botany. When the winter season begins damp and mild, as this year’s has, one of the most attractive plant patterns may be seen: the basal rosette.

Plantain, Plantago
(NYC 12 2018)

The fundamental base of the plantain, burdock, and dandelion appear like giant green snowflakes on the moist lawns of Manhattan. The designs are artful, not unlike the rose windows of festive houses of worship.

Burdock, Arctium
(NYC 12 2018)

– rPs 12 30 2018

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Autumn Greens

Autumn Greens . . .

November: Impressionist Greens (Lichen & Moss)

The language of autumn so often goes to “russet glows” and ‘the tang” conveyed by the leaves, shed, and drying to curls, colors bright of yellow, orange, and red leading to brown.

November, the fleeting, waning of an Equinox, allows a continuity to the growing season when as wet as has been this year. Look closer to see lingering to lushness of veins of rich green nestled within all this glowing russet bed.

Green in the the moss and the lichen feasting on some of the clearest damp air of the year.

Green is the onion grass bathed by the sunset, light framed and focused by a high line of underglowed cloud stretched across the horizon of the Hudson.

Wildflowers in the West Village.

— rPs 11 30 2018

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Halloween Color

Halloween Color . . .

Halloween Foliage: Somewhere in New York
(10 30 2018)

Perhaps the most iconic Halloween image is the bright orange pumpkin. Leaves of the sugar maple have a similar shade, and the wildflowers of the late autumn, if not ghost white, are a shade of yellow, gold, or Halloween orange.


Northern Bush-honeysuckle:
Diervilla lonicera
(NY 10 30 2018)

— rps 10 31 2018

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