Saturday reflections

October skies reflected near the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan today. I took my class on a walking tour to see where some of the history we've been reading about happened. We had a wonderful time, and I am exhausted.

Good exhausted, but exhausted!

Tis the season

Allergy season, anyway. 

I haven't seen much of the fall colors this year. I did manage to walk home through Central Park after class yesterday, although an unpleasantly hot classroom had both me and my students in a torpor by late afternoon, but we're past peak color now.

I took this from my living room window last year. Although that particular view can't help but remind me of the awful locked-down days in 2020 and 2021, when it was basically all I saw for weeks at a time, I still love those colors.

Two more from Fort Tryon Park

These are from late November.

Matchy-matchy

When the foliage colors finally start coordinating with the rust on the old tank.

Another picture from Dobbs Ferry on Tuesday.

Mental Health break

It's been unusually warm this autumn, so the trees have been slow to turn, and I don't think we'll ever get Peak Foliage. But after having survived teaching my first in-person lesson Monday night, I played hooky on Tuesday and took a drive out of the city and got to see a little fall color.

This is a trail over the Old Croton Aqueduct in Dobb's Ferry, a charming little town on the Hudson about an hour north of Manhattan. I got to take a walk under these magnificent trees, crunch some leaves, and have unexpectedly excellent Mexican food for lunch.

Another look at that rainy night

 I played around with filters here, and the trees now look like something out of an old tapestry. All that's missing is the unicorn.

Rainy night in Manhattan

 

A  nor'easter is rattling the windows, reminding me of this view of the back yard on a rainy night a few weeks ago, before all the leaves fell.

My tree in autumn

 No wasting time on spectacular crimsons and russets and golds for this tree -- the leaves go from green to brown without pausing for a colorful boast of beauty along the way.

I do love those shadows.

Preppers

The weather had mercifully cooled down even before the welcome arrival of the equinox, but now it is officially Fall. Which, to be honest, is a lot like summer in that I'm mostly appreciating it from my apartment, but at least I can have the windows open and the air conditioning off.

I may not have seen many birds in my short visit to Central Park last weekend, but I did get to watch this squirrel rooting around in the tall grass under a tree, presumably to bury this fine nut he'd acquired.

The missing season

I feel as though I missed autumn this year. It's always the best season in New York -- fall colors, new movies and cultural events, and weather that makes walking anywhere a pleasure.

But maybe it wasn't just that I spent most of the past couple of months too sick to walk very far, much less get any pleasure out of it. I don't think we actually got much of an autumn this year. It was hot and humid until, abruptly, it wasn't, and the unseasonable blizzard killed all the leaves before they had a chance to turn.

The picture on the left is the Azalea Pond in Central Park a little more than three weeks ago, at the end of October. I took the picture on the right yesterday.

Statuary

I liked the mossy greens and dappled light on this statue much more than the actual figures, although it did make me laugh because the figure on the left with the winged hat and caduceus doesn't appear as though he ever goes anywhere in much of a hurry -- certainly no one I'd hire as a messenger if I were a god and there were other options.

But thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that this is actually meant to be Commerce, in the guise of Hermes/Mercury. The figure with his thumb grazing Commerce's knee in such a familiar manner is Navigation. And apparently they are Quite Good Friends, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Parc de Bruxelles

This lovely park is in the center of Brussels, between the royal palace and the Parliament. It's a nice bit of green -- or red, copper and gold this time of year -- in the midst of all the brick and stone.

And balm for the soul

A feast for the eyes

More autumn colors

The seasons are also upside-down

Today we drove from Mount Cook to Queenstown, from the heart of the Southern Alps to a mountain range called the Remarkables because it's one of only two in the world that are oriented directly north to south.

We stopped along the way at a salmon farm, a winery, a fruit stand, and lunch in the charming town of Arrowtown, where I skipped eating to walk to this park behind the town where the autumn colors were in full glorious display. We've been surrounded by so much evergreen forest that it was easy to forget that it's actually the end of the summer season here rather than the beginning.

Welcome to the working week

A cityscape from Central Park. It's fortunate that I don't have this view from work, or I'd never get anything done.

Saturday reflections

A softer, dreamier (yeah, Photoshopped into submission) autumn view, as reflected in the lake in Central Park.

Blaze of glory

A few more pictures from the park.

It's hard to capture how brilliant the light is in the fall, how it shimmers like glass, but these two shots come close.