Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

It may seem as though the secret garden is an idyllic spot for calm and serenity, but even in paradise there is strife. Our brave photographer was sitting quietly among the berries and the fall lilies, watching Ounce an lots of friends playing in the Sparrow Bowl, when all at once, Red Cardinal came swooping down, scattering sparrows right and left!   Perhaps this swooping was innocent enough, but our brave photographer was so stunned by the chaos that Ounce was entirely forgotten!  Ounce  was furious, and a furious, wet sparrow is a dangerous thing.  Ounce dive-bombed a couple of times and practically drown trying to save the sanctity of the sparrow bowl.  Amazingly, as stunned as our brave photographer was, the footage was still in the cloud! Conservancy Garden, October 2016, from daylight into evening Central Park

Catbird and Cardinal play in the red autumn water.  Ounce couldn't help joining in.   Hey! I know it's blurry, but it's a start!

A blank page has nothing, no nothing at all, but it makes itself over with letters and scrawl, nevertheless it remains quite pristine on the edges and margins and spaces between all those letters and such that don’t matter much so if I recall it at all then one word in twenty is plenty. Early (really early) Magnolia buds in Conservancy Garden I've sped read through more books than I can count, and I am really and truly great at it. I have become so proficient that I need only drive by a bookstore to read a book, much like ConEd reads meters. (You may not be aware of the special radio-frequency chips inserted in the spines of most best sellers.) So of course I think you should try it! Here's How: Open your eyes wide, and focus on your smart phone (how do you think that phone got so smart? Downloads!) Anyway, focus, focus. Concomitantly, Flick the pages past with a suitable finger; I prefer the two middle finger method. Now, work hard at remembering a few ...

With gratitude for Grace, Beauty, Kindness, and Love

For months now, Ounce has been trying his best to live in the city. The new light poles with their crossbars here in New York proved too seductive for even our Ounce! Building a nice nest inside a street pipe was irresistible: new, highrise, amenities -- but the noise! Horns, Traffic, and the Pigeons! It was just too much. Well, Ounce is finally back in the park, but it's winter. You know how Ounce is with water...it's impossible to stay away for long. The other day we walked a little too close to Ounce's favorite sculpture swimming bowl. How disappointing, and after an entire summer of city life. Of course it's winter, and although the elements provide a little water sometimes, even gossamer metal is cold this time of year.

I heard about it a time or two, This particular path is big taboo, But what else is a person supposed to do? The entire garden is calling for you! There are blossoms! and Sunlight! and Forks to explore! and the Birds! and the Bees! It's too much to ignore! The leaves are so green and the scents are so nice, Sometimes the answer is, Don't Think Twice.

It’s the daily-ness that wore me down, the over and over and on and on. Winter thudding along, mashing thoughts of spring into the muddy creases, Waiting, waiting. Will nothing ever happen? I am frozen like fingers on a frost-bit doorknob. No don’t try to open it, I’ve tried. Oh, it’s the daily-ness of winter, where is spring? How can I stop this brain-dead dialog, conjuring up a wrinkled copy of last year’s anticipation? Can't I give it one more try? Force out one more inaudible day? Waiting on the curbs and playgrounds, watching through the doors and windows, trudging after draining, unmet expectations along that repetitious path into another afternoon. I saw the yellow first and then that somehow different green: transparent, sun-lit, red-tipped, replicating life. Sun slanting and shifting through the afternoon showers, breaking into rainbows. English Conservancy Garden, April 2013 English Conservancy Gardens, Central Park April 2013

Nature comes up with the most incredible things! What are the lily pads doing with fuzzy strings around the edges? Where did that purple and blue come from? And that sun filled center? It’s unbelievably creative and beautiful. No wonder those biologists have so much fun-- Flora, Fauna, Wow!

 This single  monarch was sited dining on Blue Salvia in the English Conservancy Garden.  According to this week's Monarch Butterfly Migration update , "Temperatures across the north have been unusually warm. With an extended growing season, late-season monarchs have had time to complete the life cycle. Monarchs are still being seen, and often in large numbers"  The sighting was reported to the Annenberg Global Sighting webpage (with a photo...)! Annenberg Learner Site - Journey nouth, A global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change Monarch Butterfly dining on Blue Salvia in the English Conservancy Garden of Central Park.