02/17/08

Technically, this isn't a weekend - today is Friday.  But I just had to talk about my walk through Central Park last night.

It was a perfect summer evening.  As everyone in the Northeast knows, this year has not been an ideal summer.  Week after week of sweltering heat and humidity, everyone exhausted - just awful.  But yesterday was different.

Yesterday was glorious.  Bright sun, in the 80s, everything green and lush (all that humidity turns Central Park into a rainforest), and everybody suddenly full of energy.

Including me.  Instead of dragging myself to the bus stop and sighing with relief when I got on the air-conditioned bus, I hitched my tote bag over my shoulder and walked a mile or so through Central Park.  (Okay, so I eventually took a bus rather than walk the whole 3 miles, but that doesn't count, right?)

A little geography here for those who don't know New York.  Central Park is a vast green space in the middle of Manhattan, 843 acres, to be precise. The streets that bound it are renamed - 8th Avenue becomes Central Park West, 60th Street becomes Central Park South, 110th Street becomes Central Park North.  Fifth Avenue bounds it on the east, but nobody's fool enough to rename Fifth Avenue!  The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, to appear as natural as possible - all curving paths, hills and dips - and most people have no idea that it's entirely man-made.  There are no subways running under the park, to reduce the noise of the outside world. The paths all have old-fashioned lamps that were once gaslights.  It's a beautiful, romantic place.

I started out on Central Park South, where the horses and carriages line up on the park side, and New York's most luxurious hotels line up across the street.  (I went to a rooftop party at the Essex House once - beautiful views!)

Check out the picture of the horse snoozing in her harness!  I think it's the same one I photographed as a blur of motion when she was on her way home (see "Animals").  Another horse, with carriage attached, but the driver elsewhere, was strolling up onto the sidewalk - something got his attention and he was going to investigate, carriage and all.

I turned into the park at the corner of Fifth Avenue, opposite the Plaza Hotel, which is currently closed for conversion to condos (a sad moment for New York, though the famous restaurants and ballroom will re-open in 2006). 

Even the pond was green

The first impression I had was green.  Green trees, green grass - and a green duckpond! Remember, I'm Australian, so the concept of lush greenery in summer is still a little strange to me, even now.  Like California, Australia goes dry in the summer.  The duckpond, though it was a gorgeous color, looked a little strange.  Evidently, I'm not the only person to think so, because there was a sign explaining that it was duckweed.  Here's a little blurb about it.

http://www.centralparknyc.org/17613/4962747

There were people everywhere, just like me, enjoying the beautiful day and taking photos.  One of the first I saw was a model, posed on a rock, with one guy manipulating a light reflector to get the light just right on her face, and another guy wielding a camera.

The dogs were out, too, though most of them tend to be further up, in the more residential area where there are dog runs where they can be let off the leash.  Once in a while, you see a dog off the leash in the park, which is a big no-no.  The lawns of the park used to be a minefield of dog poop, too, but the "pick up" laws have largely taken care of that.

I'd wondered before what happens to the Wollman skating rink in summer, and now I know.  It turns into a Victorian Amusement Park! Rides, whirligigs, all brightly colored and pretty against the soft background of weeping willows.

Eek!

A moment later, I saw a young woman sitting on a rock peering down.  I thought she was trying to figure out how to get down, until the rat she was watching zipped across the path in front of me.  Remember that line from "Sex in the City" - "A squirrel is just a rat in a cute outfit"?  And pigeons are rats with wings.  Let's face it, rats exist in any big city, but nobody said we had to like them.

I wavered between walking up the mall (the only straight path in the park), and decided to stroll the little side paths instead.  I was headed for the boat basin (officially the "Conservatory water" - who knew?), but I just kept wandering, watching people and dogs having fun.  Then up the hill to the elaborately Gothic Dairy, once a place that served milk to children visiting the path, now a visitor center.

Music

Leaving the Dairy, I heard a bagpipe.  There, in a little clearing, a lone bagpiper was playing.  Unlike most musicians in the park, he didn't seem to be "busking" - collecting money - just playing for joy. 

As the bagpipe music faded, classical violin music took its place.  I stood listening and smiling for a while, then dropped a dollar in their violin case, and decided it was a good time to go home.

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A few seconds later, this horse stepped up on the sidewalk...	Snoozing in the harness.	That green water is good, they say - duckweed in the pond.
Another view of the pond.	Sunbathing in the park.	Photographing a model.
Ah - romance!	One of the many bridges in Central Park.	Eek! A mouse! (More precisely, a rat, that bolted across the path in front of me.)
The Victorian Amusement Park that takes over the Wollman Skating Rink in summer.	The Dairy - now a conference center.	The Mall.
A lonely Scotsman (well, bagpiper, anyway).	Violinists playing classical music - lovely!	My bus stop was across the street from Gucci.