My trip to New York City last week included surprising pastoral and cultural parts of Brooklyn, a fun bar hop, a brilliant Broadway show, a Philadelphia group reading, and culminated in the 27th annual Lambda Literary Awards.
My first day proved surprisingly botanical with a long stroll through scenic Prospect Park. I enjoyed
Frederick Law Olmsted's other masterpiece, Central Park, on my last NYC visit in 2012.
Prospect Park is of course much smaller, but retains that balance of natural and tarted up landscaping. Open fields echoed with the joyful screeches of packs of school children at recess, and a lone reader under a huge elm (or oak?) proved the tranquility of the park.
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| Prospect Park serenity |
I couldn't help but think about my fictional character Reid Conniff, who spends a good deal of
Every Time I Think of You and its sequel
Message of Love working in parks or studying plants. Thus the two book covers that sort of resemble field guides to plants.
Of course, my own modern curiosity about plants and trees could have been solved with a few apps, including
Leaf Snap and
Plant Net. The phone apps let you take a photo of a plant or tree leaf and it identifies the species.
Plants of all types were identified by small nameplates throughout the
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, which are adjacent to the western edge of Prospect Park. This highly manicured park includes a rose garden, Japanese mini-lake and landscaping that's beautiful.
