Thoughts & Reflections

Tag: Parks & Gardens

Chihuly at the New York Botanical Garden

On a hot June day, I hopped aboard a train and headed up to the Bronx. It was the weekend after the New York Botanical Garden’s Rose Garden Weekend but the roses were still in full, vibrant blooms and I wanted to catch the flowers while they were still in peak color. One bonus to visiting the garden was to check out the Chihuly exhibit currently on display.

My first experience (and the only one that I can remember) with Dale Chihuly was at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. Suspended from the ceiling in the rotunda was a big, beautiful blown glass sculpture hanging down like a neon chandelier. It’s one of those amazing works of art that one can see only once and not really forget. That was years ago and it’s still there to this day.

The NYBG’s exhibit allows visitors to get more up close to each work of art, and the pieces are scattered around the garden. Some are camouflaged amongst the plants in the Conservatory while are others are floating in a lake or standing boldly on the grass or fountains. My personal favorite was the “Float Boat”, a small wooden boat floating in the lake by the Native Plant Garden and carrying what appeared to be giant marbles.

Many of the sculptures are located in and around the Conservatory and the style of the pieces there varied. There were tall, elaborate and curvy pieces shooting out from water or into the sky, while others were shorter and more stick-like, resembling yards and yards of neon tubing. I wasn’t really interested in the latter since they were a bit dull compared to some of the other pieces.

And right outside of the Conservatory entrance was a reminder of the London sculpture. This was my second favorite piece in the garden, and just looking at it, one can really appreciate the skill and time it must have taken the artist to create such a work of art like this. On certain nights, the garden remains open till 10:30pm and the artwork is all lit up so that’s another fun way to view and interact with the art. I do recommend people going to check it out; the exhibit runs through October 29 so there’s still plenty of time to see it.

July 4, 2017
Hallett Nature Sanctuary

A few months ago, I made several unsuccessful attempts to check out the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, a protected area in the southeast corner of Central Park. Closed to the public since the 1930s, it had been opened with strictly limited hours over the past few years but I had been unable to visit during those times. But now, there are open hours every week and with my current office located close by, I was finally able to drop in and take a look around.

I met up with my friend M one weekday afternoon (she had taken the day off) for a late post-lunch stroll. With no real plans in mind, I suggested we try to visit the Sanctuary. I had expected long lines (as it had been when I walked by last year and even on the first official day it opened this year) but was pleasantly surprised to see people come and go freely.

Members of the park staff were stationed at the entrance and along the different paths inside to answer questions. We soon entered through the rustic wooden gate and proceeded down a path. There are lovely lookouts and vantage points around the promontory, with views of skyscrapers above and the lake below. Though it’s very close to the traffic along Central Park South, most of the noise was filtered out and we heard mainly birdsong and the rustling of leaves.

My favorite area is where a waterfall cascades down into the lake. I’ve seen it often from outside along a path that circles the lake and have always wondered what the source looked like. It’s fun to stand up on the rocks and watch and listen to the water as it trickles downward. By chance, I caught a sparrow bathing briefly in the shallow grooves of the large smooth stones before taking flight. It was so lovely!

One can probably walk through all of the Sanctuary in about 10-15 minutes without stopping. I definitely need to revisit and take my time to fully appreciate the views and the peacefulness of the site (and in much more appropriate footwear). Maybe next time I’ll bring a book and just sit one of the benches up there and just be surrounded by nature.

June 28, 2016
Park Walks

The last month and a half has been some of my busiest weeks ever with far too much going on for my own good. Theoretically, there should have been a decent amount of free time on my hands but that was rarely the case. In between a month-long visit from family, a long weekend visit from a friend and enough interviewing to last a lifetime, I did manage to find some brief moments to escape and actually enjoy living in the present.

There’s been a lot of walking around in Central Park, which looks fabulous this time of year. Instead of my usual haunts, I decided to really explore the northwestern corners of the park which has some really amazing landscapes. Skirting the Harlem Meer, I made my way south and trekked along paths through the North Woods and saw the Ravine, the Loch and the Pool. That entire area of the park is delightful and I discovered a lot of bridges, streams and waterfalls. There was birdsong and looking up, I admired the beauty of the bare trees before Spring finally took hold of the city.

Another day, I walked from one end of the park to the other, sticking to the west side and made it down to Columbus Circle in just over an hour via a curvy, scenic route that took me past the Reservoir and the Lake. And during my most recent trip, it was to check out what was blooming in the Conservatory Garden. I was hoping to see the wisteria flower but it was still a bit early and chilly for that. But there were plenty of flowering trees all around so it was still worth the visit.

One nice thing about these frequent trips to the same park is being able to watch the landscape gradually transform from late winter greys and browns to grass greens, pastel pinks and whites, and bright, bold hues as flowers paint huge swatches of color across the ground. I can’t wait till for all the trees to be covered with leaves; there’s nothing better than enjoying the soon-to-be summer weather with a picnic beneath bright green canopies.

May 3, 2016
The Lowline Lab

In an old market building in the Lower East Side, a lush miniature scale version of a park is blooming inside. With the Highline finally completed, the next new park we can hopefully look forward to is the Lowline.

There are a lot of abandoned underground spaces throughout the city, many former train stations and tunnels. One of these is an old trolley terminal that is still visible from the platforms at the Essex Street subway station. It’s a vast space with minimal reminders of its past and one idea on how to reuse it is to convert it into a park.

The Lowline is far from reality but visitors to their lab can see the potential thanks to a model of what park advocates want to do with the space. As you enter, there are large billboards that describe the project and what efforts the Lowline team have made so far to try to bring this to fruition.

One very interesting and important question is how to bring in natural light to the underground park. Through a combination of reflectors and tubes, sunlight will reach down and into the space and just like above ground, the light will move around the space, mimicking the path the sun would travel.

The scale model is very lush and there’s a variety of plants growing in there. Greenery not only grows up from terraced planters but also grow down from the ceiling reminiscent of stalactites. Walking around the model, one can see moss, ferns and lots of tropical plants and even a pineapple growing among the foliage.

It’s a teaser for what may come and I think an underground park would definitely be a good use of the space. Think of it as one way Nature can reclaim a bit of land now that man has no use for it anymore.

November 12, 2015
Untermyer Park and Gardens

I’m one of those people who tend to stick to the city when I want to experience arts, culture and the great outdoors. New York has plenty of beautiful parks and gardens in each of the five boroughs, though I’ve yet to find any that would rival the great European formal gardens such as those at the Alhambra, Schönbrunn and Versailles. Bryant Park is modelled after the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Conservatory in Central Park are similar in design but only a fraction as big.

My friend M recently had use of a car and after tossing out some ideas, we headed north to Yonkers to visit Untermyer Gardens. I think I first learned of this place via some short feature on a TV show (most likely on PBS) I’ve forgotten now but the pictures I saw of it intrigued me. Technically, it was a half-hour drive from our starting point in Queens but we were stuck in traffic for a bit in the Bronx; even so, we still arrived fairly quickly. As we left the city limits, the traffic and buildings gave way to beautiful, multi-color trees that lined the parkways.

The Untermyer Park and Gardens are located close to the Hudson River, offering beautiful views of the cliffs on the other side of the river. It’s a bit similar to Wave Hill in the Bronx but I think Untermyer Gardens is a lot more visually interesting with all the beautiful ruins and architecture situated throughout the park. Originally, there was a mansion called Greystone on the site, built by Samuel Tilden back in 1862. Samuel Untermyer bought the property in 1899 and added to it, comprising a total of 150 acres. The current park is only 43 acres now; Untermyer gave it to the state after his death but the upkeep costs were too high and much of it was sold.

The Untermyer Conservancy was established to help restore this beautiful park and so far they’ve done a beautiful job of it. From the parking lot, we walked to the entrance of the walled garden. High walls surround a beautiful Persian garden and once I stepped through the gate, I was reminded a bit of the Alhambra gardens. It was absolutely gorgeous with flowers and bushes lining the streams, pools and fountains and Greco-Roman columns and temples standing majestically inside. Since it was a weekday, there were few visitors which was nice but there was a wedding couple on the lower terrace taking pictures; even though it was a cloudy day, I’m sure the pictures looked wonderfully with the bright, vivid colors of autumn leaves in the background.

There’s a path from the walled garden that slopes downwards to a circular overlook where two lone columns stand at attention. The path and steps were partially covered with a carpet of red and orange leaves from the trees that lined the path. From the overlook, we could see the remains of an old gatehouse at the bottom of the hill that offers an alternate entrance onto the grounds. We didn’t go that way but turned back, walking up a little and detouring off to a woodland trail that retraced our steps and led us toward the rock garden and the Temple of Love. There was construction going on as crews were making repairs to those features so we couldn’t get too close to them. Even from a distance the Temple of Love was lovely to look at.

The sun did peek out for a brief ten minutes while we were on the grounds. Blue skies did make an appearance later on but we had left by then to grab lunch. I would like to revisit the park again in the spring or summer, when everything is lush and in bloom. It was definitely worth the drive there.

November 10, 2015
A Visit to the World’s Fair Pavilion

New York hosted two World’s Fair events in the last century and alas, I wasn’t born yet when either one took place. Not much has remained from either Fair but there are still bits of the 1964 World’s Fair that are still accessible to the public. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Fair and after a multi-million dollar restoration, the old New York State Pavilion was finally opened to the public on very limited tours. I wasn’t able to attend then but fortunately, it was open recently for the annual Open House New York Weekend.

When I was younger, I often wondered about those strange looking structures in the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as we drove through along the expressway. To be honest, I always thought they were rather an eyesore that marred the view of the park and it was a very long time before I learned what they actually were. And then it just seemed a pity that they were left standing derelict for decades, a reminder of days gone by. But the site’s been cleaned up and there are fresh coats of bright paints in similar colors as were there originally in the 1960s.

The Pavilion is made up of several structures but it was the “Tent of Tomorrow” that we were coming to see. It opened at 1pm and there were about 20 or so people ahead of me in line when I arrived around 12:45pm. It was a cool, bright day and chilly but at least the sun helped to keep us warm. As we waited, music and old advertisements from that era played loudly from inside the pavilion to remind us of that time. And at the front of the line, everyone was given a mesh cap to wear and over that, a hard hat. Once the safety gear was on, I walked inside to find these glorious views:

The ceiling was originally made up of many translucent colored tiles. Only the skeleton remains but I suppose one could imagine what it might have looked like (or take a look at the photos in this WNYC article instead).

Even the floor was worth looking at. Originally, one would look down and see a highway map of New York State; most of the floor did not survive but there were two small portions on display for the weekend. Other items found during the restoration were placed in various spots inside the Pavilion as well as photos past and present of the site. There were several signs still hanging along the perimeter that indicated where a restaurant once was as well as access to a mezzanine. Unfortunately, heading upstairs is prohibited but we could see the remnants of old stairs and escalators just beyond a wire fence.

The other two structures that are part of the Pavilion still remain to this day. The Theaterama is now home to the Queens Theater; I walked by as I was leaving and was tempted to stop in its cafe to grab lunch but didn’t. Next to and slightly behind the Theaterama are the Observation Towers; the Towers are still off-limits and haven’t been restored. It would be wonderful if they too were cleaned up and accessible but there doesn’t seem to be any plans for that. Maybe one day…

October 22, 2015
A Visit to Wave Hill

As summer begins to wind down, I’m still trying to take advantage of the long daylight and experience the great outdoors on days that are not so warm. To that end, I finally made the journey up to Wave Hill. It’s not easy to get to, since it involves riding a train to the end of the line in the Bronx and then hopping on a shuttle van that takes visitors to the front gate.

Wave Hill is one of the lovely gardens I’ve been longing to check out for many years but it’s always been inconvenient (it still is) to get there. A friend and I were considering a visit by car but plans changed and I ended up going one Saturday morning by myself. There is free admission to Wave Hill on Tuesday and Saturday mornings; I was originally going to visit on a Tuesday since there would be less people but that day has fallen in the midst of heat waves every week so Saturday it was instead.

With the weekend subway construction, it took me about an hour or so by train and then another 15-20 minutes for the shuttle (including the wait time). The minivan could only accommodate about a dozen people and there were nearly twice that number the morning of my visit (everyone was trying to take advantage of the free admission) so the driver had to make two trips. Luckily, I was in the first group.

After passing the gate and parking lot, a path leads visitors right toward the Great Lawn and Pergola with beautiful views of the Hudson River beyond. It really is breathtaking and more beautiful than similar views I’ve seen at the Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park.

The gardens are actually smaller than I thought they would be. I think I managed to see all the major displays in an hour’s time, even when I lingered on some parts of the gardens over others. Out of all the lovely areas, I think my favorite was actually the less exciting woodlands. I just love being surrounded by the trees, which offered a brief respite from the sun. One could walk down quiet paths and hear nothing; it’s very much like walking through a forest. There weren’t many people on those trails and it was fun to be on roads less traveled; the only thing that wasn’t pleasant was the appearance of a rodent ahead of me on the path at one point… I ended up running as fast as I could past the area and did not like enjoying hearing the creature in the bushes nearby.

But the lovely pergola and overlook was another highlight of my visit. I’ve seen photos of it for years and it was nice to actually walk through it and admire the beautiful flowers and plants that hung above or grew along the trellises. There are also Adirondack chairs scattered across the lawns for people to sit and enjoy the views. Most of these were occupied though I did manage to sit in one that was shaded by a tree near the Conservatory. It’s definitely relaxing.

I didn’t stay too long because I had to wait for the shuttle to take me back to the subway station. The shuttle vans run only once per hour so I didn’t want to miss the next one. It’s only a few minutes ride between the gardens and the train station but it involves going up and down hills as well as crossing a busy highway; if the route was straighter, I wouldn’t have minded walking instead.

September 8, 2015
The Seaglass Carousel

I love carousels. To me, it’s one of those things from childhood that as an adult, one can still derive pleasure from. There are definitely a few fun carousels left in New York though I haven’t been on most of them (at least not that I can remember). I do love the little children’s carousel in Bryant Park, which reminds me of the film Amelie but that’s way too tiny. To ride beautifully painted horses, my preference is to go to Brooklyn Bridge Park and take a spin on Jane’s Carousel. But now there’s a new carousel in town to enjoy.

The Seaglass Carousel opened last week in Battery Park. I had first heard about it the week before and apparently it’s been many years (and cost a ton of money) in the making. The grand opening was last Thursday but I couldn’t make it so I went the following morning.

There was a long line already queued up when I got there. Purchasing a ticket was a bit confusing as the kiosk wasn’t actually near the entrance; it was on the same little cart that was a bit of a distance away selling souvenirs. I wasn’t the only one confused by that, so hopefully they work out the kinks soon enough. After handing over $5, one gets a little plastic “sea glass” token that was the ticket to the ride. I think I stood in line for about 30-40 minutes before finally arriving at the front. There were many parents with their children (and strollers) waiting patiently for their turn as well.

Instead of horses, the carousel comprised of fishes in all different shapes and sizes, painted so they appeared to be made of sea glass. It was very strange to sit inside and be a part of a fish. Once everyone was belted in, the music began and the fish started to “swim” within the glass enclosure. The carousel was lit in ever-changing colors, which reminded me of watching sunlight playing on water. Many of the fish moved up and down and weaved in and out amongst other fish, just as one would expect to see in an aquarium. Classical music designed specifically for the ride played in the background and the whole experience was very cool.

The ride ended quickly enough that I think I need to revisit it again (but without a camera) to try and truly enjoy it; everyone had their cameras out, taking pictures and videos of the entire experience. I’m sure it must have been crazy over the weekend, which is why I’ll have to revisit on a slightly more quiet (and less crowded) day mid-week.

August 24, 2015
Waterfront Garden Tour on Randalls Island

I was reading up on things to do in the city and one item caught my eye: a waterfront garden tour on Randalls Island. I don’t think I’ve stepped foot on the island before though I might have once, a very, very long time ago. Unlike Roosevelt Island to the south, Randalls Island is more difficult to get to; there isn’t a train or tram stop anywhere and the most direct way to get across is via a footbridge that connects it to Manhattan at 103nd Street. (There are also bridges that connect from the Bronx and Queens as well.)

There are tours Tuesdays and Thursdays around the Island every week; the first one that worked with my schedule was the Waterfront Garden tour held every other Thursday. I tried to time my travel so I would arrive with a few minutes to spare before the tour began but the subway delays and the roundabout route from the train station to the East River was very annoying because the streets are cut off by the public housing projects in the area so one has to go around them. I arrived about 5 minutes after it started and one of the park staff stationed at the meeting spot helped me to meet up with the group. A few other people arrived even later than I did, so I didn’t feel too bad. In all, there were about maybe six or seven of us, and the woman who met me earlier came along as well; the two of us were the youngest members of the tour.

The tour was led by the head gardener, a man named Kevin. He led up north along the Harlem River Pathway, stopping every so often and pointing out the different flora that made up the interesting landscape that bordered and explaining why certain plants were being grown in those areas and what worked and what didn’t. We also had some very knowledgeable people with us, including two women who were visitors from Virginia that run a nursery back home.

We walked as far as approximately 113th or 114th street across the river before turning southward. The tour was supposed to last an hour though it did run slightly longer but it didn’t matter that much. Overall, I thought it was pretty interesting and I enjoyed looking all the different trees and plants that grew along that stretch of land. We saw a lot of bees (in various colors; I never saw golden/orange bees before) as well as butterflies.

The shady parts were the nicest because it kept us cool but the views and the sun were wonderful too. We could see all the cars traveling along the East River Drive across from us but it was nice to not hear them (or not so loudly) since the water separated us. And the views were pretty spectacular, depending on where one looked. It was very relaxing and for the most part pretty empty, which is nice for those that want to relax and enjoy peace and quiet while remaining close to the heart of the city. The weekend might be less so, especially with the events being held on the north side of the island, where there’s the big stadium for concerts and other things.

I think I’m going to try to check out the Wildflower Tour as well, which is held on alternating Thursdays. There is a Wetlands Tour which I would really like to check out but that’s on Tuesday evenings so it doesn’t work too well with my schedule. I highly recommend checking out any of these tours if one has the time while the weather is still lovely and warm.

August 15, 2015
Summer at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

It’s been a very long time since I last visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, probably over a year. These days, I’ve been spending my time in the much larger New York Botanic Garden in the Bronx, since I’ve spent plenty of time in the Brooklyn gardens over the years.

On Tuesday, I revisited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Without membership, one can visit the Garden for free either on Saturday mornings or on Tuesdays. Sometimes, it’s hard to make it down there first thing on a weekend, especially when there is subway construction. Visiting mid-week, I was also hoping to deal with smaller crowds though there were plenty of schoolchildren and strollers wandering about the grounds.

For me, one pleasant surprise I encountered were the roses. Rose season is past peak but there were still plenty of flowers to be found in the Rose Garden. This is the first time I’ve ever visited when the roses were in bloom so I spent a lot of time leisurely strolling up and down the aisles to admire the flowers.

Something else in bloom this time of year are the water lilies. There were plenty of people taking photos at the Lily Pool Terrace, particularly the really large lotus flowers that rise out from the pool.

The day was warm and humid. Fortunately, the sun was hidden behind the clouds so it kept the temperatures a little cooler in the morning and early afternoon; that made spending time outdoors a bit more enjoyable. And the rain (which wasn’t predicted for that day) held off until afternoon, so I remained mostly dry despite wandering down paths were sprinklers were watering the lawns and plants.

It was really nice to see so many of the great features and fixtures without the crowds. And the best part was being surrounded by peace and quiet, especially on many of the more secluded paths. It was definitely the best way to really enjoy and appreciate Nature.

July 23, 2015