Spring Teaser

For Mumsicle's birthday, her gift was a precursor of spring - lovely, lovely, mild weather.  My gift was a couple of vacation days taken to spend actual time with her and the family.

[More to come.]

Ice Land

The beginning of the week was still icy - the epitome of a New York City winter.  The weather had started to warm (hence the somewhat slushy sledding from the day prior), and the snow began to melt, but then froze overnight - lovely coats of ice.  Lovely from the warm indoors, anyway.

Mini-trellis, in winters sans the mandaville.

Looking somewhat northward.

Solar light with its icicle decorations.

Looking northward again.

Southernmost mini-trellis, looking eastward.



And then today we hit 56 degrees - finally joining the ranks of beneficiaries of the well above-average temperatures that were sweeping the Midwest.  And the rest of the long weekend and week ahead should be warmer too.  The beginning of the thaw, perhaps.

Winter Frolics

Saturdays have become recovery days, late mornings lingering in bed, freedom to take naps, tentative blocks on the calendar for free events in Central Park, languid reconnections with old classmates on Facebook...

Punctured by emails from work setting deadlines from out of the blue.  So much for balance.  And so the passive aggressive defense mechanism kicks in.  Radio silence.  It'll all get done.  Tomorrow, it will get done.  And, someday, maybe household life will get to return to normal too.  Sigh.  It will all get done.

Instead, today, there was an outing to take advantage of the snow that is beginning to melt.  Sissy had brunch with her friends, and invited a couple with two little kids out to go sledding on our favorite little hill.  I was still home, having never made it to the office.  So my job was to bring out the sled, and do the test run to make sure it was still safe for the kids - it was fine, a little slushy and melted, outright muddy in spots; slow enough for little kids.  Thus ensued a bit of funtime, watching a 3- and 2-year-old take their first sled rides down our little baby hill.  Sweet.

And on the walk back, photos of the winter park.

City snow creature - there wasn't quite that much snow, after all.

Peter Pan, from afar.



"Weather Whiplash"

Borrowing the phrase from Al Roker - because that is precisely what struck New York City over the last couple of days.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a recordbreaker - the highest temperature recorded in New York City for February 8th ever - 62 degrees.  The meteorologists were spot on in calling that one.  So, knowing BossLady would be out of town, and having skipped the running routine for too much of the winter, it seemed the opportune time to resume - attempt to reclaim some balance, take advantage of the relatively springlike temperature.... before the weather yo-yo bounced the other way....

A little chilly at first, but the run quickly resolved that.  Helpful to have the phone along too.  There were a number of plants in bloom - some are winter bloomers, I believe, like the witch hazel.  And some, maybe they've been fooled.

Witch hazel, I think - from afar.

Witch hazel - close up.

Sometime during my running interlude, one of the big trees on the lawn nearest Gracie Mansion was felled.

Tree limbs, with Gracie Mansion in the background.

Compost pile, with Gracie Mansion fence in the background.

Snow drops - I think.

Are these hellebores?

Blazing yellow bush.

Yellow bloomer, up close.

And then overnight, it all changed, and the snows came after midnight on Thursday.

Queensborough Bridge, aka the Ed Koch Bridge, out of a snow-fringed cab window.

Along the FDR, in the neighborhood of the high school boyfriend.

One of the newer constructions - the copper building.  Supposedly that "H" connector is a mid-air swimming pool.

One of the parks along the way.

Fresh snow clinging and highlighting the contours and features of the buildings.

One of the salt and sand sheds, beneath the Manhattan Bridge, I think.  Still resources remaining for use.

The fence of the corporate ballfield.

The Brooklyn Bridge.