Tag: Nature

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A sunny day at the park

After a soggy New Year’s Eve, we woke up to a sunny new beginning. I joined a few friends for the First Day Hike at Cortlandt Park in Riverdale, Bronx. Two rangers from the Department of Parks & Recreation guided us on a 90-minute walk.

At 1,146 acres, Van Cortlandt is the third largest park in the New York metro area:  The largest one is Pelham Bay Park on the northeast coast of Bronx; the second, Staten Island Greenbelt.  It is named after the Van Cortlandt family, early settlers of Dutch origin who own the land since late 17th century.  Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, noticed the beauty and potential of the property and proposed for city to acquire the land in 1876.  Unlike Central Park, it is mostly natural landscape.

We began the hike at the historical Van Cortlandt House.  Built in mid-18th century, it is the oldest existing house in Bronx.  George Washington stayed in the house multiple times during the Revolutionary War period.  Remaining mostly in its original form, the house became a National Historical Landmark in 1976.  With holiday wreathes hanging on doors and window, it stood proudly under the winter sun.  Its past splendor was almost tangible.

The ground under the brick-paved steps looked deserted.  However, we were told that, in late summer and autumn, native wildflowers would blank the area with brilliant colors.  Milkweed, the only food source for American Monarch butterflies, grow in the wetland near the house.

While we celebrated the sun breaking through the clouds, the wildlife also came out of their shelters.  Armies of Canada geese landed on the meadow.  Chickadees hopped from branch to branch as we walked by.  A young great blue heron made a surprise entrance, cutting through air with its wings expanded.  Swans and ducks glided on the lake.  We saw multiple species of woodpeckers lurking around, looking for the next target.  Birders in the group held up their binoculars, excited.

We walked along sites of old railroad paths.  Pillars of stone “specimens” were place in the open air by New York Central Railroad in 1905, testing their durability.  It was part of the selecting process for the exterior wall materials for Grand Central Terminal.  All the pillars seemed to have endured the challenge for over a century.

Several of us followed the rangers for an extend up-hill climb to the burial vault of the Van Cortlandt family.  During the Civil War, official records of the city were buried underground there—to prevent them from being destroyed.  Nowadays, the area is hidden behind woods and unattended.

Walking under the comforting sun, surrounded by nature, was a beautiful way to start a new year.

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Falling leaves

For weeks, the temperature had been above average. Finally, cold wind swept through the area in the last few days. Trees, having fought hard to retain their summery green, reluctantly put on their colorful autumn coats.

Locusts, one of the most popular type of street trees in New York, turned bright yellow.  Shimmering under the sun, their dainty leaves were the last holdouts.  Eventually the sky became more and more visible among the branches.  Little yellow dots and strings scattered on the sidewalks, forced into a roundelay by the winter wind from time to time.

Visually appealing, these leaves quickly became hazardous to pedestrians when the rain started falling. And, it became a thankless and endless job for supers to remove them from the sidewalk.  A cat and mouse game.

When I first came to the States, I envied people with great big lawn and watched them gathering fallen leaves with curious eyes. Eventually, I had my own big lawn to mow and leaves to rake.

Standing in my front yard, there was a century-old silver maple, pleasing yet majestic.  Its branches and leaves canvassed a large portion of the yard.  In early October, the leaves would gradually turn into all shades of yellow, orange and red.  Looking out of my living room window as the sun was setting, the top of the tree glowed triumphantly.

The first year, only a few weeks after moving into the house, there was already a thick layer of dead leaves on the ground. I bought two new rakes and asked a friend to help me with leaf-removal.  Shortly after we started, a kind neighbor walked over telling us that, with the size of the yard and ALL the trees surrounding our block, I really needed to get a leaf blower—not the little hand-held ones.  My idyllic dream of raking leaves under warm autumn sun died instantly.  Instead, it was a real task of gathering and bagging piles of dead leaves, then dragging them out for trash pickup every fall.  I couldn’t be happier when, eventually, the city started sweeping/vacuuming collected leaves on curbside.

However, I did have some fun memories with autumn leaves. Mom spent a few autumns with me.  She didn’t know how to handle the blower.  Even piling the leaves was too heavy a task for her.  But she enjoyed bagging leaves. She wouldn’t even mind standing in the middle with the leaves piling up knee-high around her.  We had many laughter-filled afternoons getting our hands dirty.  It was a blessing that I could spend those lovely days with mom.