Tag Archives: Fall

Last Manhattan Circumnavigation of 2012

Posted on January 2, 2013 by | 33 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal: On a sunny weekend in late October, we decided to circumnavigate Manhattan.

We didn’t anticipate, though, that, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, it would be our last circumnavigation of the year, indeed our last major trip in New York waters. And so this trip has a special resonance in our memories.

A Manhattan circumnavigation is usually a pretty predictable trip, though always a treat. It’s not particularly long by our standards, but packed with variety. The scenery ranges from the urban…

Midtown Manhattan from the East River

In the East River: the Empire State Building, with Vlad in the foreground (photo by Johna)

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to the bucolic…

Fall colors in the Harlem River

Fall colors in the Harlem River

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Ferries in the East River

Riding the chop and keeping an eye on the ferries down by the Battery

and the paddling conditions vary nearly as much: The water down by the Battery is often exciting (enhanced by ferry and other shipping traffic)…

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Up the Harlem River

Heading up the Harlem River

but  the  long glide up the Harlem River is usually tranquil.

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All in all, we looked forward to a lovely, if unexceptional trip.

Unexceptional except for being our last long trip of the year.  The following weekend, we toured the Gowanus Canal—a scenic, but short, excursion.

And the Monday after that, Sandy arrived.

Our Manhattan paddling home at Pier 40 was shut down, and the pier itself remains closed (though we’re hopeful it will reopen soon). In addition, there continue to be some restrictions on paddling in New York Harbor. So we haven’t been out (in New York waterways, at least) since.

Which made this “unexceptional” trip rather exceptional, after all.

So our recollection of this circumnavigation is tinged with a bit of melancholy and a sense of loss. As the graffiti has it:

Poetic graffiti in the East River

“Alas this bitter life filled with sweet dreams” — Poetic graffiti in the East River

But even an “ordinary” trip has moments of incandescent beauty, which will live on in our memories…

Yellow and blue nocturne

The George Washington Bridge: Yellow and blue nocturne

We hope to be back on the waters around Manhattan in 2013!

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Favorite Spot

Posted on October 2, 2012 by | 54 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post theme for this week, Favorite Spot, and the Weekly Photo Challenge theme, Mine, come together in this post…

On Sunday, Johna and I visited one of our favorite spots, New York City’s Central Park.

The trees are still mostly green, and late flowers are in bloom. But subtle signs of fall are everywhere.

We saw a late monarch butterfly, flitting from flower to flower.

Wandering through the park, we made our way, as we usually do, to our really special spot—the plot of ground that some time ago we picked out as the place where we could learn to observe and to see. And indeed, we saw there…

… a belated dandelion

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… somebody’s eggs

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… a strawberry?!

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It sure looked like a strawberry—a last lone strawberry at the cusp of fall.

We thought of how sweet ripe wild strawberries can be… And so, despite some contraindications —the strawberry plants bore, here and there, yellow, rather than white, flowers—Johna ate the strawberry.

It had very little taste. It wasn’t a true strawberry, but (as we determined afterward) a mock strawberry.

Still, it was a lovely early fall day at our special spot in the park…

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Happy Fall!

Posted on September 22, 2012 by | 14 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The Fall Equinox is later on today. Happy Fall, everyone! (Well, everyone in the northern hemisphere… for the others, Happy Spring!)

More photos are here. And a couple of earlier autumnal posts are here and here…

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Sunday Post: Autumn, Take Two

Posted on September 16, 2012 by | 77 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This is a second post in response to Jakesprinter‘s Sunday Post theme of Autumn (the first post was here).

Fall is just starting here in New York City—but it’s unmistakably on its way. Here are some of the colors we can look forward to in a month or so…

Photos taken around New York City’s Central Park Reservoir in Fall 2011. More photos are here and here.

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Sunday Post: Autumn

Posted on September 16, 2012 by | 16 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

For the last few days, Fall has been in the air here in New York City. The days are still warm and sunny, but crisp rather than humid, with those deep blue skies of fall. The nights are now almost chilly. And today in Central Park, I noticed for the first time some yellow and brown in the green mass of trees, and the first few fallen dry leaves scattered along the paths…

So Jakesprinter‘s Sunday Post theme of Autumn comes perfectly timed. I have many brilliantly colorful fall foliage pictures, and I’ll post a few of them, but I’ve always liked especially this more modest photo. I took it many, many years ago, in the last millenium, still in the age of film…

A second Autumn post is here.

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Best of Fall Colors 2011

Posted on November 23, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Despite the hiccup of the Halloween snowstorm, Fall has had a long run this year. The colors in New York City’s Central Park have been glorious. But now, in late November, they are finally coming to an end. It’s raining, dark, gray, and the trees are rapidly losing their last leaves.

So, as farewell, here are some highlights of the Fall colors of 2011. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Around the Reservoir: A Photoessay

Posted on November 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Yesterday I took a walk along the jogging track that encircles Manhattan’s Central Park Reservoir (more properly, I guess, the “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir”).
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On the reservoir side of the jogging track, beyond the black cast-iron ornamental fence, is a steep embankment leading down into the water. In this micro-enviroment, just a few feet wide but 1.6 miles long, fall is in full swing…

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A Walk in the Park

Posted on October 29, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Yesterday:

Today:

More photos from both days to come. (Update, November 18, 2011: they are here.)

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Touched By Fire: An Early-Autumn Kayak Trip Along the Palisades

Posted on October 20, 2011 by | 5 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

Autumn is a time of melancholy, of dreams and mists. It’s also a time of intense beauty—and a reminder that everything in life is transient.

That’s particularly true when it comes to catching the leaves turning along the Hudson: Bare hints of color one day, blazing the next, and then fading—all in the space of a week or two.

For New York City kayakers with day jobs, the challenge is that the currents are right for a weekend trip up the Hudson only once every two weeks—which means there are only two October weekends to catch this ephemeral color.

The first weekend with a daytime flood current was October 15-16. Either weekend day would have worked, but since I’d just gotten back from an intense week of traveling, Sunday was the better fit. Plus, Saturday’s winds were pretty severe—predicted and ultimately proving to be over 20 knots. So we agreed to go Sunday.

By then, the winds had calmed somewhat. Vlad and I set off on a crystalline, perfect, early-autumn day.

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Later Flowers for the Bees, and Butterflies: A Photoessay

Posted on October 10, 2011 by | 5 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

… to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease …

John Keats, To Autumn

This past weekend was beautiful: dry, calm, sunny and warm—Indian Summer weather. In New York City’s Central Park, still mostly a fall-denying green, a fresh crop of flowers was out. And the park’s bees and butterflies, like the city’s human inhabitants, were out in force.

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