Walking Central Park in the Morning

Reading an article recently discussing what to do and not do in New York City I found myself reconsidering my recent time there. This particular article had many good suggestions worth hearing. One of my favorite suggestions was that you should walk Central Park in the morning, which I did. (Though I found that even the picture-taking on Sunday evenings were also lovely.)
Even though my pictures are mostly of the southern section of the park (which is also the part of the park that is the most touristy and most frequently depicted in movies and tv shows), my favorite part of the park was its northwest section, which is hilly and heavily forested. It is easy to forget there, especially in the mornings, that you are surrounded by a massive city. I walked for about a hour there one morning without seeing one other person, which, given how many people are living in Manhattan, seems unlikely and extraordinary. I went home that particular day feeling blissful.
If you need to get some nature when in New York City, I highly suggest Central Park, but also some of the other smaller parks, including The High Line (which is fascinatingly different from most parks), Washington Square, Union Square and The Brooklyn Garden. All of these spots offer surprisingly pleasant walks, especially if you go on a weekday. The beach at Coney Island is also a nice walk.

Olallie State Park

Olallie State Park is located near Seattle, Washington, and I decided to practice taking nature photographs, since most of my recent work has been in cities. 

Twin Falls, as park of the park, is forty-one meters high.&

The Highline

The Highline is one of New York's most interesting parks, as it's up off of the streets and in between buildings. 

The only thing that makes it kind of sad is that it is not really the right time of year to be here, as many of the plants are either gone or already in freeze protection mode.

But in some ways that is a good thing, because it is easier to see the tracks the are still here.  The Highline is actually an old train line that has been repurposed as a park, and signs of the old line are everywhere. 

I went at dusk, and it seems like the perfect spot to catch the sunset over New Jersey.  That night's sunset was relatively ordinary, but I would imagine that on one of those nights where the sky turns various purples, pinks and oranges, it would be gorgeous. 

It looks like during the summer months this place is a good hangout spot, to the point where there are places to sit and a bar to sell drinks.  People were sitting here and there, but no one was selling anything. 

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There are even lounge chairs to bask in, all point conveniently towards the water, and, this time of the day, the sunset. 

You can even curl up with a lover here.  Seeing this made me wish it was a few months earlier and that I had dragged a boyfriend along here. 

 

There are spots where people sell art.  Nearby is this beautifully designed map and clock. 

And, then of course, there are the plants themselves.  Although I don't know much about plants, I love seeing them.  Sadly, this park doesn't label any of them, so I can't even tell you what they are.  If anyone knows the names of any of these, let me know. 

 

I love this furry green looking plant.  Reminds me vaguely of a muppet. 

 

This was a wonderful spot to just sit and enjoy the day.  The park has a lot of benches, so there's lots of good places to just take in the surroundings.  The only thing that wasn't so good was that it was so cold outside and that it is not particularly close to any subway lines (which means if you want to escape back underground to the warmth of the subway, be prepared to walk at least four blocks to the nearest station.)  Otherwise, this park is really impressive, making it feel like designs that are more environmentally friendly are totally possible and fun. 

The British Camp

I went out to this historical reenactment at one of the local parks.  I've actually never been to one of these before, despite being a total history nerd.
So, I've posted some pictures here of the event this weekend.  These are from the British camp.  There were several camps: one for the British, another for the French, one for the Native Americans siding with the French, a marketplace, and a docking area.   


This first picture here is of a tepee.  One of the things I was looking out for here was the depiction of Native Americans.  They were a pivotal part of the French and Indian War, and I was wary of how they might be depicted.  The problem is I don't really know much about Native culture, so it's hard for me to judge how good or bad it was.  This seemed alright to me. 


This is a picture of the first people I talked to.  My friends and I weren't sure if we could take pictures or not, so I asked a "local."  Turns out that it's considered weird not to take pictures, and that you don't have to ask reenacters, because they expect it.  The young woman here was nice enough to explain to me that she was a loose woman, and that her clothes were very close to what people back then would have considered being naked.  As I talked to others, I could tell that people loved this and that they were passionate about history, but also interested in having fun.  Everyone was very friendly
A Native American.  I thought that the Native Americans all sided with the French, but when I looked it up, I discovered that the Iroquois and the Cherokee, among others, sided with the British, so this was completely appropriate.Another picture of the same Native American.A tea kettle sitting out on the lawn.  One of the things I noticed was that a lot of people had tea kettles out in front of their tentsA couple that we met.  This fine young gentleman was kind enough to show us his rifle and explain how it worked.  Basically, when you pulled the trigger, it used flint and steel to set off a small spark that sent the bullet flying.A close-up of his gun.  The dish soap and other things are out because he was using them to clean his gun when we came upon him.  If you look closely you can see that the woman has pink toenails.Like a lot of other people, this man also had his knife out.More of the man's cleaning kit.  The tin sitting on the top of the chest was filled with small white pieces of cloth that were used to load the bullets into the gun.More people, also cleaning out their guns.  This was just after a battle, so I suspect that's why everyone was cleaning right at this momentIt's easy to forget that these people were basically out camping for months and sometimes years at a time.  The whole British camp smelled like a camp site.  It make me hungry for s'mores.Another tent.Most of the tents were white, but this one was one of the few that wasn't.These were some of the nicest people we met.  They were sitting around telling jokes, and I joked back that I didn't know the Monty Python boys were at this war.
As always, there are some more photos over at my Flickr site, if you want to see more.