Birds & Bees
- Samantha Hoback
- Apr 18, 2016
- 3 min read
Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about the other 's' word...SPRING! Birds chirping, bees buzzing, flowers blooming, and just about every young family in Manhattan flocking to Central Park for some long-awaited sunshine and fresh air.
Sunday I took part in one of my favorite New York activities: picnic in Central Park. With a book, a new Spring playlist on my phone, and a Spring Classic Crunch salad from Just Salad--radishes, snow peas, avocado, Parmesan cheese, and strawberry balsamic dressing...swoon--I claimed a spot beneath a tree so that I was partly shaded (I don't have sunscreen, and it would have been my luck to go from Snow White to Red Lobster on the first nice day in the city).
I didn't get much reading done for two reasons. 1) The book I had with me wasn't very good. I have since given up on finishing it (yeah, it was that bad), and moved on to something much, much more interesting. 2) I was really distracted by all of the activity going on around me.
Picture this: Dozens of cute kids in sweater vests and baby rompers wandering around the grassy patch chasing plastic balls and pointing out every horse-drawn carriage that passed by. And the puppies...there were just about as many cute dogs as there were cute kids. Naturally, these mini-New Yorkers proved much more entertaining than my book.
If you've never been to Central Park in spring, let me give you an idea of what it's like...
Obviously, families and their dogs, usually lounging on woven blankets they bought specifically to use in the park on warm spring days, munching on gourmet sandwiches and bottles of Pellegrino from Dean & Deluca.
Next, the active crowd. Runners, bikers, fast-walkers. This weekend I even saw boxers practicing their moves a few yards away from my spot by the tree. They had all of the protective head gear and gloves, but it still looked painful. I'll stick with yoga and Pilates, thanks.
Tourists, of course, with cameras on auto-flash so they don't miss a single photo opp as they meandered through the various pathways.
The sunbathers--yes, even in 65-degree weather, there are always a few brave souls who find a spot with maximum sun exposure, dress only in shorts and tanks (or just shorts, for some of the guys), and let the UV rays infiltrate their winterized pallor.
And then there are people like me, book in hand and salad-to-go for lunch sitting on a beach towel and awkwardly watching the world go by for a few hours. I haven't had too much time to enjoy my apartment now that I have all of my things moved in, but Sunday was just too pretty of a day to stay inside. Next week looks equally promising, though I may upgrade from a to-go salad to a French dejeuner: baguette, cheese, fruit...maybe wine. Why not?
Afterword:
I can't publish this post without telling you about my Sunday evening. I won't go into too much detail, but I ventured down to the East Village to meet up with a friend. It was the first time I've been to someone's apartment in that neighborhood, and I had to walk through Tompkins Square Park to get there (which is just lovely as the sun is going down, and just as full of activity--basketball games, late-afternoon sunbathers, young families and puppies, etc.--as Central Park).
What made this apartment blog-worthy is the view. My friend lives on the top floor of the building, and from the deck you can see all of Manhattan: the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Times Square...everything. And at night, when the sun sets and all of the buildings are lit up, it's pretty spectacular.
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