As you can see, not too many people were out on adjacent Overpeck Creek at that hour of the day—partly because the forecast called for rain by early to mid afternoon (which arrived as predicted).
I imagine, however, that with summer arriving, people
will have more free time to venture out on this calm stream.
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Still, what we had in the New York area on Friday and
Saturday was one of those stretches that meteorologists come up with fancy new
names for. It started on Friday with the plunging temperatures accompanied by
winds that could have come out of that twister from The Wizard of Oz. By
Saturday morning, the temperatures had plunged into the single digits.
I didn’t go outside until Saturday afternoon, when I
heard the thermometer was going to exceed 10 degrees outside—a veritable heat
wave, in my book.
Thankfully, this time, the cold spell was comparatively
brief. By late this afternoon, a bunch of stir-crazy people had, like me, gone
over to Overpeck County Park, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ,
to get some exercise for themselves or their dogs. (It was an open question
which needed it more.)
I could see some evidence of the thaw not just in the number
of people venturing outside, but on the extent of the ice in the adjacent
Overpeck Creek. Had I been crazy enough to go by yesterday (braving frostbite,
I might add), that stream would have been frozen solid.
But when I took this photo this afternoon, I took some
comfort—as I hope you will now—in cracks in the ice that were forming. The best
sign of hope for me would be a raft of ducks blissfully together, unvexed by
ice as they swim in the stream once again.
Even within a half hour of sunset, the parking lot was filled with others who had the same idea. I took this picture of the adjacent creek while circling the Leonia side of the park.
Twenty-four hours later, it was a different story at
Overpeck Park, a couple of miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. At 30
degrees, the temperature was just south of the freezing mark and there were no large
gusts of air—an effective difference of 15 degrees between the two days in the
wind-chill factor.
The somewhat warmer temperatures beckoned a number of walkers
like me to step out for some brisk exercise. I also took the opportunity to
photograph the Hackensack River tributary that gives its name to the park, Overpeck Creek, which was covered by ice for about three-quarters of the expanse from where I
stood.
(Thanks to my friend Emil for the photography advice.)
For the last week or so especially, as the weather has
warmed up, I’ve wanted to photograph this activity. But the conditions weren’t
right: trees getting in the way, say, or the kayakers moving just beyond the
range of my camera.
But today, the conditions were just right. There were
several kayakers together (even more than in this picture), they had slowed
down, and I was on a bank with nothing blocking the view. I was delighted to
have an opportunity for this shot—almost as much as I am for the onset of
lovely weather brought on by spring itself.
Almanacs had predicted that sunset was still a way
off, but you’d never know it from the headlights on in cars negotiating their
way under uncertain gray skies. There's so much darkness in the atmosphere in the attached image that I feel like I could be looking at a J.M.W. Turner landscape painting.
Temperatures haven’t been regularly frigid this year,
as they had in past late Novembers. In fact, periodic upswings in the mercury
have been enough to bring people out in sizable amounts, if not the droves of
spring and summer.
But on a day like the one this weekend, it depressed
the spirits to have sunset slip away, even if only until tomorrow. A walk is an
activity that anyone can relish, no matter your job status or income level. To
have a contracted afternoon felt in keeping with a year in which so much we
once took for granted could no longer be enjoyed.
I was especially anxious to get my walking in earlier
this week, before the onset of three days of rain, in whole or in part. This sunset
on the adjoining Overpeck Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River, filled me with such a sense of longing
for what I knew was about to pass that I took this photo to memorialize the
moment.
Late Monday afternoon—the same time when I took this other picture—I snapped this shot of Overpeck Creek through a clearing in Overpeck County Park, only a few miles
from where I live in Bergen County, N.J.
Both before and after the Thanksgiving meal today, I walked to ward off the aftereffects of being stuffed. The brief rise
in temperatures—and the sunshine—not only made this activity more pleasant, but
it also made for nice picture-taking in Overpeck County Park, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. In this case,
I liked the shoreline reflections on Overpeck Creek. 
I took this image a few weeks ago one Sunday
afternoon while walking around the more recent section of Overpeck Creek Park, not far from me in Bergen County, NJ.
