Photo of the Day: Sculpture, Grass, People—The High Line, NYC

As with this post from the other day, I took this photo a couple of weekends ago at the High Line, an abandoned railroad track restored as an elevated public park. This scene took place at the northern end of the park, just west of the Hudson Park development at 34th Street.

The object in the middle is called The Evolution of God, created last year by the Brazilian artist Adrian Vilar Rojas. It’s a mix of cement, clay, soil, seeds, organic material, clothing, and rope.

Photo of the Day: Muscota Marsh (II), Northern Manhattan

This is a follow-up to my blog post from yesterday on Muscota Marsh, a public park opened earlier this year that is adjacent to Inwood Hill Park and Columbia University’s Baker Athletic Complex. Here, you can see the brackish water of the inlet, the Spuyten Duyvil Creek—and, of course, the giant blue initial “C” that stands for my alma mater.

Photo of the Day: The High Line, Looking South

The image accompanying this post is yet another in a series, begun with this post from this past Saturday, of the High Line, a public park on a former elevated freight line on Manhattan’s West Side. As with the earlier posts, this one was taken around the 20^th Street entrance to the walk.

Photo of the Day: Enjoying a Day at the High Line

This is the third in a series of photos I took while at the High Line in late December. The first of these, in my blog on Saturday, was from my perspective looking north from the 20^th Street entrance onto this relatively new public park on Manhattan’s West Side. The second, from yesterday, captured the landscape looking east from that vantage point.

What I like about this one is the freshness and innocence of these young kids, particularly in their hug. (For the last week or so, anyone hugging in the park is less likely to do so out of sheer exuberant affection and more because of the need to stay relatively warm amid the single-digit temperatures and biting winds.)

Photo of the Day: Looking East From New York’s High Line

This was another in a series of photos I took on the same afternoon that I visited the High Line on Manhattan’s West Side, in late December. (See yesterday’s post for the first in this series.)  Here, looking east from the 20^th Street entrance to this public park, you see how these former elevated tracks are being returned to nature—and how the buildings in the vicinity look from on high on a gorgeous early winter day.

Photo of the Day: Kool Katzenjammer Kids

A week ago yesterday, I drove down to Short Hills, N.J., for the opening of the public park Greenwood Gardens, a 28-acre historic garden of Italianate design. The weather was great, and, with the combination of an article describing the site in The New York Times, the place was so packed that late visitors had to be driven from a nearby parking lot to the site on a short shuttle bus.

An unexpected but thoroughly pleasant addition to the afternoon was a Princeton a cappella group, the Katzenjammers. Their repertoire ranged broadly over pop, jazz, and classical. The coed group performed behind the brick colonial manor house on the grounds to a very appreciative audience, including such songs as “But Not for Me,” “La Vie en Rose,” “Autumn Leaves” (perhaps not completely appropriate for a gorgeous spring day) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (very appropriate for the day’s weather).

I had to keep reminding myself of the real reason I had driven all the way to the estate in the first place: not to listen to the music, but to take in the amazing landscape. (Don't worry: I intend, over the next week or so, to post photos I took on this great site.) I stood transfixed by the group’s sounds, and finally had to tear myself forcefully away to walk around the place. Fortunately, the group has released several CDs and can be found on YouTube, including this clip of them performing Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock.”