It's Autumn!
And with this season comes rain. Its been raining all day, and will do so for the next few days. This means the proliferation of dubious-looking puddles and a surplus of broken umbrellas. In fact, I'm sure by tonight the sidewalks will look like it had rained broken umbrellas, as people literally drop their blown-inside-out models and rush to the nearest vendor to purchase another disposable umbrella.
Not only rain, but odd unpleasant smells too. Perhaps it's because the last few weeks I have finally started to smell things. What a strange new world has opened up for me. Right now, there are pockets of cloying rottenness, which I've learned from Kathy, emanating from ripe gingko fruits. Toby picked up a few (with gloves, as their skins are somewhat toxic) and cleaned off the flesh. We'll refrigerate them and try to grow a gingko plant in the spring. Meanwhile, I've learned to identify the smell and know to look for a nearby gingko tree when I do smell its pungent calling card. (Oddly, I am much more sensitive to the gingko fruit smell than Toby is, so I know one is coming up nearly half a block before he does!)
Another part of Autumn - the heating season begins. This past weekend, when it was a tad chilly at night, we'd closed all the windows in preparation for sleep. I'd donned warm fuzzy pajama pants, socks, and a long-sleeved shirt. I even had a hat handy in case I got too cold at night. And, yes, that was the night the heating season began. I woke up completely drenched in sweat! Ugh! Now, when the heat is on, it's way too warm. I'm currently sitting in shorts and a t-shirt and all the windows are wide open. But in a few minutes the heat will turn off, and I will need to put my sweater back on. Back and forth with this crazy temperature swing, all day, every day, until spring. Yay.
At least the leaves are turning, giving us a lovely palette of colours outside the window! We even tried to see more of the fall spectacle by walking upstate last week! We toured the southern part of the Old Croton Aqueduct. This was built in the 1840's, and brought water into NYC from 1855 to 1955. The aqueduct is submerged for the most part, and drops about 13 inches for every mile (our guide book said). Water was stored at the old Croton Reservoir, dribbled its way into the city, where it was stored at what is now the Great Lawn in Central Park. Today, the state has bought up much of the aqueduct land and has made it into a long, narrow park.
We took the Hudson Line from Grand Central Terminal in midtown up to Tarrytown in Westchester County. From there, it was a bit of a confusing foray through the streets and bridge/highway interchanges to the trail. Much of the trail was wooded with many a busy gray or black squirrel. We went through an estate with beautiful trees, by some strange houses (one painted in pink, mint green and white stripes), and some truly gigantic properties with ostentatious mansions. A lovely expanse that looked like a good picnic spot turned out to be property owned by Toby's work; if we'd known sooner we probably could have risked stopping there for lunch! Instead, we stopped atop some rocks at Mercy College. I think it is a women's college, but looked like a girls' prep school built in 1960's style, with young women in cute little skirts and white shirts uniforms, looking very preppy and like they were preparing for a life of ornamentatioin!
The trail took us through a number of small towns, ranging from the wealthy villas, through a wildlife preserve, and to rundown inner-city-like apartment buildings. We saw deer as we walked by the preserve. Yay! Real wildlife! And, we even saw a coyote zipping across the trail and up into someone's yard! Very exciting to see something other than pigeons and squirrels.
We will need to go back and check out the preserve. There is also a ruined estate nearby with a crazy stone lion at its entrance. Not the Chinese-style lion sculpture, but more like a carved relief. This would be fun to explore at some point! We ended up at the city of Yonkers, just across from the Bronx. The part we walked through certainly felt like (not so nice) parts of the Bronx, and we definitely stood out as we walked through with our hiking boots and backpacks! All in all, it was about 10 miles, and we accomplished it at a fairly easy pace with plenty of stops in about 5 hours. The northern half of the trail is a bit longer (12 miles), and something we ought to do soon!
Not only rain, but odd unpleasant smells too. Perhaps it's because the last few weeks I have finally started to smell things. What a strange new world has opened up for me. Right now, there are pockets of cloying rottenness, which I've learned from Kathy, emanating from ripe gingko fruits. Toby picked up a few (with gloves, as their skins are somewhat toxic) and cleaned off the flesh. We'll refrigerate them and try to grow a gingko plant in the spring. Meanwhile, I've learned to identify the smell and know to look for a nearby gingko tree when I do smell its pungent calling card. (Oddly, I am much more sensitive to the gingko fruit smell than Toby is, so I know one is coming up nearly half a block before he does!)
Another part of Autumn - the heating season begins. This past weekend, when it was a tad chilly at night, we'd closed all the windows in preparation for sleep. I'd donned warm fuzzy pajama pants, socks, and a long-sleeved shirt. I even had a hat handy in case I got too cold at night. And, yes, that was the night the heating season began. I woke up completely drenched in sweat! Ugh! Now, when the heat is on, it's way too warm. I'm currently sitting in shorts and a t-shirt and all the windows are wide open. But in a few minutes the heat will turn off, and I will need to put my sweater back on. Back and forth with this crazy temperature swing, all day, every day, until spring. Yay.
At least the leaves are turning, giving us a lovely palette of colours outside the window! We even tried to see more of the fall spectacle by walking upstate last week! We toured the southern part of the Old Croton Aqueduct. This was built in the 1840's, and brought water into NYC from 1855 to 1955. The aqueduct is submerged for the most part, and drops about 13 inches for every mile (our guide book said). Water was stored at the old Croton Reservoir, dribbled its way into the city, where it was stored at what is now the Great Lawn in Central Park. Today, the state has bought up much of the aqueduct land and has made it into a long, narrow park.
We took the Hudson Line from Grand Central Terminal in midtown up to Tarrytown in Westchester County. From there, it was a bit of a confusing foray through the streets and bridge/highway interchanges to the trail. Much of the trail was wooded with many a busy gray or black squirrel. We went through an estate with beautiful trees, by some strange houses (one painted in pink, mint green and white stripes), and some truly gigantic properties with ostentatious mansions. A lovely expanse that looked like a good picnic spot turned out to be property owned by Toby's work; if we'd known sooner we probably could have risked stopping there for lunch! Instead, we stopped atop some rocks at Mercy College. I think it is a women's college, but looked like a girls' prep school built in 1960's style, with young women in cute little skirts and white shirts uniforms, looking very preppy and like they were preparing for a life of ornamentatioin!
The trail took us through a number of small towns, ranging from the wealthy villas, through a wildlife preserve, and to rundown inner-city-like apartment buildings. We saw deer as we walked by the preserve. Yay! Real wildlife! And, we even saw a coyote zipping across the trail and up into someone's yard! Very exciting to see something other than pigeons and squirrels.
We will need to go back and check out the preserve. There is also a ruined estate nearby with a crazy stone lion at its entrance. Not the Chinese-style lion sculpture, but more like a carved relief. This would be fun to explore at some point! We ended up at the city of Yonkers, just across from the Bronx. The part we walked through certainly felt like (not so nice) parts of the Bronx, and we definitely stood out as we walked through with our hiking boots and backpacks! All in all, it was about 10 miles, and we accomplished it at a fairly easy pace with plenty of stops in about 5 hours. The northern half of the trail is a bit longer (12 miles), and something we ought to do soon!
posted by blumaroo at
2:27 PM
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