Friday Morning at Brooklyn College: Breakfast at the Lily Pond

Taking the B48 bus down Lorimer and Franklin to Fulton Avenue, the B49 bus down Ocean and Bedford to Foster Avenue, and the B41 bus (where the person sitting behind us tapped us on the shoulder, saying, "Hi, Professor!") down Flatbush to the Junction, we went to have breakfast -- a bagel and Starbucks iced tea from the stores across from each other on the corner of Hillel Place and Kenilworth Place -- at Brooklyn College's lily pond. The lilac bloom that we captured last spring is over. The trees are green and leafy but lots of lilac flowers still blanketed the ground and the water.

On the quadrangle were nice red and yellow tulips, though perhaps not quite as fine as the ones we saw at the Fordham University Lincoln Center campus this week. We remember getting our tulip bulbs at P.S. 203 and planting them in the backyard about half a century ago.

About forty years ago, there were four temporary buildings on the Brooklyn College campus to accommodate the hordes of us baby boomers. We sponsored a "name the temp" contest and got good suggestions like "Monty Hall," "Robert Hall" and "U Haul" that were never used. (Nor was a Dark Shadows fan's suggestion, "Grayson Hall.") This morning we saw the first temporary building in decades,

but it's only for the duration of the construction project.

Unlike at least one of its graduates, the BC campus is a lot handsomer now than it was in the 1970s.

Tuesday Afternoon at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Hanami - Cherry Blossom Viewing Time

On this gloriously sunny and warm afternoon, we joined hundreds of people for Hanami, the monthlong cherry blossom viewing festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

A gorgeous day coincided with the last day of the Passover/Easter break for public school students, so the crowds were really big.

Everyone, including us (obviously), seemed to be snapping photos.

We heard a lot of Japanese, but also Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Bengali, Polish, and other languages.

Prepared to pay the admission fee, we were happily surprised to learn that admission was free to everyone today.

According to Wikipedia,

The Garden has more than 200 cherry trees of forty-two Asian species and cultivated varieties, making it one of the foremost cherry-viewing sites outside of Japan.

The first cherries were planted at the garden after World War I, a gift from the Japanese government.

Each spring at BBG, when the trees are in bloom, a month-long cherry blossom viewing festival called Hanami is held, culminating in a weekend celebration called Sakura Matsuri

which will take place this year on Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1.

Cherry trees are found on the Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk,

in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden,

and in many other locations in the Garden. Depending on weather conditions, the Asian flowering cherries bloom from late March or early April to mid-May.

We've always loved coming to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. When we were teenagers and in our twenties, we especially loved the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.

Here's a photo we took of our brother Jonathan there back in the summer of 1970.

Here is our then nine-year-old bro in the conservatory among the tropical plants.

And here's a pic he took of us 41 years ago at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, standing next to our favorite beverage, tea.

We're grateful for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden being there for us all our lives.

Friday Morning in Brooklyn Heights: Signs of Spring on Montague Street

On a wintry, overcast morning -- with temperatures only in the mid-forties -- we were happy to see, as we came out of Starbucks, at least a small sign that actual spring is coming in the trees flowering on Montague Street near Henry Street.

We kept that thought as we got on the R train on the corner of Clinton Street; as we transferred to the A train at the next stop, Jay Street/MetroTech; and as we transferred to the G train home at the next stop after that, Hoyt/Schermerhorn.

Monday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Sign of Spring on Devoe Street

After a long, hard winter, it's great to see the first tree blooming. This afternoon, as we were walking towards Graham Avenue from the Leonard Branch library down Devoe Street (pronounced "Duh-voo" by us natives, as opposed to those in the new majority who pronounce it to rhyme with oh), we said "Ohh" aloud when we saw the pink flowers on this tree near the intersection of Manhattan Avenue, in the house next to the always-delightful Fortunato Brothers. Every year, it's the first tree in the neighborhood to bloom.

Sunday Afternoon in Battery Park City: Witchhazel Blooming in Teardrop Park

Walking around Battery Park City on a sunny, if chilly, afternoon, we found a sign that spring is eventually coming: witchhazel in bloom in Teardrop Park.

Dumbo Books publishes THE BROOKLYN DIARIES by Richard Grayson; available on Amazon Kindle

Dumbo Books has published THE BROOKLYN DIARIES by Richard Grayson. It is available in a large-sized (8.5" x 11") 623-page paperback edition for $39.99 and as an ebook at the Amazon Kindle store for one dollar.

It is a compilation of all six books of Richard Grayson's diary entries: SUMMER IN BROOKLYN (1969-1975), AUTUMN IN BROOKLYN (1978), WINTER IN BROOKLYN (1971-72), SPRING IN BROOKLYN (1975), MORE SUMMER IN BROOKLYN (1976-1979) and A YEAR IN ROCKAWAY (1980). The book is also available for free as a download at Lulu or Scribd.

Thursday Morning in East Williamsburg: Signs of Spring in Cooper Park

This morning we walked east to Cooper Park, taking our newspaper and iced tea and our eagerness to see some signs of spring.

We found them.

There were a couple of photogenic dogs and their human companions in the dog run, a homeless man sound asleep on a bench with his shopping cart nearby, and some little kids playing in the Cooper Park playground.

Across Maspeth Avenue, at the wonderful Red Shed Community Garden,

there were even more signs of spring.


And on Kingsland Avenue, by the southwest corner of the old Greenpoint Hospital grounds (this building now the home of St. Nicks Alliance), there was the quintessential Brooklyn sign of spring we remember contributing to in our childhood: a bouquet of sneakers on a wire.

Saturday Afternoon in Williamsburg: The First Day of Spring at Jaime Campiz Playground

After a harsh winter - our last, we hope, in New York - along with a lot of folks, we're delighted with the unseasonably warm weather at the start of this spring.
Leaving Brooklyn College around noon after teaching stories by William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor to our wonderful BMCC class, we spotted the first buds on a cherry tree. Our hands were full so we didn't get a pic, but there were definitely red flowers starting to form.

Soon after getting off the G train in Williamsburg, we got into our T-shirt and shorts and joined the crowds enjoying the outside. After getting a copy of Dante's Inferno at the Leonard branch library, we got a soda on Metropolitan Avenue and took our book to the Jaime Campiz Playground by the BQE.

The playground's named after Jaime Campiz, a Puerto Rican athlete - who played baseball in some Puerto Rican leagues and as a boxer was a finalist in the Golden Gloves in the 126-pound division - and Williamsburg civic leader. A Korean War vet, he was active in Williamsburg as a baseball coach and then as president of many local baseball leagues (Canella’s, Pedrin Zorilla’s, Collazo’s and the Pan American) and organizer of the La Calsana Social Athletic Club.

The playground was hardly crowded; the chess/checkers tables and benches were empty.

But a few little kids were playing on the swings or sliding pond;

a couple of skateboarders zoomed by; one group of guys was playing basketball;

and a few of us hung out on the benches. That's the Church of the Annunciation in the background.

We read about eight cantos of The Inferno but the warm sun on the day of the vernal equinox made us feel more like we were in heaven.

Walking back home,

we spotted this sporty convertible on Metropolitan Avenue in front of the laundromat.

It was another welcome sign of the warm weather to come.