Spring & Summer Landscape Photos

These photos were all taken in May-July in my front and side yards.

I planted a few dozen hybrid tulips in the fall, imagining our front yard bursting with color in the spring. They bloomed late and then didn't stick around long (I didn't spray enough deer repellent, and the deer that frequent our subdivision ate most of them), but I did manage to grab a couple great photos:

I also took pictures of the pretty blossoms on the crabapple tree in our front yard, as well as the red lilies and roses:

My hydrangea bushes (I have one very large one, and two small ones now) are also doing well (the large one especially):

The biggest front yard story of the spring/summer, however, was this little mama duck, who made a nest in our bushes, incubated 8 or 9 eggs, and then one day vanished - leaving one sad, unhatched egg behind.

Last fall, we also did a lot of work to our side yard landscaping, planting several hosta, ferns, and astilbe - all of which, I'm happy to say, came back and looked great this spring/summer, with little watering or attention given on our parts. I love the pop of color on the astilbe, especially:

NYC Photos - Central Park

During our eight days in New York City in late March/early April, my husband I walked through Central Park twice - once on Sunday, April 1st (Easter Sunday), when we walked through much of the Southern half of the park, and again on Friday, April 6, when we walked through part of the Northern edge to see the Conservatory Gardens. It was unfortunately raining on Friday, so we didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked - but there was also not much to see, given that the colder-than-average weather meant there was very little yet in bloom.

Later on Friday, once the rain stopped, we also went to the Central Park Zoo - but I'll save the photos of the animals for another blog post. :)

This blog post features some of the landscape views throughout Central Park, as well as close-ups of some of the spring flowers I saw in bloom.

NYC Photos - Bridges & Overpasses

Manhattan is, of course, an island - surrounded by the Hudson River and East River. By necessity then, there are lots of bridges - bridges of historical significance, bridges for trains and cars, bridges with pedestrian paths. There are also - like any city, big or small - footbridges and overlooks in local parks (Central Park and the High Line, in NYC's case). Over the course of our recent 8 days in NYC, I took several photos of bridges - especially of and on the Brooklyn Bridge, which my husband and I walked across in the driving mist on a gloomy, foggy afternoon. Here are some of my favorites, below.

NYC Photos - Religious Buildings

You know what I think is really cool? Seeing strikingly different architectural styles next to each other, like Gothic or Renaissance Revival churches, cathedrals, and synagogues, next to skyscrapers, apartment buildings, and retail stores. It's something unique to major cities, I think, to have places of worship crammed right in among the capitalist meccas (storefronts and office buildings) and residential buildings, so that you can't help get the different styles all in the same shot.

Below are some of my favorite photos I took of religious buildings on this trip. Some I specifically sought out to photograph (like the unfinished largest Anglican cathedral, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which we visited on a very rainy morning), while others just happened to catch my eye as I walked by, warranting a moment to stop and take a picture.

NYC Photos - Street Views

My last post focused on photos of secular building facades in New York City. Today's post might look very similar - but these pictures are more about the overall street view (i.e. a line of several buildings in a row) rather than focusing on just one building of historical, architectural, or aesthetic significance.

NYC has lots of unique neighborhoods and interesting streets, and we certainly didn't walk down them all! But over the course of our eight days in the city, we ended up walking about 70 miles (according to my health tracker), so we did see several neighborhoods, including Hell's Kitchen/Chelsea, Midtown/Theater District, Chinatown/Little Italy/Lower East Side/SoHo, the Financial District, NoHo/Greenwich Village, and a small bit of Brooklyn.