The Morning Light, after the Heat Broke

08/13/2022

The Morning Light, after the Heat Broke

In an attempt to be more optimistic, I've returned to early-morning running, when the bridge is most beautiful.

And the city is most magical.

And the staircases are most haunting :)

But I can't pretend to be thrilled with the 'We Love You' messaging on the pedestrian overpass at 181st Street. Two years ago, it said 'Black Lives Matter.' [Insert ten paragraphs of complaints about our country and its trajectory.]

I love this part of the run, which is at the top of a long hill that goes through the park. In 2020, it was closed to cars but in the same spirit of denial that has swept the rest of the country it was opened up again in 2021. But there are almost never any cars at 5:30 in the morning. And this morning, it was cool and dry for the first time in recent memory, and my knee and back felt pretty good. As I accelerated down the hill, I could imagine the years falling away.

After leaving the road, I took the path to an overlook where I could see the sunlight rising over the Hudson. (I couldn't see the actual sun because I was facing northwest.)

As usual, the oak-leaf hydrangeas have been perfect this summer.

I was about to say that the park is always empty at this hour, but I just noticed someone on the path in this picture. I'm pretty sure they weren't there when I took it. #spooky

Plants always look a bit more surreal in the early morning light.

We're also in cone flower season, which is another good thing to remember when August is bringing you down.

Lately, when I see this path, I always think about the thousands of car-oriented streets we have in the city, and how much nicer it would be if literally two percent of them were converted back to something like this path. There's a new twitter account that uses AI to transform images of streets in this fashion, and it's both inspiring and depressing to consider what's possible. When I'm in park at this hour, anything seems possible.

A stream of allium.

An explosion of echinacea.

A field of heather.

Posted at 12:51 PM in Expression, Science Projects | Permalink

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I never wanted this to end

Posted by: Edith Zimmerman | 08/15/2022 at 12:58 PM

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Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine

Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.

Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past

Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.

Video: The Chaos Detective

The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.

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Expression//Reaction//ScienceProjects

08/13/2022