East Village Life: Photos of Flowers From My Neighborhood Walks

Purple Crocus’ on the High Line (All Photos By Gail)

In the Covid Life, I’m fortunate to be able to work from home, be in good health, have enough food, cable TV, and everything needed to make the lock-down more comfortable. I really can’t complain. I can get by for a few months without going shopping, eating in my favorite restaurant, or seeing a movie in the theater. The one thing I do get a bit wistful about is not being able to fully enjoy the beauty of Spring.

In an email I received from them this morning, the Museum of Modern Art was quick to remind me that, “Five hundred tulips are blooming in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden right now, and no one is there to enjoy them.” Thanks for the reminder! Spring, the season of renewal, is happening all around us while we are being advised to stay inside. It kills me. In a normal year, I would have at the very least attended Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival hosted by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden — which is such a terrific way to usher in the season. Even the NYBG’s Orchid Show closed prematurely. Beauty is still out there, so I preserve it on my walks. If you’re struggling with Cabin Fever, please enjoy a little bit of spring in this week’s edition of my East Village Life.

Tompkins Square Park is the closest park to my home; being located between Avenues A and B, and between East 7th and East 9th Streets. There have been a few outstanding flowering cherry trees there this spring. Check them out!

As much as I wish we could have trees that look like this year-round, they surely would not be appreciated if their beauty was not so ephemeral.

Here’s a closer look at that same tree. When I checked the Instagram accounts of my neighbors on this particular afternoon, everyone was posting their own photos of . . . that same tree. It was just too perfect.

Different tree, same park.

These were across the street from my apartment, on 14th Street outside Stuyvesant Town. I love the side-by-side contrast of the trees against the blue sky, and then the red brick building.

I took this photo very late in the afternoon, which is apparent by the light, or lack thereof. This tree enjoys its life inside one of the East Village’s community gardens that add so much value to this neighborhood.

When I posted this photo on Instagram it got twice the usual number of likes. I think that has something to do with the visual appeal of the white flowering tree next to the white building. This is First Avenue just south of 14th Street.

A cool thing about Cherry Blossoms is that you don’t have to get the entire tree to capture a great photo; in fact, a small cluster of flowers, or even a single bloom, can convey so much more about the beauty of spring. This photo was taken on the High Line in early March, one week before lock-down.

Also, the pink color is like a magnet, attracting me to the tree.

#nofilter! I could have shot photos of this tree, located at John V. Lindsay East River Park, all day.

You can see the Williamsburg Bridge in the background.

Can you believe that all of these photos are from the same tree? Amazing.

I’ve seen countless cherry trees but I’ve never seen one with branches like this. It’s a bummer that you can’t really linger to enjoy all of these gorgeous trees, because you have to keep moving.

Dandelions get a lot of shit for being weeds, but I love their flexibility! This bloom looks very run-of-the-mill because I cropped it close, but it was huge — about 2 inches across!

Seriously, this is a beautiful thing. These photos were also taken in the East River Park.

These guys have completely infiltrated a derelict, paved-brick path under the Williamsburg Bridge. The day after I took the above photo, I found the meme below.

Haha! Appropriate.

I did a little trick here, making a four-foot wide stretch of yellow flowers (adjacent to my local laundromat) look like a vast field! iPhone Magic!

Tulips appear to be the ‘official flower of spring,’ or something, because, once April hits they are fucking everywhere. Tulips only look great for about two days, after which they deteriorate rapidly, so you have a very small window to get that Instagram-worthy shot. We’ve also had a few bad storms, which gave these tulips (above and below) a serious beatdown before I could get to them.

And yet these golden tulips, with the warm hint of crimson seeping into their petals — which were just a couple of blocks away — look terrific. So, go figure.

Come to think it, it was overcast or rainy on every walk where I saw tulips. I guess the gloom made them stand out more by comparison

I’m not sure what variety this orange and red flower is. I saw on a walk in East River Park.

Nor am I familiar with this six-petaled-purple-flower-with-a-yellow-center (Google it). If you know, please enlighten me in the comments!

Now we’re back at my home, where are have flowers boxes outside each building. This building has Red Geraniums out front. This is a flower I remember so strongly from having them in the garden of the house where I grew up.