We are losing more and more of the rare American Elms, the ones that spread their branches high and wide, in Tompkins Square Park. I don’t know why this one was cut down. A park regular said to me that they had a budget to cut the trees down but not to maintain them. Who knows if this is true but I don’t see any sign of rot in the stump, and I don’t know what criterion they use to determine what needs to go.
Here is the tree from a little over a year ago.
Here’s an elm that recently had a limb crack off. The arborists came and drastically cut back on our diminishing shade.
I don’t ever remember seeing anyone have the nerve to tape off a pathway for their own private party in Tompkins Square Park. Usually parties are held in the area behind the park office, where there are picnic tables. They claimed to have a permit.
Nicolina Johnson and Perola Bonfanti created a series of street mural they call portals. This one makes use of the unusual architectural decorations on this former bank at East 7th Street and Avenue C.
Music by The Hungry March Band and from what I could read on their strap covered tee shirts, Candombe.
I’m not sure how everyone else found out about the parade, I stumbled upon it as I was checking out the foliage changes in Tompkins Square Park for my tree project.
A dedicated performer in the 90 degree heat.
Performers were asked to be themselves.
For once there was no obvious police presence at a gathering.
Rolando said he would take any excuse to dress up.
These Yucca plants are now in bloom. I thought of them as desert plants but they are doing well here in gardening Zone 6. My Tompkins Sq. Park Tree Identification Project is shifting focus to the gardens. Of course keeping track of everything that is blooming here is beyond me. But I shoot whatever catches my interest, on a near daily basis. Organizing the upwards of 300 photos I may take on a visit is an endless time suck.
These freaky looking central stalks grow out of the spiky perennial fronds. This shot is from a week ago.
This one is from June 6. You can find yuccas in the park at the south-east entrance and the central entrance on 7th Street.
Kids lead the march to CB3 from the Children’s Magical Garden.
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Councilperson Margaret Chin, neighbors and garden members march to Community Board 3 seeking permanent status for the garden.
Magical planters.
Magical Kate.
Dressed as a wave, I asked her what a wave does.
Dressed as an Angry Bird, I asked him why he was angry, he said he wasn’t angry he was happy.
Super magical twirl.
Pizza garden, planted by the kids, now behind the developer’s fence. They continue to water it with a hose over the fence.
Peaches ripening on the corner.
In the Don Roberts Garden in Tompkins Square Park. I know the scale is a bit hard to tell in these photos, but the blooms are about the size of a grapefruit.
