Pollinators at Work

Honeybee on an early bloomer in the Rose Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mother's Day '14.

Carpenter bee on Camassia Quamash, Heather Garden, Fort Tryon Park.

Honeybee working a  heath blossom in the Heather Garden.

Honeybees collect pollen, which they take back to the hive to feed their young and themselves. With the long winter and late spring we've had, my guess is that the bees in these photos are collecting pollen, but it's impossible for me to tell.  Bees collect nectar to make honey, usually when the weather is consistently warmer.   Bees make beeswax and propolis too.  

Carpenter bees are pollinate also.  Due to the strength of their thoracic muscles they can actually loosen pollen from flowers that other pollinators can get at.  This ability is referred to as "buzz" pollination or "sonification."  

Apres le Deluge, the Blooms

Over 5 inches of rain fell in Central Park two days ago.  Yesterday by noon by the sun was shining and streams were receding, though puddles remained as the temperature climbed to 70 degrees.  Is there anything more diverse than the weather?  Perhaps the plant world. . .

Late-blooming heath heats up the Heather Garden

Once again Fort Tryon Park called out, in part because I wanted to be on higher ground (That means I needed to climb  steps to meet my Fitbit goal of 40 flights per day.) and in part because it was May Day!  All of the flora pictured here is in the Heather Garden.  

A bumble bee "working" the heath.

Species tulips like these caused a financial crisis in 1637.

Will these azaleas be in bloom by the weekend?  It sure looks that way.  Bring on the reds!

Azalea form the backbone of the long perennial border in the Heather Garden.

Still Stepping It Up!

Yesterday Fitbit notified me that I had walked 500 miles since January 8 of this year.   Just one month ago today I increased my daily steps goal from 10,000 to 12,500 and my stairs goal from 35 to 40 per day.  I have met and often exceeded my steps goal on all but 5 of the past 30 days. Distance covered over 30 days is 176.9 miles.  

I climbed 40 floors or more on 15 of the 30 days.  I had 7 days when I climbed more than 50 floors--and one when I hit 101.   I don't like doing too many floors over consecutive days, as I don't want to injure myself.  So far, so good.  My goal for the next month is to keep the same numbers and try to improve it by 5 percent.  I'll do my best to hit my floors goal of 40 flights more consistently and try not to have days that are over 75 floors.  

With spring comes new parts of the parks to explore and new treasures to discover.  Now that there are more people in Fort Tryon Park  I am feeling a little safer about wandering into different areas, specifically the Alpine Garden.  

The Alpine Gardens are on the east side of the Park, not far from Broadway.  In recent years there has been an attempt at restoring the original Olmstead Brother's design.  At the bottom of the steps the first of the spring ephemerals, such as mertensia virginica,  Virginia bluebells are starting to flower:

Along the way I saw the first fiddleheads of the season and unfurled hosta.   At the top of the "Yankee Doodle Steps," so named because George Washington's troops were encamped in this area during the Revolutionary War, you'll  find a lovely magnolia tree and grape hyacinths in bloom.

There are lots more steps to climb and explore in the Alpine Garden.  Every day brings a new surprise.  Step it up!

Personal Best!

Have you been stepping it up?

I have.  Yesterday I logged 21,600 steps, a personal best.  I walked 9.06 miles, half in Northern Manhattan and half in Chelsea, the West Village, and Soho.  The hills around home, plus a few subway stair climbs, brought my floors total to 48.  My Fitbit is on fire!

I've been stepping it up in NYC Parks, including Fort Tryon Park, where these beautiful old granite steps were among the many I climbed yesterday.

Stone steps near the Heather Garden

Can you imagine how many steps were logged by the people who built these steps?  Up and down, and up and down, measuring before the stone was even ordered.  Preparing  the site for the steps. Getting the granite to the site. Cutting the granite. Fitting the stones.  It's mind boggling how much work was involved in the creation of this magnificent park.  I honor the energy of those who designed, engineered, built, and maintain Fort Tryon Park.  Their efforts inspire me to keep stepping it up.

Fort Tryon Park Snow Day

Today the park screamed:  get outside and walk!  From the stoop I knew it was going to be a beautiful walk.

Mare's tails and contrails 

Walking down one hill to climb another, with my Fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/store?gclid=CLCLw6mxurwCFU7xOgodDQ0A4Q securely fastened,  my goal was to do some serious walking and climbing. I chose to explore Fort Tryon Park. https://www.forttryonparktrust.org/ Unlike Central Park, which is a landscape created by man, Fort Tryon is a "natural" park.  Fort Tryon Park  was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.,  (son of the man who created Central Park) in the 1920s and built by workers during the Works Progress Administration.  The park contains 67 acres, much of it with breathtaking views of the Hudson River and the Palisades in New Jersey.  

Carriage road to the Cloisters built during the WPA.  Icy Hudson River on the right.

Fitbit clocked 14 floors climbing the hill to The Cloisters, a medieval museum that is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and that sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson. Housing a collection of some 2,000 pieces of medieval art, the Cloisters http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters is a mélange of sacred and secular buildings from France and Spain, predominantly, that only some rich Americans, among them John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,  could have collected and glued together in an melting-pot way 75 years ago.         

12th-century apse from Spain reconstructed in NYC

South entrance of The Cloisters

Deeper in the Park lies the Heather Garden, the largest collection of heaths and heathers on the East Coast. The many plants in this three-acre site with stunning views of the Hudson and the Cloisters were blanketed in snow, disturbed only by a lonely jogger.

Heather Garden in Winter

Onward I walked, out of the Park,   south to West 181st Street, where I stopped in at a Russian grocery store to eye the caviar and other exotic foods.  Without a purchase, I turned 'round and headed back home via the city streets.  

By the end of the day I had taken 12,600 steps for 5.37 miles, had climbed 46 flights, and  burned 2050 calories.  Plus I got some much-needed Vitamin D with my time in the sunshine.  Yay, Fitbit!