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.

Spring Forthwith

Are you dazed and confused, having missed an hour of sleep? It's daylight savings time! March 9, let's face it, is way too early for daylight savings.  How about just regular daylight?  The snow is melting, and there are signs that spring is afoot but not quite sprung. 

A recent tour of Fort Tryon Park on March 7 revealed salty sidewalks and snow on the hillsides. Will the winter of 2014 ever end?

A Portal from Winter into Spring

Blooming heath was a pleasant surprise.  

Pink Erica in the Heather Garden

Yellow Erica

Spring can't be far away when four NYC Parks workers trim one rose bush. Two of them were   pruning the rose and two of them were staring at the one small tarp that had been laid down on the sidewalk  for the thorny stems yet to come. 

On the more westerly side of the Heather Garden one of the surest harbingers of spring--witch hazel--showed off its pretty orange petals against the snow.  Native Americans taught the colonists how to use the leaves and barks of this multi-stemmed shrub to create an astringent for skin sores. It was an all-purpose liniment found in everyone's medicine chest a mere 50 years ago.  

Witch Hazel

Andromeda's Red Blooms

With March still in its lion phase, the Heather Garden had two additional 

spring beauties to share, Andromeda and Magnolia.

Magnolia Buds

Perhaps on my next walk I shall see the March lamb. . .