Summer: A Retrospective

As the beastly hot summer slouches towards Labor Day, a few fond reminiscences are in order.  Even though it was largely a disappointment in these parts, with the endless heat waves of July and August, and the unsummerly bareness of the grounds that I've been complaining about, there were still some memorable moments.

Scenes of Summer

Sidewalk fun 








Suddenly this Summer
Here we are at the end of August and we're suddenly seeing green grass growing all over the dirt we've been looking at all summer.  It doesn't seem natural! Indeed, it appears to be the result of all that blue stuff that was laid over  the dirt, rather late in the summer.

Too Little Too Late
As you can see, there's still not much in the way of flowers. We found a few blooming bushes. Nothing they can do about the bushes, I guess. These pink snowballs (hydrangea) interspered among the white ones, are pretty:

I've seen white, blue, purple and green varieties, but I've never seen these pink snowballs before.

And there are some things that pop up unexpectedly!



fairy ring mushrooms


Spunky
Spunky has survived the endless heat waves of a New York summer. Having her own tree may be the secret to her longevity. Nobody gets up there except Spunky! And nobody messes with Spunky.


Spunky in her tree



Enjoying a rare treat --
 a chocolate peanut butter cup

Cooling off at the new watering hole

Alphie
Alphie too has survived the summer well, and is in great spirits these days. His usual run is between the Orange Tree and Dead Hawk Tree.


Dead Hawk Tree

Alphie's coloring has changed dramatically as of late. He now sports a glossy black coat and a tri-color tail.



Love me, love my tail


Alphie is lots of fun and always comes running over whenever his name is called. He loves to jump in the air for a dangled peanut.

The Fountain
There was nothing as cool and refreshing this summer as walking by the Stuyvesant Town fountain and feeling the spray.

 
We lost our Gulf station this summer.

 

 

 

It was replaced by this BP station.