The conditions were about as favorable as they could be, so I decided to brave the ascent up the rock face following the mysterious peach blazes. Was it a real trail, or a will-o-the-wisp? Where would it lead? The pale peach markings looked like faded paint, rather than lichen, leading straight up where the yellow Undercliff Trail curved around the base of the bluff...
So I began the climb.
A view from halfway up.
I stopped to take a few photos, of course....
... but soon reached the top of the bluff. This is where I saw the four hawks.
View from the top of the bluff: Hawks circling overhead
I noticed many rocks with these kinds of notches on the corners.
I wandered around for a while into the forest, and there really weren't any more trail markings that I could see. But when I came back to the scenic overlook I was able to confirm that the peach splotches did in fact mark an honest-to-goodness trail.
End of the peach-blazed trail!
As it turns out, the peach trail was just a short spur from the Undercliff trail up to a scenic overlook. I thought I might have to go back down the same way, but then I saw an unmarked path leading down a gentle slope toward a yellow blaze in the distance. Hooray! No re-tracing my steps!
I went up to Cold Spring to do my favorite Undercliff / Breakneck loop, and I did NOT miss the turnoff to stay on Undercliff this time!
The woods were rich with bird (and frog) song from the very start of the hike, although I did not know I'd been hearing frogs until late in the day. Even at the top of the first hill, there was bird song aplenty:
Because the weather was so fabulous, I also followed a peach-blazed trail up a steep scramble to the top of a bluff, where I saw four hawks circling around. (The peach trail had caught my eye before, but it's not marked on the maps and I wasn't sure where it would go.) It was pretty neat from within the trees, because when the hawks would swoop low, their shadows loomed large over me... I wasn't quite able to capture that on camera, but here's the best I could do.
Enraptured by raptors:
There was a group of kids (maybe college kids) who were gathered around a pond high up on the Breakneck trail. The pond was thick with frogs -- the water was roiling with them -- and two of the guys were trying to catch them in their baseball caps. (They caught one while I watched.)
This particular hike was 11 miles (including walk to/from the train station), and I once again failed to set any land-speed records: it took me about 6.5 hours, including photo stops etc.
In an article, Q contrasted her approach to fat-fighting (constant vigilance + a serious action plan at the slightest sign of weight gain) with her lackadaisical approach to sin-fighting (she's willing to overlook the small symptoms and let them build up).
But Q herself is so skinny that I can't help thinking: Listen to your body, my dear! It is trying to gain a few milligrams of fat because it wants to be healthy!!
I think I'll sit down with a pint of ice cream and practice coveting something.
When I got home, E called to finalize our reunion plans for the evening. C and I met up at Grand Central and went up to White Plains to meet E's kids (who are absolutely adorable - age range is 9 months through 9 years). We left E's husband with babysitting duty while we enjoyed a nice meal with live musical accompaniment at Cafe Mozart in Mamaroneck.
Back in the NYC subway after midnight, I witnessed a small piece of drama unfolding as a guy on the platform asked two girls for directions. They were all in their 20's, and the guy was wearing a backpacker-type backpack. He said he'd just arrived from Kansas three days ago and was "looking for adventure." The girls tried to be helpful, but they really didn't have a clue about how he could get to 12th Avenue and 43rd Street from Grand Central. (Hint: Go west, young man, go west.) The guy went and asked someone else for more information, then came back and said he'd figured it all out: he needed to get from Grand Central to Times Square, and then he could walk the rest of the way to 12th Avenue. Then the train came and he got on board with them. Unfortunately, the train was on a north-south line; he would never, ever, get to Times Square or points further west on that train.
So I was tempted to speak up, and I felt a little bad for remaining silent ... but it seemed to me that he was looking (as he said) for adventure and also (as he did not say) for cute new friends, rather than accurate transit information.
I went to yoga in the morning, did some light cleaning, then lazed around in my apartment enjoying the sunshine streaming in. On a crisp, sunny day like this one, if I'm at home in the afternoon, it's so tempting to stay in and read in the sun-dappled room -- to enjoy the great indoors. But then I saw a message on twitter that some of the cherry trees were in bloom, so I headed over to check it out.
The garden was gorgeous - and much new growth since last weekend.
Contrails dissect the sky
Yellow flowering tree (dogwood?)
A scene from Hansel & Gretel?
Buds & bloom
Backdrop to the Hill-and-Pond Garden
Spring motif?
Trellis at the Hill-and-Pond Garden
Primrose (but neither Everdeen nor Evergreen)
Pansies
This statue in the Shakespeare Garden reminded me of the butterflies that would come through our backyard in Illinois - if you held still a minute or two and held an arm out, they would land on you. So cool.
Girl with Butterfly
This one reminds me of a pansy, but I'm pretty sure it has a different name:
Magnolias in bud & bloom
A tangle of magnolias
Goldfish in the lily pond (no lilies or lotuses yet)
White flowering trees
Crocuses decked out with seeds from a neighbor tree
Attercop! Attercop! Down you drop! You'll never catch me up your tree!
Holly
Ivy
Azalea
Weathervane over the Children's Garden
Poplars?
Young willow leaves backlit in the late afternoon sun
As it turned out, just two cherry trees -- one on the Cherry Esplanade, and one further in -- were blooming. The rest were bare.
Cherry Esplanade - with X's carved in the ground (for fertilizer?)
