Cherryblossomland 2008

For Earth Day, here's some pix from Branch Brook Park, affectionately known as Cherryblossomland. I never tire of the show.



Renewal of this graceful urban treasure continues apace. There are new playing fields, a roofed bocce pit, and the old fieldhouse and the old community center have been refurbished (= nice new accessible restrooms!).



The ponds have been stocked with trout (eagerly sought after by anglers, not pictured), which makes the prohibition on dumping in the park's drains all the more critical.

   

An area along the canal was clear-cut (gasp – so many trees gone!) and replanted. Many of the new trees are so young, they still need braces. This grouping of weeping cherries looks very promising – I look forward to watching them grow and mature.



Even with all the creative destruction, there's no lack of old friends to visit.



I like a mix of tree silhouettes, bark colors and textures, and blossom colors and types, although my faves tend to be the small single pinks.



Because every sock deserves an adventure or two, I took the Annetrelac socks to frolic amongst the cherry blossoms.

   

Entrelac is not a favorite technique, but I'm happy with these socks, not to mention they're my first Sockdown! project to [cough] finish on time. They're kinda like these large double pinks, just plain appealing.



I got more cherry blossom pix (wanna see more?), but that's enough for one post. I hope your Earth Day was green and blooming!

The Palms

Here's a bit of green as a nod to yesterday's festivities, although I'm mostly thinking about Sunday's Palm Sunday service at Church of the Improv, which included Arvo Pärt's beautiful Berlin Mass for choir and string orchestra. It's wonderful beyond words to hear sacred music written by a living composer. The staging – with violins (playing ethereal harmonics) placed to the left of the chancel, violas, 'cellos, and basses to the right, and choir on the chancel steps – emphasized the conversation between voice and instruments in ways at once reminiscent of Ives' Unanswered Question and Renaissance chant. [Sigh] What a way to start Holy Week.

Put in knitting terms, the music was not unlike mittens of Malabrigo Worsted – soft, smooth, and flowing...



... simple, yet richly textured. It all makes sense – Pärt is a minimalist composer from Estonia, land of mittens.



These modified Chevalier Mittens by Tikru have jumped in the mail with a few other goodies and are on their way to my Mitten Swap downstream pal. I've heard from my upstream pal – my mittens are also in transit. By some synchronicity, a cold front has settled roundabout Exit 151, so this is a good time for mittens!



While I'm thinking about palms, I saw these oddities at the Flower Show. They have 3D bottlebrush fronds rather than the more usual flat pinnate or palmate fronds. Alas, they weren't labeled and none of the experts there could identify them (a few even claimed they "hadn't noticed" them). Perhaps they're a Roystonea sport? I wonder what they are called.

Ed: I heart the Internet. They're foxtail palms, Wodyetia bifurcata, an Australian species well known to Aborigines, but not to botany until 1983. Hardy and easy-care, they're increasingly popular in landscaping, particularly in Florida.

Fire and Ash Wednesday

A brief second post today, just to round out the last of my formal WIP Wednesdays.

While pondering elemental Fire for Project Spectrum 3, I learned that Gigi Silva of Socktopia and Monkey Toes died following a long struggle with lupus. In response, Sockdown February was expanded to include a memorial knit-along. So my WIP for today is Fawkes socks by Gigi Silva. In many traditions, the phoenix is a symbol of fire and ash, death and resurrection, courage and beauty.



There's plenty more WIPs (and UFOs) buzzing roundabout Area 151. But perhaps that's sufficient contemplation of finitude for one evening.