...bicycle wheel tree-branch separator.
This shot makes things a little clearer.
At my feet, a blush of pale pink petals with magenta-colored stripes: spring beauty, Claytonia virginica. Bright yellow streaks at the base of the petals hint at more artful intentions – luring the love of a bee. These markings guide insects inside toward the nectar.
On the first day they open, spring beauty’s flowers are in male phase, releasing pollen from pink anthers. The next day, these bend backward and the stigma, the female part, emerges to collect pollen. Each individual flower may last as long as a week.
we take even better care of your children than we do of our yard.
Broadway — there's at least one street so named in each borough.
Located at the eastern end of Disosway Place. Built around 1800?
Just around the corner on Delafield Avenue is an even older house that I somehow didn't notice, probably because of either inattention or high hedges. It's known as the Scott-Edwards House, and it dates back to about 1730. Check it out in Street View.
This bizarre and somewhat terrifying image found in the parking lot of Calla Karate & Jujutsu belongs to a mural painted by students from a nearby church school as part of a local civic improvement contest. Thanks to their efforts, their school won the grand prize of $3,000.
This guy told me the perplexing artwork above the garage door was put up by a previous business, and he has no idea what it's supposed to represent. But he said the neighborhood kids love it, so maybe that's why he's decided to leave it in place. Or perhaps he just appreciates the virtues of a unique sign (see license plate).
Nothing new here: "When neighbors are talking in Midland Beach, they say, 'Which lake do you live on?' "
This former Army airfield, established just after World War I, is now part of Gateway National Recreation Area. Most of the property is currently covered with athletic fields, but the building above, erected in 1920 as a double seaplane hangar, serves as a reminder of the site's aviatic past. At right is the old Elm Tree Lighthouse, a namesake of the original nautical beacon that stood in this area: a large elm tree at the foot of New Dorp Lane that ships used as a navigational landmark. The similar-looking brick pillar is a former parachute drying tower.
I've briefly mentioned Miller Field once before on this blog, by the way, as the site where an airliner hurtled into the ground following a mid-air collision in 1960 — a disaster commonly known as the Park Slope plane crash, named for the residential neighborhood in Brooklyn where the other airliner went down.
There is a group of 13 or so houses standing in Miller Field; they apparently date back to when the site was an Army airfield. Given that they're now located in the middle of a park (Miller Field is part of Gateway National Recreation Area), I was surprised to find that they're still used as residences! One woman standing in front of her house told me that only National Park Service workers and certain other federal employees (and their families) are eligible to live in them. You can see the houses and the neighboring soccer fields in this aerial view.
Standing in a sea of front-yard concrete. This is not the first such scene we've seen, although in this case the little donkey appears to be part of a memorial to a deceased pet dog.
Scott LoBaido continues to redefine the American flag mural.
This postal receptacle is modeled after the Friendship Firehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. Now a museum, the building was once home to the Friendship Fire Company, established in 1774, whose first fire engine was purchased by George Washington.
Mostly hidden in the woods inside Prospect Park, this still-active Quaker burial ground, established in 1849, is older than the park itself, which was built around it beginning in 1866. The 10-acre cemetery contains over 2,000 graves marked with simple headstones like the ones you see above. It is generally off limits to the public, although tours are occasionally given. Even on those tours, however, the location of the grave of the cemetery's most famous resident, Montgomery Clift, is kept a secret.
Peering through the gate at the rather inconspicuous entrance to Friends Cemetery in Prospect Park
