Spring Is Here!

65 DEGREES.

That was the temperature when Atticus and I walked to Edith's school yesterday to pick her up.

Amazing.

They were barely in the house for the following three hours. We got out the bikes and scooters. Friends and neighbors stopped by to play and chat. We even ate supper on the front porch.

The kids reluctantly came inside a bit after 7 and would have stayed out even longer had it not been time to get ready for bed. And it sure didn't take them long to fall asleep.

Welcome, spring. You've been missed.

Crap Swap: The Sequel

By Saturday evening, the spare bedroom, a good part of the living room and most of the porch was completely full of, well, crap.

This weekend marked the second (hopefully annual) Crap Swap that we have hosted. Friends and neighbors bring over the clothing, toys, knickknacks and other items they no longer want and let each other take what they want. (Think of it as a garage sale where everything is free.) Afterward strangers are welcome to browse before everything that is left is donated to a thrift store.

The weekend started off badly.

The swap was scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening, and rain had been in the forecast for days before. Finally Friday night the forecast for Saturday looked good, with maybe a 5 or 10 percent chance of rain. But when I awoke Saturday morning it again looked bleak. We postponed til noon Sunday and sure enough, it rained all afternoon.

Pretty sure more kids clothing came out after this photo!

Sunday, on the other hand, was cool but progressively warmer, with no rain in sight. We filled something like 10 tables -- mostly with crap, but also with yummy potluck dishes. A few dozen friends and neighbors showed up and took home their finds, and it barely looked like anything was gone. I posted it on some local Facebook groups, and many people took armloads -- bags and boxes filled with stuff -- and still it hardly looked like there was a dent. At the end of the day, there were 20 boxes, bags and large items at the curb, ready for the thrift store to pick up on Monday.

Curb alert!

By mid-afternoon Monday, it was all gone.

The swap was so much bigger than last year. I was outside at 7 a.m. Sunday to set up for the noon party and just barely got everything out, even though most people had delivered their items days or even weeks ahead of time and most of the kids clothes were already separated by size. Still, it was a fun afternoon, and everyone seemed to take home a few treasures.

Spring Has Arrived

Spring is here, and the street has awoken from its hibernation.

A neighbor had a baby this month, which I think now makes Atticus the fifth youngest on the block and Edith the tenth. In other words: there are lots of kids around. Texts have been flying among parents for last-minute play dates, or we'll have an impromptu gathering if we pass a friend's front lawn. It's a free-for-all, and I like it that way.

Edith and I walked to the river yesterday and ended up saying hi to at least six neighbors and stopped to talk to two more while Edith played with the other kids. It's wonderful.

We've made it to the splash pad once already this month, and I'm ready to hook up our new sprinkler soon and fill up the kiddie pool (both have been used only one time, on a freakishly hot April day). We're planning a summer vacation. I have a long list of playgrounds to visit around Columbus. Summer, we're ready for you.

Spring in Ohio vs. NYC

It's been a long winter, and I wonder if it's even over. As late as last Saturday we got enough snowfall to significantly cover the yard, although it had disappeared by the next afternoon.

This is always the time of year in which I'm anxious for spring weather to arrive, and that was true in New York as well as Ohio.

Dare I say it, but in New York the cabin fever was even worse. In Ohio, our car is in the garage only a few feet away. In New York, both the subway and our parked vehicle were blocks away, giving me an even lower incentive to go outside in cold weather.

Of course, our Brooklyn apartment was also smaller than our Columbus house, intensifying the cooped-up feeling. I remember walking to the subway on some of the first lovely days of the year and sincerely feeling a sense of elation: It was spring, I was in New York and life couldn't get any better.

I expect this spring will be different then any others I have spent in Ohio -- it's my first with a kid, with a park within walking distance and with a stay-at-home job that will allow me to completely take advantage of the weather and amenities nearby. Edith and I made a pilgrimage to the park on a one-off sunny day a few weeks back, and played in the backyard, too. Oh, a backyard -- something else we didn't have in Brooklyn!

Paul is looking forward to grilling again -- the Weber stayed at his Mom's house while we were in New York. And I'm looking forward to eating a few meals on the front porch, if the mosquitoes don't beat me to it. But most of all, I'm just looking forward to the warm sunny days that make me forget what snow even feels like.

Spring Finally Arrives in Bay Ridge

I've never been so happy to see the mercury rise. As the temperature reached the 70s and even the 80s here in New York this week, I ditched the stroller in favor of my Ergo and some newfangled baby-wearing.

Being able to leave the stroller behind opens more possibilities -- namely, stairs. I can carry Edith down stairs, I can carry a stroller down stairs, but I can't do both at the same time. I make two trips in our apartment building; that's not an option when I'm alone at a subway station.

Or the Shore Road Promenade. The best views are along the path adjacent to the harbor, but there is a long flight of stairs down to get to it. But when the weather became beautiful earlier this week, I strapped Edith in the Ergo and made the promenade our destination.

Dozens of people were on the path taking advantage of the weather: walking, jogging or, like us, finding a bench and enjoying the scenery. Edith got her first glimpse of Manhattan (and her first trip there the next day -- more about that next week!). From our perch it was easy to see that the Freedom Tower really is dominating the Lower Manhattan skyline.

When we returned to the apartment some hour or 90 minutes later, I felt like a new person. One no longer trapped by cold weather ... or stairs.

Awaiting Spring in New York

Me in Central Park, 2009

The calendar says spring begins Wednesday, but Mother Nature disagrees. Nevertheless, my daydreams feature sunny skies, fluffy white clouds and nary a scarf in sight.

And I believe those days are coming because I've seen them before. Spring in New York is lovely -- when it's not raining. But even when spring brings showers, you still have the promise of many months of skirts and sandals.

Today I'm featuring some of my favorite New York spring photos:

Bay Ridge, 2009

Columbus Circle, 2009

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2010

Upper East Side, East River and Roosevelt Island, 2011

Empire State Building, from the High Line, 2011

Another Spring Begins

Spring officially began yesterday, but in reality it started days -- maybe weeks -- ago.

With temperatures regularly in the 60s and sometimes even the 70s, yesterday was certainly a mere formality. And with a winter so mild that I saw only two or three days of snow (and since we're talking about seasons, I can't fail to say that one of those snowfalls was actually last autumn by the calendar), it's almost as if there was never really a winter to shoo away. Is this how people in the Carolinas feel? No wonder we northerners like to move there.

Still, there have been signs over the last week or two that spring has arrived, officially or not. The flowering trees are in bloom, the time has changed and I'm leaving my scarf at home more often than I wear it to work. Not only am I trying to choose my route to the subway each morning based on which side of the street is sunniest, but my pace has slackened -- that is, if I'm not running late for the train.

The first weekend of March, Paul and I walked from Times Square south to one of our favorite restaurants in the Lower East Side, a trek of some 3+ miles along Broadway and Houston Street. I wore a scarf and gloves, but it was cozy all the same -- very unwinterlike and a harbinger of a pleasant spring to come.

Sunset over the Hudson River

Spring in Manhattan

Trump Tower, 725 Fifth Ave., Manhattan

You can tell it's spring in Brooklyn when the flowering trees lining the sidewalks start to bloom.

You can tell it's spring in Manhattan when the trees on the buildings begin to change colors.

Why Yesterday Was One of My Favorite Days

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year.

Better then the first day of spring. Maybe even better than the first day of summer. Almost definitely better than my 30th birthday will be in a few months.

The occasion? Daylight Saving Time began.

The sun is up year round by the time I wake up, a consequence of living on the eastern edge of the time zone as well as the late hour of my alarm -- 8 a.m.

The evening, however, is another story. Even if I leave work on time at 6 p.m., the sky is nearly always pitch black all winter long. A couple of weeks ago I left work about a quarter after 6 and saw just a glimmer of light reflecting against a skyscraper, set against a deep, deep blue sky. I was excited, but of course it had long since disappeared by the time I exited the subway in Bay Ridge nearly an hour later.

Of course, there is one downside to Daylight Saving Time: one less hour of sleep. But the many more hours of sunlight I'll now be enjoying will more than make up for one evening of heavy eyelids.

Unseasonable Spring Tulips

The weather was so unseasonably warm last week that I actually ate lunch outside. It was a nice April surprise, and so were the fully bloomed tulips that lined the benches outside the Federal Reserve where I ate and read. The brisk winds made them look like they were dancing.

A Little Spring in Our Steps

Spring officially started Saturday, but it awoke from hibernation a few days earlier.

As soon as the thermometer hit 60 earlier in the week, there was a noticeable difference on the streets. If there were roses, people may actually have stopped to smell them.

I first noticed the change in myself. I walked more slowly-- I strolled. My gaze, generally focused on the sidewalk, moved up a few feet. And when I got home from work on Tuesday and the sun was still out, I seemed to be viewing my neighborhood with new eyes. I had forgotten how pretty the buildings along 77th Street really are.

On Saturday, with the mercury at 70, Paul and I packed up a blanket and the newspaper and walked to Bay Ridge's Owl's Head Park. We basked in the sun and followed it up with a mile-and-a-half walk around the neighborhood.

Welcome, spring, and many happy returns.

Spring in Central Park

There's no denying that Central Park will be crowded on any and every warm spring day. But look in the right direction and you can almost believe that you have the whole park to yourself.

Close your eyes and the city falls silent. Even when they reluctantly reopen, the crowds seem blessedly far away.

Central Park's Lake, Minus a Rowboat

Renting a rowboat in Central Park is supposedly easy. Make it to the lake before dusk, and for $12 you can call a boat your own for an hour.

So after a leisurely walk through the park on Saturday we made our way to the rental booth about 7 p.m. . It was closed! We must have barely missed the cutoff for rentals, because there were still at least a half-dozen or so boats gliding about the pond. But no matter-- we were too late and that was all there was to it. Another day.

We had walked by the boat rental booth on our previous visits to Central Park, but this was the first time I noticed large rocks jutting out into the water on the other side of the pond. In lieu of a boat ride, we decided to find those rocks. That's how we found The Ramble.

I'd heard of this part of the park before but had never seen it firsthand. It's 36 acres of trees and dense greenery with a secluded, winding path where it's easy to get lost. I couldn't help but think that this is one of those Central Park spots where people are assaulted after dark. But I digress.

We found the rocks before long and took a seat to watch the rowboats dock across the pond and the diners chow down at the fancy Central Park Boathouse Restaurant nearby.

That should have been us!

Boathouse Restaurant

Delving deeper into the Ramble we found many more "secret" spots, some occupied by couples obviously eager to get away from the buzz of the city, others completely empty.

So even though we lost a rowboat ride, we discovered a whole new part of Central Park that I'm eager to further explore. And anyway, I'll get that boat ride yet.

I'm the one on the bridge, not in the boat.

Spring in Bay Ridge, Part 2

The weather was so mild and sunny last Sunday that I convinced Paul to supplement his miles of running with a long walk through the neighborhood with me and my camera.

Who says nature doesn't exist in New York City? It's just harder to find, that's all.

Spring has arrived!

Bay Ridge's famed Gingerbread House. I'll take better photos of this someday, but I feel a bit like a stalker taking pics of someone's house.

What spring day would be complete without a stop at the playground?
Alas, the swings were all full.

Spring in Bay Ridge

79th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn