Spring Interlude: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

It's been a long, long winter in New York City; and while I eagerly await first signs of warmer weather every spring, I feel that this year especially I'm craving the sight of delicate blooms and verdant branches. So when the weather turned much more pleasant this week, I decided to go see whether Japanese cherry trees were already blossoming in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and I took my DSLR with me.

I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed when it turned out that the beautiful Cherry Walk was not yet in bloom. I brought my current book with me and imagined lounging in the shade of the trees with pink petals showering down in the gentle breeze, but that was sadly not to be the case; also because the Garden was rather crowded on the free admission Tuesday, and finding a peaceful spot would have been quite challenging.

I soon however forgot all about my disappointment, because in fact many cherry trees were in bloom in other parts of the Garden, as well as magnificent magnolias, fragile violets, fragrant narcissi and hyacinths, bright tulips and many more spring-time flowers I can't name.

Blooming cherry and apple trees hold a lot of precious memories for me. Every year in the springtime, when my family drove from Warsaw to Łódź to visit my grandparents, we passed Łowicz on the way, which is the heart of the main fruit bearing region in Poland. We would leisurely drive by the orchards bathed in white and pastel pink, and point out the most beautiful trees to each other, looking forward to warm sunny days and summer holidays.

My parents now have their own garden at the back of the house, and every year they cross their fingers and hope that the overnight ground frost doesn't destroy the delicate buds on the magnolia tree. And you know what? Fortunately, this year it didn't, and their magnolia has more blooms than ever; they showed me the pink tree when we talked on Skype last week. Usually, spring comes to New York City a lot earlier than to Warsaw, but this year it seems that we're on about the same schedule, as magnolias are also in full bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

My mom loves taking close-up photos of various flowers and plants, and when I saw the amazing variety of tulips at the Graden, I just couldn't help myself. How striking is this dark purple tulip with the hints of indigo blue at the very center?

I hope you enjoyed taking a stroll through the Garden with me, especially if you're currently stuck behind a desk as you're reading this, or the weather in your part of the world is cold and dreary - maybe this little glimpse of sunshine and greenery cheered you up a little bit. We'll be back to regularly scheduled beauty programming shortly :)