It’s been sort of a green-filtered past few days on Morning Eye Candy. I suppose I’m trying to heap as much appreciation as possible on the themes of summer before the trees transition for autumn. That and this picture from Ivo makes me want to swim, Scrooge McDuck style, through the Forest.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Natural rock formations, acres of greenery, native summer flowers–the occasional hint of urban civilization peeking out behind it all is just a reminder that you’re really in New York!

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

I once had a middle school substitute teacher who told me I should stare at greens and blues if I wanted to “feel cooler.” I still think she was a tad kooky, but in the dead of summer, the Forest always strums the right chord for me.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

I’ll admit I have a softness for roses, a fondness for orchids, and a weakness for flame-orange poppies. Still, it’s seldom I find an eyeful of flowers so inspirational as an hour spent under the leaves of the trees.

You’ll best understand what I mean while walking the trails of the NYBG‘s Forest around this time of year, arched over in each direction with lacing branches of every shape and angle. The effect is something like slipping a green gel over a stage light. Sun filters down through the canopy and dapples the forest floor with piebald images both cloudy and sharp. It cools you, or seems to, on the most scorching afternoons. And there’s a freshness to the scene that chimes in to remind you–with something resembling pride–of winter’s distance.
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Celebrating the subdued hues of fall at the Garden, one color at at time.

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Library Building Lawn

Twin Lakes

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Celebrating the explosion of color that is the summer garden, one hue at a time.

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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What do you spy with that little eye?