(UPDATE: Confirmation from the Wall St. Journal, 12/19/12, that 2012 may be the warmest winter on record.)
In the Village, the consistent warm weather has forced flowers to bloom. Pink blossoms have opened on the same branches where yellowed leaves still hang. Life and death coexist. Seasons collide.
In a street garden on the other side of town, green shoots emerge from a pile of autumn gingko leaves. The flat spears look a lot like iris. It's barely the middle of December.
And a few more shots from today:
I mentioned this on twitter, but the first photo looks to be Perce-niege (poke-through-the-snow?), which blooms in winter and is fairly common here near Paris. I don't know if it has cousins in NYC.
ReplyDeleteThe tree bloom looks like Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis,' aka Autumn-blooming Higan cherry.
I dunno if that third plant is an Iris or not, so who knows about that third one.
i'd love to identify that white flower, and i do think it's an autumn bloom, but it's not a perce-niege, which is also called snowdrop, often the first flower of spring in NYC, along with crocus.
ReplyDeleteyou could be right about the cherry, though.
thanks for the ID's!
"Life and death coexist", it really expresses the essence of this bittersweet reality. it 's a paradox for sure
ReplyDeleteLenten Rose (Helleborus) for the top one?
ReplyDeleteThe false pear tree outside my window was covered with orange autumnal leaves last week. Now, it's budding.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I never turned on my heat or broke out my winter coat. And, although it was nice not to need my Yaktrax either, I do hope to see some *normal* winter weather.
ReplyDeleteBeen sleeping with the window open all this week, too, which ain't right.
Paul, i think hellebore is right!
ReplyDeleteMy stoop geraniums have come back for a December bloom. Just doesn't seem right!
ReplyDeleteits even warm here, & im not in NYC. im in high elevated mountain country. BUT ive been reading the global warming is not true. a scientist said we are on a "natural cycle". dont complain "J" be glad you have flowers! isnt that nicer than a parking lot w/cement, or another billboard.
ReplyDelete@Laura, You need to do some more reading.
ReplyDeleteEvery ecosystem on the planet is in decline. This is no "cycle".
Global warming and climate change aren't to blame for this, the change in meteorology care did this.
ReplyDeleteLAURA,
ReplyDeleteYou said, "BUT ive been reading the global warming is not true. a scientist said we are on a "natural cycle".
What kind of scientist said this? Someone who believes the dinosaurs coexisted with Adam and Eve, perchance?
Please. This is beyond stupid.
Jumpin Jesus on a velociraptor!
ReplyDelete@6:29
ReplyDeleteYou don't know me. You are a creep. Get a life.
And yes OF COURSE global warming is to blame the changing weather. Does anyone doubt this anymore?
anons, i heard a facinating lecture by a geologist. i cooulnt catch the name, & wish i could google his work. it was presented in a simple way. he went back several hunrad thousand years. explained climate changes, & there WERE several shifts. the worlds tempertures were not always consistent. @ one time it wasnt even possible to live in n.america. now i do know that gasoline & toxins can cause problems as well, & are poisoning us. but there are cycles that transsend that. maybe we should study. just because al gore is a democrat it doesnt mean he right across the board.
ReplyDeletei think it must be mighty warm @night in NY for people to sleep w/an open window. i do remember late nov or late december around 1998, it was almost 70 degrees in NY. i was in jackson heights & sweated all the way back to w.55st.
ReplyDeletethe climbing rose vine in my backyard bloomed last week.
ReplyDeleteI think Laura means that scientists agree that since the beginning of the earths existence it has gone through cycles of ice ages and warming (melting ages) Funny that people believe that now humans have lived here for a few thousand years (OK maybe more) that suddenly these cycles will stop? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI think we are being trolled by Laura. Look at her comments in the laundrymat thread.
ReplyDeleteNobody talks like this
uh. I don't think anyone can really dispute that the earth's atmosphere is warming. I mean glaciers a mile high once covered most of what is the Northeast. Long Island is the terminal moraine of one of them...and they no longer cover the northeast which means that the temperature which allowed them to creep down rose to the point that they melted away. There is no reason to believe it just stopped rising after the glaciers melted about 10,000 years ago. The real question I think is whether human behavior has accelerated the process. I think it has.
ReplyDeleterandall, that is the big question. i am sure this info is on google, & youtube. supposingly there is a pattern which scientists have observed. we cant blame cars for all of this, im sure it contributes. in any event, the flowers look nice.
ReplyDeleteHere in southern New England (not so far south as Fairfield County, but not so far north as, say, Maine), children are dying. There have always been children who died, too young. But not this way.
ReplyDeleteA connection, somehow. Cycles of living and dying are always with us, of course. But not these cycles.
Here in the Berkshires, the ground is still squishy. It never really hardened up all last winter. Can't describe how weird that is, for the ground to squish beneath your feet in February. Another squishy winter ahead?
Yes, there have always been some warmer than usual winters (the crocuses coming up in NJ in Feb.!), colder than usual summers (my mother remembered some July in NYC -- in the 40's? -- when it snowed = a few flurries, but impressive). So what?
This is different. How many November's of plucking rosemary for my dinner, when the rosemary used to be spent by early October?
And those children in Fairfield County. So tender.
hey laura, just what company employed this geologist? exxon? mobil? halliburton, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteglamma, how much have you read about the earth cycles? i bet nothing. it's all trend speak, have you applied critical thinking. i suggest you study before you conclude.
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of scientists agree that this is not a natural cycle, that this is being caused/ exacerbated by man. Regardless of the cause, shouldn't we as humans be trying to lessen pollution in the air, land and water? Shouldn't we be trying to find alternative energy sources that we can slowly introduce, test and improve so that we can ease the burdens on our power grid? This weather is crazy but what is crazier is fighting about this when we should be fighting to protect the earth and her resources no matter what the climate does.
ReplyDelete