Legendeering: Greenwood Cemetery Day 1

Whoops, long time no blog... I've been off playing hooky on Tumblr. But I'm starting to accumulate a bunch of stuff that's going to require more robust blog posts than I can throw together on Tumblr - so I'll be dumping that stuff here!

To start with, Legendeering! It's a thing that Sterling Hundley's organized, and is kind of hard to describe... But so far it's about getting out and exploring and experiencing and recording what you experience. The official FaceBook group is here if you want to find out more (or join in!)

First assignment is to visit someplace unfamiliar three times, preferably to a location that involves some amount of exertion to visit. I had trouble thinking of anyplace unfamiliar that would involve exercise and that wouldn't require an all-day out-of-town trip... I've been living here for years, so I've already explored a lot of the best spots nearby. But then I remembered I've never been to Greenwood Cemetery, and you know, I don't know why?? I mean, it's technically walking distance. Somehow I always forget it's there.

So I went. And I'm glad I did, that place is amazing. It's HUGE. I had no idea how big. It's a freaking necropolis. And it's all hills and crazy winding paths and of course I managed to get totally lost, but that was part of the plan - its not a proper adventure if you don't get lost at least once! Also it's the highest point in Brooklyn, so you get some amazing views of the city.

Between taking forever to find the entrance, getting lost, and trying to get unlost before they locked me in, I didn't have much time for sketching. Mostly I ran around like a mad thing with a camera until I got a "memory card error" (AGAIN. Aaarrgh. Need to get some spare cards.) But I squeezed in one quickie sketch before dashing to the gates:

Not sure how many photos survived the memory card SNAFU... So far I've salvaged about a third. The rest might be gonzo. I may have to go back and re-photograph some things. Here's the best of the photos I've recovered so far (click to embiggen):

Not sure if I'll manage two more visits THIS week, the current forecast is rain-sleet-cold-yuck (it's been raining all day today)... But we'll see. Definitely going back when it's REALLY actually Spring and things are blooming. (If we ever get Spring.)

Between schlepping down there and running around on all the hills, it was more of a workout than I thought it would be. Also I found a dollar on the way back, so, profit!

Also there was this cat near my apartment:

Spring is Sprung!

Spring is sprung with a vengeance! Sure, it started with a few sporadic daffodils and whatnot, no big deal, and then WHAM! all the magnolias and cherry blossoms at once in the past couple of weeks. This always happens. And I never get to sketch and photograph all the stuff I want to because it's gone before you can even blink. I've been catching some of it, though.

So this is what's happening all over the place now (click the photos to see them at a decent size...):

Whatever Wed-Thursday: Pink Roses

Did I forget Wednesday? I totally forgot Wednesday. So many other things going on yesterday, whoops. At least three different free outdoor concerts happening at once, including the New York Philharmonic, plus fireworks... Wheee! Summer! Anyway. How about more roses? Can't have too many roses (though they're mostly faded now, they don't like this crazy heat at all.) (Neither do I.) Pink roses this time, and a sketch of a red rose, all from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as usual.

Whatever Wednesday: Yellow Roses

Well, as long as it's rose season... May as well post silly rose pictures! Here's a rose sketch and a plethora of yellow roses from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (and one white rose.)