Settling In

Today I was looking for something to do outside, since today was gorgeous and tomorrow is supposed to be a rotten day. I've been far too cocoon-y, although this is always the way I get accustomed to a new place. I tend to hunker down and expand my comfort zone slowly, making my home base habitable and relaxing and homey and then working out block by block. It's a sort of punctuated equilibrium--for many days or weeks I'll just sort of cuddle up at home, and then I'll need something and so I'll get out and get familiar with a whole range of places, people and things.

But I was damned if I was going to let this all-too-rare sunny Saturday go to waste, so I sat here with my cup of tea trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do. The Brooklyn attraction that I'm desperate to see is Green-wood cemetery, which I'm hoping will be a bit like Highgate in London. Highgate has a serene, park-like quality that I enjoy, and there are many fine gardens in the vicinity. Plus, there's the whole cemetery vibe--nothing like spending an hour in a cemetery to remind you where your priorities should lie.

Alas, no tours of Green-wood today, and I'm not up to a self-guided tour just yet. But I did find a tour of nearby Prospect Park that was just the ticket. The Big Onion has a variety of NYC walking tours hosted by graduate students, and our guide was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The tour party included three long-time Brooklyn residents who gave us a lot of information about what the park was like when they grew up here, which was really nice.

Among the many reasons I will never fit in as a true New Yorker is the fact that I can't feign disinterest in the beauty of the Northeast. There were huge clumps of daffodils dotted around the park (all because no spring day is complete until you have a flashback to your grad school seminar on the Romantics), and other bulbs as well--hyacinths, bluebell-looking things--all very exotic when you're coming to it from Phoenix. The park was full of squirrels, all frisky and chasing each other around, leaping from tree to tree like little acrobats. And I saw a hawk patrolling his little section of the park--just gorgeous. When our tour was over, we ended up in the farmer's market, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from buying a little pot of purple crocus bulbs--I adore them, but they'd be dead in no time flat if I so much as touched them, I'm sure, and although they were cheaper than cut flowers, I just couldn't indulge in that kind of cruelty. I think the crocus is right up there with my favorite flowers.

The same tour company does a tour of the cemetery next weekend--I hope the weather is good. In the meantime, I spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on tea and comfort to prepare for the upcoming storm. Tomorrow will be a fine day to be indoors with plenty of quarters to do laundry, plenty of varied cups of tea, green nail polish (for a winter pedicure) and a little beer. It'll be a pity to ruin it all come Monday.