Some Needed Downtime

Being thouroughly disgusted by the national mood of this past week, I decided to tune out the media yesterday and to engage in some salubrious activity. The day being warm (for me, "shorts weather" starts in March, and ends in November), I took a trip to Lenoir Preserve in northwestern Yonkers. The preserve, formerly the grounds of two estates (the websites don't mention the names of the estate owners), is adjacent to the Old Croton Aqueduct trail. The preserve and trail overlook the Hudson River- the Palisades of New Jersey forming a dramatic backdrop to the river itself.

My usual M.O. at Lenoire Preserve is to check out bird feeders by the visitors' center, then walk through the gardens to a path which leads down to the aqueduct trail. It was too early for lepidopteran visitors to the butterfly garden, but the birds were in profusion. Besides the usually American robins and mourning doves, I would periodically spy the dramatic flash of the white rump of a startled flicker. The path to the aqueduct trail starts at a terraced garden area, and plunges down a wooded hillside.

Wouldn't you interpret this archway as an invitation to adventure?





Up closer, the crossed boughs glimpsed through the archway seem to warn one away:





After the scramble down the hillside, and a walk down the aqueduct trail, one can see some ruins, the remnants of a villa on the outskirts of the ancient, storied city of Herculaneum Yonkers:





South of Odell Avenue, where one can spy a bit of sculpture which reminds me of the monument in Lucerne... IONQUERSIORUM FIDEI AC VIRTUTI:





Of course, after my immersion in beauty, stillness, and peace, after my walk I made the mistake of turning on the car radio...