Yonkers, Beautiful Yonkers

Last Monday, it being my day off, I decided to visit the beautiful Untermyer Gardens in Northwest Yonkers. It's been a while since last I was there. The heart of the park is its classical Persian style walled garden:

The interior garden is a peaceful, gorgeous sanctuary watched over by a pair of sphinxes:

No riddles need be solved by visitors, though I'm pretty well versed in that form of gamesmanship. From behind the sphinxes, one can get a nice glimpse of the perfect layout of the gardens:

The pools are home to goldfish of various sizes, as well as some lovely water lillies:

The setting of the park is as magnificent as the gardens... one has wonderful views of the mighty Hudson:

The view from the bottom of the stairs is only missing a determined local boxer to make it complete:

Since last I was here, a fence has been put up, separating the Croton Aqueduct Trail from the park:

On the way out, I visited the fanciful Temple of Love, which features a gazebo, but not a dread gazebo:

While wandering through the park, I had a conversation with some really nice kids who were enjoying a late summer afternoon... one boy brought up the not-so-good old days of the park. I remember coming to the park when I was in high school, and it was genuinely creepy. The creepy vibe is really captured well in this website... while I don't believe in ghosts, I can vouch for the presence of the outré graffiti scrawled on the walls. Part of me thinks that the creepy vibe of the park at its nadir only enhances its original and current magnificence. It's one of the jewels in the crown of Yonkers, beautiful Yonkers.