Slow Nature Fast City

It’s time to unplug and take solace outdoors, my friends. Here are a few ways to explore the natural world in NYC and beyond this weekend (July 30-31, 2016).

Go Outside

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a moment of reflection at the Lily Pool Terrace at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It’s a good place to see water lilies and lotus flowers in bloom. As Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hahn said, “No mud, no lotus.”

Join the Torrey Botanical Society and the Natural Areas Conservancy on Saturday for a free botanical walk through the wilds of Marine Park. Learn more about one of NYC’s only maritime forests and probably see egrets and herons too.

Head to the Bronx now to see the famous Corpse Flower (amorphophallus titanum) in bloom. New York’s first corpse flower since 1939, it started to bloom last night at the New York Botanical Garden.  Its bloom, which smells like rotting flesh, lasts about 24 to 36 hours.

Read

Atlas Obscura has a fascinating piece about mycologist Mary Banning:

“Though Banning would identify 23 new species and complete one of the first guides to the mushrooms of the New World, almost no one in her day knew of her discoveries, or about the striking illustrations she produced in her self-financed home laboratory.”

From my own reading shelf: I just finished Heather Wolf’s Birding at the Bridge: In Search of Every Bird at the Brooklyn Waterfront and absolutely loved it.