A "Winter" Weekday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Roar! The weather was so nice last week that I just had to get out there and enjoy it while it lasted! So I decided to head over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where during the winter they offer free admission on weekdays! Unfortunately not everything in the garden is open during the winter but it's still fun to go and wander around the grounds.

Here I am outside of the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden. Even most of the snow has melted in the rest of the city there is still quite a bit on the ground here! It makes for a lovely winter scene. Maybe I'll write a haiku about my visit here!

The Winter's frost thaws

Dinosaurs come out to play

With the Spring comes green!

After leaving the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden I passed all this great looking Bamboo! I'll have to tell Bao Bao about this place! Roar!

Here are just a couple of the gorgeous trees growing at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden! I wish I knew more about botany so I could talk about this specific species, but since I can't I guess everyone will just have to go visit the garden for themselves! Roar!

In the Spring time the Cherry Walk and Esplanade is full of beautiful, blooming cherry trees! The BBG even has a big cherry blossom festival every year! Right now things are still looking a little barren... roar...

Here I am outside the Cranford Rose Garden which is closed for the winter. Roar! I love roses! I'll have to come back here for sure once they are all in bloom!

Behind me is more of the Cransford Rose Garden. Behind that, some of the more recent housing developments in Brooklyn can be seen looming on the horizon! It's nice to know that in a city that develops as rapidly as NYC there is a place like the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where people can come and still learn about nature! Roar!

Here I am looking in on the Native Flora garden which was also closed for the winter. It looks like a pretty cool place! And it has such a sweet gate! I definitely have to come visit here in the spring!

What's that strangely tasty looking palm tree-like plant behind me? Why actually that's yucca and I like to cook it! Roar!

Here I am over by the Rock Garden observing beauty on a small scale! I'm all about doing things on a small scale! Roar!

Here, the smokestack from the old Interboro Brewing Company can be seen rising up in the background. The Interboro Brewing Company was one many breweries that used to operate in NYC! The I.B.C. closed it's doors in the early 1920's after the prohibition act was passed. roar...

Because of the warm weather a bunch of the plants in the garden were starting to bloom! Here are some of the buds starting to form on some of the trees! I can't wait for spring! Roar!

While those plants are just starting to blooms some of the plants at the BBG have been blooming all year long! Hear I am outside of the greenhouse, let's go see what's inside!

Woah! Now I'm in a sweet tropical rainforest! I can't believe how different it is in here compared to outside! It's like being back in the cretaceous! Roar!

These are some coffee trees that are growing inside the greenhouse's tropical rainforest section! Those are some fresh coffee fruits hanging from the branches! I wonder if the garden dries the beans and makes their own coffee?

There was so much beautiful foliage inside the greenhouse! Way more than I can share on this blog. Check out the rest of my photos here. Roar!

Here I am in the greenhouses desert climate! Check out all these sweet looking cactus's! If they were any sweeter I might have to call this place a dessert! Roar!

This is a mesquite tree that is growing in the desert climate! It's a pretty awesome looking tree! Roar!

Next, I went over the to greenhouse temperate climate section. Here all of the flowers were in full bloom! Check out all these pretty flowers blossoming around me! Roar!

Here are some more of the gorgeous flowers blossoming in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens greenhouse!

This pretty flower is called a "Bird of Paradise." I'm not so sure if I see the resemblance! Roar!

Oh man! These myrtle oranges are absolutely delicious! I wish there guys grew on Myrtle Ave! Roar!

There was also this amazing Bonsai tree display inside the greenhouse! Like the Rock Garden, it focused on beauty on a small scale. A whole bunch on the trees were even blossoming! Here is a particularly nice looking tree! Roar!

Another awesome looking bonsai tree on display! I just love the shape of this one, it has so much movement! Rooooaaarr..... Woah! I almost fell down there!

I had a lot of fun in the greenhouse but it was getting late and I needed to head home. On the way out of the garden I passed by where the Brooklyn Museum butts up against the edge of the garden. In back on the museum there was this small scale version of the Statue of Liberty! It sure was weird seeing it from behind! I wonder if this must be what it's like to live in New Jersey? Roar!

Centro Cultural Ricon Criollo

Roar! Today I decided to make one last trip up to the Bronx to do the last Key to the City stop I had there. I needed to visit the Centro Cultural Ricon Criollo which is a Puerto Rican cultural center and community garden. Sounds neat!

Here I am outside of the gate for the garden my key opens! It a pretty little patch with a bunch of great looking plants inside. Let's open it up!

Woah! Check out this scarecrow! I am sure am glad they didn't have a scare-rex in here! That would have been terrifying! Roar!

This garden is pretty nice! Look how beautiful these chilis are that are coming in! I tried eating one and they were so hot I ended up breathing fire! Then everyone who saw me eat the chili thought I was a dragon! It was really funny because everyone knows dragons aren't real! Roar!

The guys at the community garden were really cool! They were all so proud to have their garden as part of the project and they spent a lot of time showing me the plants they were growing and everything they had done to make the garden as nice as it is! They had done some cool stuff like turn old broken drums into planters and even went so far as to trellis a grapevine over most of the back of the garden. It was so nice and shady, plus the grapes were delicious! Roar!

If you're up in the area be sure to stop by and check out this sweet garden! Roar!

New Years Theater Spectacular!

Roar! Today was a theater extravaganza! In the morning I met up with my friend Bao Bao at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. (The very same place I saw Neil Gaiman recite Peter and the Wolf) They were having a Chinese New Year theater celebration which included bits of Chinese Opera, variety acts, and vocal performances. It was pretty neat! 

Here I am with Bao Bao at the Winter Garden. He was really excited to see the Chinese Opera. Roar! 

Bao Bao got confused and thought the palm trees at the Winter Garden were like bamboo. Boy, was he surprised!

Here is the cast of the Chinese New Year celebration. It sure was a great show. Besides the opera, there was a barber shop quartet, a harmonica player, and an entire dance number based off Kung Fu Panda! Bao Bao really like that one. Roar! 

After the show Bao Bao and I went outside to play in the snow around the World Financial Center. Here is Jeff Koons' "Ballon" statue. It really stood out on a gray day like today.

Bao Bao and I took a photo of our reflection in the sculpture. Woah! It's just like a fun house mirror! Roar!

Later in the evening, I headed up to Judson Memorial Church by Washington Square Park for Bailout Theater. Bailout Theater is the really cool event the church puts on every first and third Wednesday of the month where they serve a free meal and have free entertainment. Tonight they had a play by Johnna Adams called Lickspittles, Buttonholers, and Those Damned, Pernicious Go-Betweens. 

Here is a scene from the play. It was such a cool play. The whole thing was written in rhyming couplets and each character spoke in a different form of poetry. 

The coolest part of Lickspittles, Buttonholers, and Those Damned, Pernicious Go-Betweens was it was directed by John Hurly who directed Hack! for Vampire Cowboys Saturday Night Saloon. It was so cool to meet John, he's a great director and I can't wait to see more things he's working on. Roar!

Sunnyside Up!

Roar! Today was so nice out! I rode over to Sunnyside to check out this famous garden I've heard so much about.

Queens is such a suburban borough. Check out this ridiculously nice street! Everyone has lawns and look at all the pretty trees! I bet they get really pretty once all the leaves start to change color. Then there will be piles of leaves to play in! That is so much fun!

Here I am in front of the entrance to the garden. Turns out the garden is private and you have to be on a committee to be allowed inside! What is this Gramercy Park?!

I decided not to let this set back ruin my day. I just rode around a whole bunch of Queens enjoying the nice weather then headed home. I guess sometime things don't always go as planned but it's always nice to go outside and get some exercise! Roar!

Open NYC was today!

ROAR! Today was Open NYC, the day where all these crazy places around NYC have open houses and you can sign up for tours. The problem is all the tours are at the same time so you can only go to one. I signed up for the tour of the Jackson Heights garden apartments. It was pretty fun to walk around the historic garden community in Queens but also a little ridiculous because now the apartments all cost upwards of a million dollars an apartment. It was crazy!

Here I am in front of the Chateau, one of the fancier apartment buildings in Jackson Heights. Check out that slate roof! What is this the stone age?!

This the Towers apartment complex, apparently it was a financial failure. Sure looks nice though!

Where would New York be with out its keep off the grass signs? They really aren't too welcoming in this neck of the woods. I guess when you have a million dollar apartment you don't want to share the space.

One of the great things about Jackson Heights is it has a really diverse ethnic community. That means all kinds of exotic MEAT! Here is some delicious chilly chicken! ROAR! I love meat!

ROAR! Giant kebabs! Jackson Heights is so great! MEAT! MEAT! MEAT! MEAT! MEAT!

After eating a ton a awesome meat I left my mark on a street pole then rode on to my next destination, Flushing.


Afterwards I rode this crazy ride! Overall it was a pretty excellent day! ROAR!

From the Hole to the bowl!

Roar! Today was such a weird day. I decided to ride out to this neighborhood between Brooklyn and Queens I heard about. It's called the Hole and it is with out a doubt the worst neighborhood in New York City. It looked like an asteroid had hit this place! You can see what I mean in this satellite image:


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I couldn't believe a place like this existed here in NYC and I just had to see it with my own eyes.

This is the first street I rode down once I crossed Conduit Ave and rode down into the Hole.

There are a ton of abandoned lots that are now completely overgrown.

There were also a bunch of burned out and abandoned cars littering the streets. It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

The neighborhood is called the Hole because it's 30 feet below grade and floods every time it rains. I guess that's why a bunch of people in the area all seem to own boats. They need to get around somehow.

Of course since the Hole is 30 feet below grade that means it isn't on the septic line. So every time it floods it just turns into one big cesspool. Here you can see a puddle left over from the last time it rained. Gross!


I decided to leave my mark on this abandoned trailer in the middle of one of the overgrown fields.

After all the riding I did to and around the Hole I was bonking pretty bad. I decided I needed some serious carbs if I was going to get back home so I headed over to Spring Creek for some pasta.

Oh yeah! The Olive Garden, no better place for cheap food! Luckily, they were having their unlimited pasta bowl special so I ate my fill and kept riding.

Roar! Check out this awesome Meat Sauce 2X Combo!

After lunch I rode around Spring Creek park a bit before heading home. The original Spring Creek was right on Jamaica Bay but now it's a protected nature reserve and you can't go in. They did build a small new park by the shopping plaza with the Olive Garden that has a nice bike trail. It also appears to have the only regulation cricket pitch in New York City. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's kept in very good condition. I doubt many people will be hitting sixers at this cricket pitch.