On Thursday last week the Girls and I were eager to relish each and every moment of the perfect Spring weather. After dinner went back outside for an evening stroll before the sun set. We really enjoy the hour 6pm – 7pm, between dinner and bed for an evening walk this time of year. The Girls usually ride their scooters which they abandon with a jump in the middle of the pavement when something catches their eye, that they must explore! On this particular walk I directed the Girls up to Albermarle Road, which is the second cross street from our house, just one whole block away. You will have seen it in many of our photos before as it is stunning. Here is a New York Times Article about Albermarle Road , it is considered one of the most beautiful streets in New York City. All week I had admired the tulips blooming on the wide grassy medium strips dividing the stately street. We often walk along Albermarle Road, but we usually stick to the pavement, and not cross over onto the street divider. This afternoon that was my actual purpose to go over onto the medium strip and look at the flowers. The whole length of Albermarle has this wide, impeccably maintained garden divide, that is broken into parts to allow the cross streets intersection. After playing one of the little road islands for a while, Maya developed a game that involved us eventually crossing over all of the islands. On both ends of every island there is a tulip bed. When we got to the end of the second last island we discovered that someone had cut the heads off all the tulips in that bed! “Look, what someone has done!” I exclaimed in disbelief. “Someone has cut the heads off all the tulips!”. Maya studied the garden and quickly she registered that indeed each and every stem in this garden of tulips was standing tall, but without their bloom. After a few moments of staring at the beheaded stalks I realised that all the flower heads were laying on the ground beside their stems. In a now obvious act of madness, a person had come along, cut off the tulips heads, letting the flowers fall to the ground, where they lay to die. In a logical unfolding, but still with much disbelief, we began to collect the cut flowers. Maya was intent on picking up every one, and even though the whole time we were talking about what a silly thing someone had done, we walked away with a beautiful bunch of tulips – that as you will see brought us much joy. We felt good knowing that we made this discovery, and that the crazy behavior of another became a positive experience for us. Life really can be bizarre.
