Just kidding, suitors, I still prefer diamonds. BUT, flowers definitely are pretty sometimes and in some places, like on the High Line, for example. I told you in my last post that I would be writing this post if everything went as planned, and it did, so here you go!
Last week, I received an email from “The Green Team” at work. Little known fact, when I worked in Delaware, where they don’t have mandatory recycling, I started the recycling program for our entire site of over 1,000 people. It began as me loading all the cans and bottles from the cafeteria into the trunk of my Ford Focus and ended with us paying a guy and his truck each month to pick it up so that I didn’t have to do that for more than a few weeks. Anyway, the email was to offer a tour of the High Line with an “expert gardener” with the Nature Conservancy Young Professionals Group so Carrie and I decided to sign up.
We left work and walked up the west side and got distracted by a film crew catering truck. We snooped around and saw a sign that they were filming “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” I had learned from Twitter earlier that week that Ben Stiller had been filming this movie in the West Village. We followed our stalker instincts, took a few turns, and walked almost into an older woman who I knew was famous. I nudged Carrie and the woman saw me do so and gave me a raised-eyebrows look. I couldn’t think of her name at the time, but it was Shirley MacLaine. We turned another corner and saw Ben Stiller walking on the other side of the street. He walked behind a long truck and we sprinted while he was behind it so that when he came out we could get a good view. I didn’t get an awesome picture, but he’s the short guy in the middle with black pants.
After our little detour, we were running pretty late. We high-tailed it to the High Line as quickly as our legs could carry us and got to the meeting spot right at 6:15, panting and sweating profusely. The tour was really cool and probably for just a half hour or so, but I learned a lot and even actually am able to identify the plants I took pictures of, so I’m proud of that. There are a gazillion different plants along the High Line and when my parents and I were walking it this past weekend we were quite impressed with the variety.
Some Things I Learned on the High Line:
- When the developers were figuring out what to do with the High Line, they wanted a real fusion of the city and the environment.
- They wanted to keep the native plants that had seeded over the years but also needed to pick plants that would survive living 30 feet above the ground.
- Some areas of the park have shade during different times of the day because of the buildings, but some are in direct sunlight throughout the whole day. For that reason, there are a lot of prairie plants on the High Line.
- The Sassafras tree has three different leaves, one that looks like a mitten, one that is full, and one that has three parts.
- Echinacea is a flower (? – had no idea) and has a cone head so when the petals wilt, you can take them off and still have a good-looking flower.
- There are trees in the “pea” family and pea-pods grow out of their trunks.
- The American holly tree doesn’t grow berries unless there are both a male and female tree close enough to each other.
Okay, I had to look up that last one. So sue me. Just please let me keep my diamonds.
xx
10 miles behind me 
[…] Flower Tour on the High Line […]
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[…] I will actually be writing more about the High Line this next week if everything goes as planned so stay tuned, folks! (Spoiler Alert: everything did go as planned!) […]
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