New York Spring: Upper West Side

I have a clutch of gardens maturing, at various stages, on the Upper West Side, within walking distance of each other.

I miss the Upper West Side. It's the first part of New York I thought I knew, back in the day. I ate my first, dripping-sweet white nectarine there, bought from a deli-greengrocer on Broadway. They were a dollar each, years ago. Ten years ago. More. Later, I used to travel on the 6 after changing from the 2 or 3 from Brooklyn, to shop at Fairway, for cheese, and at Citarella's for bouillabaisse-rouget and fancy fish. And I still say that the Fiorello's rectangular pizzas are the best in town. Patsy Grimaldi, Lombardi's...fine. They're nice. Fiorello's? Better.

I like hardy geraniums. Perennial geraniums, that is, not the loud ubiquitous annuals (which have their place. Like Switzerland) that we usually think of as geraniums. They are actually pelargoniums. But that's another story (and a very nice one). Anyway, these are outside the Museum of Natural History on Central Park West and 81st Street.

The fountain at Columbus Circle has an impressive, if vaguely corporate, herd of alliums all around it. Think they look like giant chive flowers? They are giant chive flowers.