Macy's Fireworks 2016 and the Butterfly Meadow

The most recently planted area of Brooklyn Bridge Park to open was the Butterfly Meadow, at the end of Pier 6. It's filled in well, and in May irises were blooming in the boggy bits.

I was there again recently and already the seasonal change is dramatic.

I must check the park's plant list to find out what the yellow daisies are, but the Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum) has begun to open (so has mine, back on 1st Place).

And above, a bit of sleuthing and Googling over drinks (makrut-bergamot gin with tonic) at an inaugural plant persons cocktail hour at our place led to the identification of Filipendula rubra - the tall pink plumes in the background. I had never associated the name with this plant, an eastern U.S. native like a giant astilbe crossed with goatsbeard (Aruncus). Fantastic height.

We'll stick out noses in here tonight but it might be pandemonic: the 40th Macy's 4th-of-July fireworks show will be staged in the East River, this year. There will be a double barge of fireworks moored south of the Brooklyn Bridge and the whole of Brooklyn might be camped out, here (if you'd forgotten, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest city in the USA if it weren't a mere borough of New York City; so that's a lot of campers).There will be four other barges higher up, between 23rd Street and 37th. Go there! Also, parts of FDR Drive will be closed off for public viewing. Go there!

And may it be a peaceful night of nothing more explosive than pretty colours.