Waiting for the crisis to pass, our thoughts go out to friends and loved-ones who also shelter in place. Old friends pass away, people we loved and admired. Immobilized for the time being, we can revisit destinations, near and far. join me in celebrating the joys of Quaranteam travel, the hope that these diversions might inspire us to value things we had taken for granted, to draw strength, wisdom and compassion from deeper engagements with nature.

Heather Garden, Fort Tryon Park. Looking West. 190th Street and Margaret Corbin Drive, Manhattan. Saturday, July 22, 2017.

(Image and text were featured in the exhibition James McElhinney. Discover the Hudson Anew, curated by Laura Vookles. Hudson River Museum. Yonkers, New York. September 13, 2019 to February 16, 2020. Published also as a limited-edition in Hudson Highlands. North River Suite Volume One. Needlewatcher Editions. New York. 2018)

As Quakers, John and William Bartram were chary of taking a life, even if it belonged to a dangerous reptile. Their pursuit of natural science also put their beliefs at odds with the Friends’ Meeting. Hiking on South Mountain in the Catskill escarpment, Billy narrowly escaped being bitten by a timber rattler. Both father and son protested its murder at the hands of their rustic guide.
It is hard to imagine. Today’s coastal forest, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada, covers an area far larger than the woodlands the Bartrams would had known during the eighteenth century. The forest’s return in the late twentieth century restored the habitat of long-absent predators such as bear, wild cats, coyotes and wolves. The White-Tail Deer population went off the charts. Species seldom seen in settled areas became commonplace. In our own neighborhood we have seen osprey, bald eagles, skunk, raccoon, woodchucks, and countless species of songbirds. Walking through The Ramble one day in Central Park, a turkey-hen foraged in a clearing. On a nearby bench sat a homeless man, his worldly possessions piled beside him. His eyes were fixed on the bird.
Seeing me approach he called out, “Hey mister. What’s that bird?”
“A female turkey,” I replied. He looked relieved.
“Thanks! I knew it weren’t no pigeon.”

Northern Manhattan possesses nearly five hundred acres of park-lands, divided primarily between Highbridge Park, Fort Tryon Park and Inwood Hill Park, together with smaller parks and green spaces scattered across the island above 155th Street. Since the 1970s, nonprofit conservancies have played a key role in locating non-government funding for the maintenance and improvement of New York parklands. The New York Restoration Project planted a million trees, making New York one of the greenest cities in the nation. The Heather Garden and Alpine Garden in Fort Tryon Park attract thousands of visitors every year.

(Click on the image for a larger view)

Like many city parks today, Fort Tryon Park is the beneficiary of a private neighborhood-based nonprofit organization. One of its most famous board-members is celebrity psychosexual therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who resides a few blocks away. Another notable neighbor is Mother Francesca Cabrini, the patron-saint of immigrants whose relics are enshrined within the altar of a church at 701 Fort Washington Avenue.
As I worked on this painting, my wife cried out, pointing to a small snake writhing on the hot asphalt, cooking under a burning sun. I rushed over, lifted it carefully with the end of my brush and laid it under a bush. sprinkling it with cooling water, I studied its form, the shape of its triangular head, narrow neck, taupe coloring, and the marking running down either side of its spine. What are you? I wondered. And suddenly, I knew. It was a timber rattlesnake. These creatures are not hatched from eggs but born live, a dozen at a time. So, I wondered. Where’s your mother? Where’s the rest of the family? Regaining its composure at last, the little serpent disappeared into one of the stone walls.
John Bartram would have approved. So would Billy.

Revisit April’s QT Traveler Dispatches, day by day.

(A preview of SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER by James L. McElhinney (c) 2020. Schiffer Publishing).