street trees.

April 22, 2020

The first time that I walked outside of our apartment after spending nearly three weeks inside, it was after dark. The moon was full, which I didn’t know until I’d marveled at the white veils draped on top of each neighborhood pear tree and realized the blossoms were illuminated by moon beams.

I was on a walk to slip our rent check through the covered slot in the door of our landlord’s building just a few blocks from our own, but I walked out of my way to pay a visit to my favorite bed of neighborhood daffodils. All of them are delicate varieties, pale yellow on white, and cream on peach, and white surrounding a tiny brilliant ring of red and golden. In the moonlight, all of them were silver.

In the past few years, the perfume from daffodils has started to make me sneeze. Where I once filled my apartment with fistfuls of bodega blossoms, I’ve grown more cautious about bringing bunches inside, sticking to stalking neighbor’s tree pits and garden beds instead. On that night my hand-sewn mask felt heavy across the bridge of my nose, so I threw caution to the wind and pulled it down to take one heady, daffodilly breath, germs and allergens be damned.

When I reached the landlord’s door and climbed the short stoop, I made a mental note of the dormant rose bush. In June there will be yellow roses climbing this cast iron fence. Down the street the roses will be pink and orange, a kind of Day-Glo ombre. Around the corner, they’ll be tiny and pale pink.

Turning toward home, check delivered, I took the route that allowed a quick stop by a spindly neighborhood magnolia. With my mask back in place, I couldn’t make out its subtle scent, but I could see the flowers, splayed out like somebody’s best china. By daylight I might have noticed signs that they were already past their prime—streaked with the brown that comes before they fall and litter the ground—but in the mix of moonlight and street lamps, they looked perfect enough to me.

Next door, the neighbor with the thinning hair and the navy blue sweatshirt came out of his building to smoke one of his many nighttime cigarettes. I’ve seen him hundreds of times since we moved to the neighborhood ten springs ago and it was the moonlight probably, but it seemed like he’d grown gaunter since the last time I saw him. No doubt I did, too. I smiled from behind my mask and made a mental calculation of the six feet between us. He lit his cigarette and the smoke curled toward me, making its way through the three layers of cotton I wore to keep my own germs from getting out. The smoke was an unwelcome reminder of what still gets in.

The streets that night were quiet without traffic, or sirens, or people walking in groups. Before heading home, I craned my neck down the street to see if I could spot the magnolia with the pale yellow flowers and the Ikebana shape. An ambulance turned the corner and crawled noiselessly toward me, its flashing lights reflecting on the clouds of pear flowers above them, putting on an ostentatious springtime show, even for New York.

I don’t have much to offer this Earth Day in terms of tips or tricks or advice for being ever mindful of people and planet. I do have a few pilfered blossoms, dried by a five-year-old Brooklyn naturalist. She’s an enthusiast of fresh air and sunshine and getting to breathe outside without a mask. I’m hoping we find a way to give her that future.

You Might Also Like

15 Comments

  • Reply Grace April 22, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    So beautiful. I loved reading this

    1
  • Reply Judith Ross April 22, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    It’s the very least we can give her. Stay well, and thank you for the exquisite prose and the reminder that the earth continues to turn.

    3
    • Reply Terry April 22, 2020 at 8:32 pm

      Perfectly said.

      0
  • Reply Sally April 22, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    <3

    2
  • Reply Doe April 22, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Endless love. I have no doubt a future awaits us all. Meet you on the other side, I promise.

    0
  • Reply Katie April 22, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    The best earth day post I’ve read so far. Thank you for this tribute to and reminder of our planet’s beauty.

    PS Inquiring minds also want to know more about these flower pressings.

    1
    • Reply Sara April 23, 2020 at 12:08 am

      Giiiiirrll, you good.

      I haven’t felt more in touch with the moonlight, magnolia blossoms, or offensive smoke in ages. A bow and thanks to you and the obvious star of this show: Mother Earth.

      To all of our kids getting to safely mosey under the moonlight soon …

      0
  • Reply Anna April 22, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    This is gorgeous. It’s the little things, isn’t it. And somehow those are also the big things.

    I’ve been reading your blog for years now, and my enjoyment of and appreciation for the writing you publish and the work you do seems to only grow. Thank you.

    2
  • Reply Marina April 23, 2020 at 2:36 am

    This is poetry <3

    0
  • Reply Stéphanie April 23, 2020 at 5:00 am

    I really enjoyed reading this, Erin. You write so well. I’m glad you could get out for a walk, it must be tough staying inside for weeks on end. I live in a city in the UK but find the side streets peaceful and have been enjoying spring on my neighbourhood walks even more than usual this year. I’ve even pressed some blossom petals, though I’m not sure how they’ll hold up when I take them out from beneath the stack of books they’re weighted down by!

    1
  • Reply Amy April 23, 2020 at 9:02 am

    I love this.

    0
  • Reply Amanda Krieger April 23, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    you painted such a vivid image of your errand, turning the monotonous habit into beauty.

    do you know what kind of magnolias you are seeing? I was so curious, here in Virginia our magnolias aren’t blooming yet. I turned to Google and fell down a maze.

    0
    • Reply ERIN BOYLE April 23, 2020 at 3:55 pm

      you’re probably waiting on southern magnolias to bloom! we don’t have many of those up here!

      2
  • Reply Denise April 25, 2020 at 10:15 am

    Love your little flower press!

    0
  • Reply Rachel April 25, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    Erin, that was simply stunning. I was totally transported beside you in moonlit moments. What a delight ❣️

    (We’ve been pressing flowers too, my little one and I. Quinn is 4 and she also loves plucking little blooms from around the neighbourhood!)

    0
  • Leave a Reply to ERIN BOYLE Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Comments are moderated.