A Day Redone...

Today the sun was out and the sky was bright blue – it was warm, balmy, and a perfect day for walking around and exploring.  By happenstance, we passed by Our Lady of Perpetual Help and guess what was there?  A SUPER Flea Market!  It did my heart good to see it after yesterday's debacle.  The Super Flea Market had rows of vendors of various kinds and a bake sale with $0.25 goods.  Needless to say, I had to appease my sweet-tooth and load up on baked goods.  I also found some vintage postcards.

Walking around with only a vague notion of where we were going, we found ourselves at the American Veterans Memorial Pier in Bay Ridge.  The scent of sea and salt was strong on the air.  It was a nice spot to people watch and enjoy some of those baked goods.

After we finished up enjoying the beaming sun and the sounds of waves crashing against the stones at the pier, we went to Narrows Botanical Gardens.  It was a cute little park (not far from the pier) with lots of little placards and flora in bloom.  I never would have thought that seeing plants and getting a little fresh air would be so important to me, but these simple acts did much to recharge my soul.  I hadn't even realized how tired and in need of a little outdoors I was.  

One of my favorite things about the Narrows Botanical Gardens is all the honeysuckle and sweet smelling hedges.  The bees were out in force and they hummed their busy buzzing songs.  Below is a sampling of the flowers:

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at another park called, Owl's Head Park.  I could not resist stopping at a place with "owl" in the name.  It was good to tromp around and see some open sky.  It was good to hear children laughing and birds cooing, chirping, and cheeping. 

I think the above picture is one of my favorite pictures taken from the day.  It almost looks like the movie poster from Big Fish.  To me it looked like a nice quiet place, solitary in the clearing.  Upon closer inspecting, the bark revealed names and dates of countless people carved in the soft bark.  It made me think of how people are not so different.  Everyone has a tracery of names scratched in their heart, some worn on the sleeve and others hidden in the highest branches.

Walking so much in the nice warm weather worked up a thirst!  From Owl's Head Park, we wandered around Bay Ridge, making mental notes of places to come back and visit and potential places to stop.  Finally we settled on Omonia Cafe, a cute little Greek place with a mega selection of desserts and pastries.  I had a visinada, which is kind of like a sour cherry Italian soda, and a creme caramel.  Both were delicious!  

It was a good day today.  It felt as though all the little disappointments from yesterday were some how resolved and redone, transformed into a beautiful day in the sun.