With All Due Respect

I haven’t yet journeyed to Buffalo’s northern environs in search of springtime blossoms, but two Buffalo News photographers have.  Derek Gee and Mark Mulville share their lush “pretty in pink” photos from Delaware Park’s Japanese Gardens in the April 26th print version of the newspaper.

My “gallery” is predictably a bit less splendid, lacking Messrs. Gee and Mulville’s professional eye and equipment.  But I thought you might enjoy some of the images that caught my eye earlier this week as I walked and bicycled through nearby South Buffalo neighborhoods.

This first beauty (I’ll let you all identify the species) greeted me on Indian Church Road, just steps from my Oschawa Avenue home:

Minutes later, Cazenovia Park – my favorite Olmsted gem – offered these vividly reassuring signs that winter is behind us:

And, somehow, even the verdant meadow beyond the leafless branches seemed to whisper, “Yes, spring is here”:

A day later, my bicycle provided the means to easily check out what was happening a mile or two from home on McKinley Parkway.  I wasn’t disappointed:

As I pedaled down Lorraine Avenue on my way home, I couldn’t resist taking a photo or two of a symbol a bit less natural, but just as inspiring as spring blossoms.  Adorning the lawn at P.S. 72 (where I substitute taught a few times in 2018), is this monument to the school’s anti-bullying campaign:

I also lacked the self-control not to stop – at the edge of Cazenovia Street and Caz Park’s Warren Spahn Way – to capture these images:

Wonderful in white!

With All Due Respect,

Art Giacalone

P.S.  Today is Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday.  His parks, parkways, and landscapes have done so much to enrich the lives of the inhabitants of our nation’s cities.  What a remarkable legacy!