The rear of my apartment overlooks a garden courtyard - apparently one of the largest and earliest built in Manhattan. The building itself is a historic landmark built by Rockefeller. There is in fact a gardening volunteer group that works in the garden during the summer months which I've considered joining but never did mainly because the prime activity is planting bright colored annuals that are not terribly well suited to that situation - in the shade of all the trees there. Who knows, I might one day find the energy to suggest and execute the planting of some shade loving woodland plants there but, not yet. I do however enjoy very much the Gingko Tree that is closest to my apartment- the fire escape in the right corner of the photograph being mine.
There are a few Gingko Trees in the courtyard and they make their presence felt earlier in the fall when the female trees bear fruit and the stench of the fallen fruit is really quite something. I looked into the process of doing something with the fruit knowing that its a prized Chinese delicacy but discovered its the nut thats edible and its too laborious a process to retrieve. Thankfully the tree that's closest to me is male, which doesn't bear fruit, and around this time of year changes to this glorious yellow color. I also can't help looking at the leaves on the ground, they are such a beautiful shape with beautiful lines, its easy to see why they are so often used as a design motif- like this silver jewellry or this tile.
