[Robert Schonfeld]

Pardon the digression, but Saturday's walk took us in a different direction.

We were heading for 93rd and 5th, and we passed through a couple of scenes worth mentioning.

The large space in front of the Seagram's building, one of New York's very best, is like a stage. Just walking across it can make a person feel glamorous, in that special Park Avenue kind of way. Walking across it today with Louie, I had a vision of Suzy Parker in a Charles James gown at the end of his leash instead of me. A vintage Harper's Bazaar moment.

Across the street and catty corner is Lever House. I mentioned elsewhere some time ago the exhibition there of sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, on loan while the Noguchi museum in Long Island City is being worked on. Noguchi was a surpassing genius. His stone pieces are especially exciting to me. As I looked them over for the millionth time, I wondered, as I always do, how one person could have so much talent.

Reaching Central park, which was teeming with little monsters wearing ersatz bunny ears, we came upon an extraordinary display of forsythia at the northeast side of the Wollman rink. They are massed up against the glacial rock, in rich yellow bloom against the black stone. This is one of the exciting sights of spring in New York. If you're nearby, try to see it within the next week.

Further on, the white magnolias are already fading, but the pale pink ones by the Met are just coming into full bloom. Up on the bridle path, the Japanese cherries are ready to pop, within a week to ten days. Meantime, little blue bulbs, tete a tete daffodils, and shiny new growth on ground cover make a quiet prelude to the operatic show of the cherries. The slopes on either side of the bridge just past the northwestern end of the Wollman rink, before one crosses over to the promenade leading to the Bethesda terrace, has a particularly nice display of this kind.

We walked back on Park, looking to avoid the crowds as much as possible. Louie had his picture taken a few times. Normal course of business for him.

[Rail Paul]

That sounds delightful, Robert. Louie enjoyed his tour of the Upper East Side, it appears.