DAVE VORLAND: Photo Gallery — April Snapshots

April 30: The Empire State Building, looking toward lower Manhattan, photographed from Rockefeller Center on Thursday, with a Canon 5D Mark III and 50mm lens.

April 29: The subway train last night to JFK airport, on our way home from New York City. Four great days ― my iPhone app says we walked 44.10 miles. The photos I’ve posted so far were shot with the phone; in coming days, I’ll put up a few taken with my digital DSLR.

April 28: We didn’t have the opportunity in NYC to see the musical “Hamilton” but did pay our respects yesterday at the grave of the actual Alexander Hamilton in the cemetery of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.

April 27: Manhattan, seen today from the Staten Island ferry. The boats are larger and faster than in the old days, and cheaper, too. On my first visit to NYC in 1964, one paid 10 cents for a token allowing you on the boat; today the voyage is free. Still a great view.

April 26: A great second day in New York City despite a bit of rain in the afternoon. More than 12 miles of strolling according to my iPhone, two art museums and tonight a play, “An American in Paris.”

April 25: I first visited New York City as a college kid. Although I’ve returned many times on business or vacation, today was the first time in eight years. It’s a different place now, and I will need a while to sort it all out. This afternoon, after gorging ourselves at the Carnegie Deli, we spent much of our time in Central Park. There I had a “Proustian” moment remembering my strong reaction to The Lake and its model sailing boats when I first saw them back in 1964: “Hey, that’s where Dick and Jane played in those stories I read in the first grade back in North Dakota!”

April 24: Checking out the Walker Art Gallery yesterday in Minneapolis. We’ve been having a GREAT time with my daughter, Kristi, who, unlike us is not retired and must report to work in Grand Forks tomorrow.

April 23: Early spring has arrived at the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum near Chaska. As we do most times she visits us in Bloomington, my daughter, Kristi, and I made a stop there yesterday. Traffic in the area was very heavy because many people were paying their respects at the nearby home of the late musician Prince.

April 22: The light of the full moon woke me at about 5:30 a.m. this morning. I hope our neighbors in Bloomington, Minn., didn’t see me on the driveway in my pajamas, shooting this picture.

April 20: This time of year I think of what of T.S. Eliot wrote: “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” Of course, his poem, “The Waste Land,” is not actually about the weather. For me, January is the cruelest month. I LOVE April (October ain’t bad, either). This photo was shot in Bloomington, Minn., after spring rain had stirred the dull roots of the oak tree in our front yard.

April 20: Give me a minute, Dave. I need to check some messages.

April 19: Foolish me, but I look forward to seeing dandelions in the spring. In my neighborhood in Bloomington, Minn., they don’t last long, victims of herbicides and upper-middle class home owners seeking the perfect lawn. But the prejudice is worldwide. The French refer informally to dandelions as “jaune pisse” (jaune = yellow and pisse = the same word as in English without the “e”).

April 15: White squirrel, photographed near the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minn. It was our first opportunity to hear the Chamber Orchestra’s “artistic partner,” violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. We both loved the Bach, me not so much the Von Biber, Dorette not so much the Ernesco. But hey, all better than, say, watching the Minnesota Twins lose.