Skipped the park yesterday, went into Manhattan for the "egg rolls and egg cream" street fair. This is a great fair - no tube socks, Italian sausages, Guatemalan magnets, or any of that nonsense. It celebrated the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Built in 1887, the Eldridge St. Synagogue was the first big synagogue in the U.S. Before then, services were were in storefronts and homes. A beautiful place, with stained glass windows, paintings, carved wood, etc. 100 years later, the roof was falling in, pigeons lived in the building, and the whole thing was on the verge of collapse. Then the process of restoration began, and it's been named a National Historic Landmark. The neighborhood had also changed, and what has formerly been a place of Jewish immigrants is now part of Chinatown. So for the last 10 years, there is this festival, featuring both cultures. Chinese Opera and Jewish folk singers, paper-cutting from both cultures, decorating fans and yarmulkes. And of course the food. My photos don't do it justice, but it was great and fun and I think truly qualifies as a unique event.
Meanwhile, back in the park...someone has drawn a wonderful whale in chalk. Very decorative.
The cygnets are growing rapidly, feasting on duckweed.
Alas, after all that cleanup - another trash can back in the lake, along with a police barricade, traffic cones, fenceposts with cement bases. all kinds of things that don't belong there.
It's a little cooler today and a really beautiful day.
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