Paper and Threads

Yesterday we had a planter full of green tulip buds with only one flower open - a beautiful pink one.  This morning this is the view from my window.  It is glorious to finally have spring arrive - it is just erupting everywhere you look.  It's always a surprise to see the "color of the year."  The tulip bulbs are planted by an organization (unknown to me) and each year the little plants just appear.  It has taken more than a month from first sighting to blooming.  I sketched and painted the full planter from my window, but took a milk crate, my pen, and my palette of watercolor paints to the sidewalk to draw the individual plant.  Many families and single pedestrians on cell phones walked by during the time I was there and there was not a single comment.  New Yorkers don't find anything strange!  The tree in the planter still has no buds, but we have flowering trees at window level in all directions.