Central Park, Nov 2–8: a wide-open week at 68°, and everything lands on Sunday

Hi there,

The marathon is behind us, and the park has gone remarkably quiet. Monday through Thursday have no scheduled events at all — four consecutive empty days, which I do not think I have sent you before — and then Sunday arrives with six things at once. The whole week is shaped like that: nothing, then everything.

Weather this week

Sunny and unseasonably mild through Wednesday — 65°, 67°, 68° — then rain Thursday through Saturday, clearing to a bright 63° Sunday. Save the walking for midweek and the Sunday cluster, and plan Friday and Saturday around a roof.

Mon Nov 2 – Thu Nov 5 — the quietest stretch of the year

Nothing is booked. Two or three private ceremonies a day and otherwise an empty calendar.

What is still worth the trip:

• New Dendrology at the Arsenal Gallery, weekdays 9 AM–5 PM, free. A show about trees, indoors, which makes it the right call when Thursday turns wet.
• Bird Watching with Birding Bob — Strawberry Fields Monday 8:30 AM, Loeb Boathouse Thursday 8:30 AM.
• Walk the drives. They reopened Monday after the race and nothing is closed on them all week. 68° and sunny on Wednesday with the park near-empty is a rare combination.

Fri Nov 6 — two Conservancy walks, in the rain

69° with light rain likely at 69%. Both walks go:

• Woodland Walk: The Ramble, 10 AM from Belvedere Castle.
• Iconic Views of Central Park, 2 PM from Doris C. Freedman Plaza.
• Birding Bob at the Conservatory Garden, 8:30 AM — the formal garden, once a rotation, and the best of his stops.

Sat Nov 7 — model yachts, the North Woods, and eighteen weddings

65° with showers around 47%.

• Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs Boathouse, 9 AM–3 PM. Radio-controlled sailboats on Conservatory Water, and children watch it for far longer than you would expect.
• Woodland Walk: The North Woods, 10 AM from Dana Discovery Center — waterfalls, the Loch, the best color in the park.
• Seneca Village Tour, 2 PM from Mariners’ Gate. The African-American community that lived here before the park did.
• Eighteen private bookings, the busiest ceremony day in over a month — two in Shakespeare Garden, several around Heckscher. Lovely to walk past, impossible to have to yourself.
• Fifteen soccer bookings at North Meadow plus frisbee and kickball at Heckscher. The leagues have come back up after two thin weeks.
• East Meadow is closed for maintenance.

Sun Nov 8 — everything at once

63° and mostly sunny — the clear pick of the weekend.

• Leaf Peeping in Central Park, 1–2:30 PM from Boys’ Gate at West 100th Street. Urban Park Rangers, free, no registration, and timed for the north end at its best.
• Animal Rescue Red Carpet at Literary Walk, 10 AM–noon. Adoptable dogs on the Mall under the elms — a good hour with children.
• International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza, 11 AM–3 PM. Open circle, no experience wanted, back to full length now the marathon has cleared out.
• NYMS Mushroom Research Meeting, East 102nd Street Landscape, 10 AM–3 PM. The New York Mycological Society doing actual fieldwork, and they welcome onlookers.
• The Ramble walk 10 AM and Iconic Views 2 PM again.
• Eleven more soccer and frisbee bookings at North Meadow; East Meadow closed.

Steady all week

• Bethesda Terrace and Fountain — closed all day, every day, now through December 1. That is the twelfth extension since mid-October. It has now swallowed all of November.
• No play on the Great Lawn for a fifteenth straight week, with no closure permit anywhere in the record to account for it.
• Field permits: 71 this week, 56 at North Meadow.
• Nothing on a stage. No theater, no concerts, nothing at the Delacorte. The next music of any kind is the Carmel High School Jazz Band on November 16 — I will have detail nearer the time.

Quick recap

• Monday to Thursday is empty — four days, no events, and 65°, 67°, 68° of sun. Walk midweek.
• Sunday is the day: leaf peeping, folkdancers, rescue dogs and mushrooms, all between 10 and 3.
• Saturday: model yachts at Kerbs, the North Woods walk, and eighteen weddings.
• Rain Thursday through Saturday, clearing Sunday.
• Bethesda is closed into December. No stage events anywhere until November 16.

Enjoy the quiet, Kin