Central Park, Nov 7–13: seven sunny days, Sunday's four-event morning, and the Conservancy's gala

        Hi there,

Seven consecutive sunny days with essentially no rain — 62°, 61°, 59°, 63°, 61°, 55°, 51°. After a wet stretch, the park has handed you the best week of the month. Sunday morning is where everything is, four events inside two hours, and Friday the Conservancy takes Rumsey Playfield for its annual gala.

Weather this week

Sunny every day, rain at or near zero throughout, cooling gently from 62° to 51° by Friday. Windy Saturday through Monday at 16–20 mph — worth a jacket on the open lawns, and a reason to favour the sheltered woodland walks over the exposed ones this weekend.

Sat Nov 7 — model yachts, the North Woods, and twenty-two weddings

62° and sunny, breezy.

  Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs Boathouse, 9 AM–3 PM. Radio-controlled sailboats on Conservatory Water — and with a 16 mph wind they will actually be moving.
  Woodland Walk: The North Woods, 10 AM from Dana Discovery Center. Sheltered, which matters on a windy day.
  Seneca Village Tour, 2 PM from Mariners’ Gate — the African-American community that lived here before the park did.
  Saving the Elephants Run, 9 AM–noon, staging at Bandshell Plaza. A charity run using the Upper Loop; pleasant to watch from the Bandshell, and a reason to walk the south end instead if you want quiet.
  Twenty-two private bookings — the busiest ceremony day since September. Beautiful to pass, impossible to have to yourself.
  East Meadow closed for maintenance.

Sun Nov 8 — four events in two hours

61° and sunny. The best-stocked morning of the week:

  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 peak.
  Animal Rescue Red Carpet at Literary Walk, 10 AM–noon. Adoptable dogs under the elms on the Mall.
  NYMS Mushroom Research Meeting, East 102nd Street Landscape, 10 AM–3 PM. The New York Mycological Society doing real fieldwork; onlookers welcome.
  International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza, 11 AM–3 PM. Open circle, no experience needed.
  Plus the Ramble walk at 10 AM and Iconic Views at 2 PM.
  Twelve soccer and frisbee bookings at North Meadow; East Meadow closed.

Mon Nov 9 – Thu Nov 12 — four empty days in a row

Nothing scheduled at all — and it is sunny every one of them, 59°, 63°, 61° on Veterans Day, 55°, with the wind finally dropping.

What is open anyway:

  New Dendrology at the Arsenal Gallery, weekdays 9 AM–5 PM, free. A show about trees.
  Bird Watching with Birding Bob — Strawberry Fields Monday 8:30 AM, Loeb Boathouse Thursday 8:30 AM.
  Walk the drives. Four empty days at 60° with the park to yourself does not come round often.

Fri Nov 13 — the Conservancy’s gala holds Rumsey Playfield

CPC Annual Fall-Winter Gala, 9 AM to midnight, taking Rumsey Playfield and Bandshell Plaza — the entire SummerStage footprint. This is the Central Park Conservancy’s own fundraiser, the organisation that actually maintains the park. Not a public event, but the Bandshell area is out from breakfast until midnight, and there will be production trucks all day.

51° with a slight chance of rain — the week’s first. Iconic Views at 2 PM; Birding Bob at the Conservatory Garden at 8:30 AM.

Steady all week

  The Great Lawn has its first permit in sixteen weeks — a picnic, tomorrow. I have been telling you for four months that the lawn had nothing booked and no closure permit to explain it. Someone has now booked it, which tells us it was never closed.
  Bethesda Terrace closed every day through December 6, a thirteenth extension — plus a second, differently-titled closure permit on the same spot from November 19. Two overlapping permits, one place, no stated reason.
  Field permits down to 53, 41 of them at North Meadow.
  Still nothing on a stage. The next music is the Carmel High School Jazz Band, November 16 at the Bandshell, then a Vocal Performance December 7.
  Coming up: St. Martin’s Parade at Summit Rock Nov 14, 3:15–5 PM; the 30th Annual Holiday Lighting at Dana Discovery Center, December 3 at 5:30 PM — Santa, carols and cocoa.

Quick recap

  Sunday 10 AM–3 PM is the week: leaf peeping, rescue dogs, mushrooms and folkdancers.
  Seven straight sunny days. Windy Sat–Mon, calm after.
  Saturday: model yachts at Kerbs, the North Woods walk, a charity run at the Bandshell, twenty-two weddings.
  Mon–Thu: nothing booked at all, and sunny every day.
  Friday: the Conservancy gala holds Rumsey and the Bandshell 9 AM to midnight.
  A permit on the Great Lawn at last, after sixteen weeks of nothing.

Enjoy the sun,
Kin