It was the Swedish Mid-Summer celebration in Battery Park last night. We opted for a quiet picnic in our favorite spot, with a view of the awe-inspiring sky above New Jersey and a lovely sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) tree. It's one of my favorite trees, not only for its lemon-scented creamy-white flowers that bloom from June to September, but also for the fact that the trees seem to glimmer in the wind from the silvery underside of the leaves.
