Contrary to what you might think, Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn is a lovely place to spend a fall afternoon. We decided to go there this weekend to see if we could find any hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. These mushrooms grow under oak trees in the fall, and I thought there would be many old oaks there. I was right, but the place offered so much more.
We saw the fabled monk parrots when we first arrived. Their story is that escaped from a container at Kennedy airport and have taken up residence at Greenwood. You can see photos of them here.
We actually saw very few mushrooms considering the vast quantities of rain we’ve had. There were a few hen-of-the-woods, but they were old and woody and uprooted. I think the groundskeepers are too efficient to let big mushrooms grow there. But the day was beautiful and it was like walking in a lovely park.
“Seeking hens, we found parrots.”
There’s a poem in there, somewhere.