Winter Garden

At the foot of The World Trade Center buildings, The World Financial Center area was in the neighborhood of my apartment. So I often visited there for a walk. Especially a glass covered atrium "Winter Garden" was my favorite place. The atrium was fully air conditioned. So it's totally kept away from rain, snow, death heat in Summer or damn cold wind in Winter. However as the name described, I loved the atrium of winter.

Palm trees were lined in the hall. Benches and Tables were placed here and there. There were offices, restaurants and small shopping mall around the hall. In the sky light from the roof, office workers had lunch or read book. Meanwhile on the weekend, families came up. People took a time for reading the article on the thick Sunday paper drinking coffee. The atrium was also popular for Asian just-married couple as the location of bridal photo session. Winter Garden also had a variety of entertainment like a concert, a play or an exhibition. Elaborate events sponsored by big company were held almost every week. Because it's in the business center.

On the day, I was reading the news paper on the bench. A woman looked like in her short break came up and sat down on the next bench. In the soft ambient light of winter, she took a greeting card from the pink colored envelope. She had been putting something on the card for a while. She checked the message once again and smiled. Then she put it back to the envelope. The most loving thing to me, it must be watching the people who spent their own time in the Winter Garden rather than the garden itself.

I went outside through the revolving door. At the yacht harbor of South Cove, removed snow was highly piled up, and wind from the Hudson river was freezingly cold. It's still long way from Spring in New York.