gray days...

Living in New York the past few years I spent many days in parks, lying on my back looking up at the branches of trees against the sky. With so little green space, it was a way to block out all the cars, and the noise, and the impending need to get back on the subway and go home or back to work.

Being here, parks are almost beside the point, as the green space that is hedged in around buildings pales in comparison to the greens and blues of ocean and jungle that hedge in everything else.

The other day I got off work a little early, and decided to walk over to the park in downtown Hagatna.

Downtown Hagatna is kind of a funny place. I work down there, but rarely spend much time outside of my car.

Just on the other side of the Cathedral Basilica is the Plaza d'Espana -- I think that's what it's called -- a large, open field, spotted with a few wide-branching trees, and remnants of colonial and military buildings from various eras of administration by Spanish, Japanese and American governments.

Because everyone drives everywhere here, and there's no real "downtown" to speak of -- just a series of office buildings surrounded by parking lots -- the park is mostly empty most of the time, except for a predictably timed busload of Japanese tourists unloading during lunch break on their whirlwind island tour, and several homeless people who live in the half-shelter of the open structures.

The park has several old(ish) stone and wooden buildings. Most everything from the Spanish era has been completely destroyed, but there are remnants of remnants. There's an old gazebo, called the "chocolate room" or something like that, because it was used to serve Spanish aristocrats hot chocolate. That building is gone, but the Americans built something similar in the same place, and used it for official functions (again, I think -- I read the plaques all rather quickly).

What's there now may not have survived any of the massive World War II bombing either, but instead may have been built after the fact as a replica.There are few rotting structures and stone archways that might date earlier, but it's hard to tell exactly. They reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, despite the fact that it's the wrong colonial government.

Most of the decomposing buildings mark only places, where something older once stood, but which were summarily destroyed by war or typhoon or both.



There are some very lovely spots though -- and in a place where so much has been lost by wind and tide and the march of progress handed out from (often) military overlords -- the little bit of history still left seemed important.

I wandered around for a little while, took pictures, and waited, as I often do in parks.

I sat under the large branches of a tree, looking up a the sky, which was pleasantly gray that day. Lately the weather here has been cooler and drier, and the humidity has been perceptibly less.

And for a second, feeling with the cool wind and looking only at brown branches, bereft of their green leaves for only a few days before they will sprout again, it felt almost like fall.