The new New Leaf

White Ash Leaf drawing by Trudy Smoke

Amazing event at Ft. Tryon Park on Sunday night with food from the new New Leaf--a very special restaurant located near the Cloisters.  It has a place in my heart, not only because of the fabulous food and glorious location, but because my leaf drawings were exhibited there for three years.  Then at the end of 2014, the restaurant closed for renovation.  It opened in the late spring with a new owner, Turtle, but not my leaf drawings.  Tonight while filling my plate with delicious food, I met Turtle and he may want to exhibit my leaf drawings again in a month or so.  The drawings, just some of the 50 that are in the Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City, feel good there, almost at home. The leaf in this drawing is the White Ash,  Fruxinus americana, which by no coincidence was the leaf on the postcard at the New Leaf announcing the exhibit.  White ash leaves are compound, 5 to 9 leaflets on one leaf, with a whitish and slightly hairy backside— uh oh, maybe there’s better way to say that?