New York City, April 22, 2013

★★★ The red Japanese maple leaves were out. A beverage-machine service van threw reflected light ahead of it in the street. Downtown, crews were installing Citi Bike racks. The uptown clouds were making shapes; the downtown clouds were making gray. That division held into the afternoon, with Lower Manhattan sitting in gloom. Two pigeons curved toward each other, clockwise and counterclockwise, then converged and flew off together. But by the day’s end, it was blue in all directions. A window-washer screwed a squeegee head onto a long pole, at one end of a stretch of tall shop windows, where the late light caught the film of dust or pollen on them.