New York City, March 2, 2016

★★★ An elephant herd of purple cumulus marched away to the northwest. On the last rise toward the pre-K school, the wind picked up something lightweight but not tiny — something dry dropped by a tree, maybe — and blew it straight to the back of the throat, to be dislodged only by violent gagging and coughing. The sky was a clear but not remote blue; a dazzling faint blue haze dissolved down from it into the landscape. A little space of warmth floated just above the bottom of the Columbus Circle exit stairs, where the reflected sun reached but the wind did not. A celebrity strolled past the luxury hotel entrance, coatless and at ease in a blue sport coat, sunglasses, and suede shoes. People snapped surreptitious photos of his broad back. A woman with her hair in a dancer’s bun hurried past, her athletic pants rattling and snapping in the breeze. The sunset sky was almost clear, save for purple and pink streaks running just along the top of the drab apartment slab in the west.