Monday June 30, 2003 Unter den Linden... Well its finally hit, about two weeks late this year, but its finally arrived, the best time of the entire year to be outside in the Upper West Side of New York, when the Linden trees are in full bloom. The air is so laden with perfume in some areas it makes me swoon. The Linden are blooming all along Riverside Drive from West 72nd street to the George Washington Brige, Morning Side Drive, Central Park West, and all the adjacent streets. You can smell them along Broadway, and even on Amsterdam Avenue if the wind is right. Tonight the Linden odor was so strong I could smell iti n the Post Office at 103rd Street as i waited in line to get a Certificate of Mailing for my rent. At night I lay in my bedroom on 110th Street with the windows open, breathing the perfume laden air as it rises from the Linden trees by the Rite Aid at 110th and Broadway. A woman going down into the Number One Downtown subway today remarked to me, " What a nice smell, I smell it everywhere today, it must be some new kind of cleaner they are using on the subways" When I told her it was the trees she responded "What, in New York City?" During these weeks of Linden fever I escape whenever possible on the bicycle down the length of Riverside Drive and into the park at 95th street just breathing deeply. There's an area in Riverside Park near 79th Street just before the tunnel to the Boat Basin where there are two giant especially odiferous Linden Trees that overhang the path. The Linden season lasts about two weeks in total- usually starting around June 15 and over before June 30. It was so cold and wet this year that I thought we would miss it, because the trees had bloomed in the rain and the smell had all washed away. But this weekend it started full force. A few of the smaller trees started in Morningside park last week and are almost over, but the big trees are in full swing along Riverside.