nyc: vines past and present

While I was in NYC, walking around Chelsea, I picked up a wonderful beet and orange salad at Whole Foods and walked down a tree-lined residential street. As I sat on the steps of a brownstone, soaking up the mild summer air and sunshine, I noticed that a vine almost completely encased the building in front of me. Even more poetic, in past seasons the vine had clambered over to the left, spreading it's tendrils two addresses away.

The intervening occupant had trimmed away the aggressive vine, but on the third building, an amputated skeleton cast a lacy shadow on the stucco, almost like exterior wallpaper...