A walk through a spring garden in New York during cherry blossom season at just the right time can be an exquisite experience, but sometimes personal schedules and the weather can throw off a well-timed visit. If you're slightly late, you're still lucky, because walking on the earth covered by millions of pink petals is the special and more surreal experience.

While some people are sadly out of work and many more subsist on freelance wages, with the latter now said to make up 26% of the U.S. workforce, New York is still a workaholic city full of people with incredible drive. One subset of the city, however, gets a little break this week - namely, many members of the university community.

People often lose umbrellas, but I've held onto a special one for many years - a large parapluie (literally, for the rain, in French) with a wooden base and curved handle that upon opening reveals the painting Paris Street, Rainy Day by painter Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894).

This week appears to be one of those weeks that highlight change and transition, a tentative time between before and after. Nothing seems settled. Students at local universities and colleges are studying for finals, with commencement and graduation ceremonies coming up soon. For those of you not in college, WOTBA gives you permission to take the week off. That's right. Go to a play. Read a book.

During the middle decades of the previous century, it was not an unusual practice for some travelers to take slides of their journey and then once back home bore their friends and neighborhoods by inviting them over to see a slide show of their adventures.

Enjoy the blooming season, this special time to visit the parks. Head to the northern parts of Central Park to wander in the woods, or get lost in the Ramble. This calendar takes us into May. Fancy that! I have a secret to share - the summer in New York is my favorite season, and the recent warm weather makes me long for even hotter weather.

• Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation

The first question someone asked me yesterday during the course of covering the first full day of this year's Tribeca Film Festival was where to get good Italian food near Union Square. Thousands of film writers, producers, and directors have converged in lower Manhattan for the festival, now through May 3, and between premieres, they're looking for a good but quick place to eat.

Manhattan features many famous buildings, many of which can be readily identified by individuals who have never set foot in New York, such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall, the Guggenheim Museum and Rockefeller Center, for example. The list goes on. So many notable, but less iconic buildings, however, bear a closer look.

Recommended Places to Go Online in Central Park: The following hot spots, courtesy of the Park Wifi, are excellent choices for working online while enjoying Nature, as noted in earlier posts:

1. under the wisteria next to the Rumsey Playfield, near the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain.
2. the Delacorte Theater, near the Shakespeare Garden and Belvedere Castle.