I took a walk into the quaint Brooklyn neighborhood of Vinegar Hill on July 5, 2021. On my walk, I went down the main streat in Vinegar Hill – the scenic Hudson Avenue. I always enjoy the prestine Cobble Stones and pretty houses on Hudson Avenue – both of which I covered with a photograph in an earlier New Leaf Journal post. The morning of July 5 was no exception. However, I found something rather unexpected toward the end of Hudson Avenue: Public art (not too far from public fish art that I saw in DUMBO 13 years earlier).

First, I photographed a bird cage with what (I think) is a stuffed bird in it.

Photograph of a bird cage among the leaves with a stuffed bird in it on Hudson Avenue in Brooklyn's Vinegar Hill..
I took this photo with the Open Camera App on my Motorola Moto e6 camera. It was edited for publication by Victor V. Gurbo.

There is quite a bit going on here. What is with the bird cage? Is the dog in the background from that “Paw Patrol” show I seen mentioned? But no sooner did I begin asking questions did I find something that raised new questions.

Photograph of a rubber duck with a Statue of Liberty hat in a bowl of sand on Hudson Avenue in Brooklyn's Vinegar Hill.
I took this photo with the Open Camera App on my Motorola Moto e6 camera. It was edited for publication by Victor V. Gurbo.

What is happening here? We have a rubber duck with a Statue of Liberty hat – the kind of thing you may find in some cheap tourist shop in Manhattan. It is on sand in what appears to be some sort of serving bowl. My first thought was that the sand is supposed to represent a pond or something to that effect. But there are pebbles and sea shells in the sand. Am I supposed to take the sand literally? Is the State of Liberty rubber duck hanging out on the beach

I continued down Hudson Avenue with many questions to which I had no answers.