R = Restoration

Bette Midler, a personal fave ever since Outrageous Fortune, is the Founder of the New York Restoration Project. In 1995 she set about organising and funding the first volunteer clean-ups in dirty derelict parks in the City with the hope of creating a greener, cleaner New York.

Today NYRP has 55 community gardens and four sponsored city parks under its belt. One especially appealing to me is Fort Tryon Park as it features the little gem New Leaf Cafe.

So, on a gorgeous New York Sunday we boarded the A train up to 190th Street, the park boarders Washinghton Heights and Inwood and is literally in front of you as you come out of the subway.

The park itself is gorgeous, full of azaleas, peonies, forget-me-nots, pansies and lots more that I can't remember the names of. Living in New York a garden of my own is a distant memory. The views are fantastic from the viewing platform at the top, you can see up and down the Hudson River on one side, twinkling in the sunlight, then all across the City on the other.

The New Leaf Cafe is nestled in the middle of the park, a gorgeous little old 1930s stone building with a fantastic terrace literally hiding in an area of trees and bushes out the back. The tables sit not too close together (a personal peeve) under white umbrellas with white matching tablecloths, perfectly simple in the natural setting. We went for brunch and if you're prepared to wait approx 1 hour for a table it's well worth it. You can always do what we did and wait at the bar sipping perfectly chilled pink bubbly while you wait, not so hard. The brunch is fantastic, Simon's duck rosti with poached egg and hickory smoked bacon was ridiculously good.

You feel like you're a milion miles away from New York City, as if you've taken a day trip upstate but smugly managed to escape the traffic somehow. In my opinion a perfect way to while away a Sunday in the sunshine.

Thank-you Bette, you are the wind beneath our wings.