It already seems years away, those hours spent sweeping up the golden leaves of the European white birch, which has always been the focal point of our garden in Washington Heights. Each leaf, of course, represents a day in our past, and for this reason might seem more valuable if there weren’t so many. And since you asked, we can also confirm that the garden was inspired by the courtyards of Venice, where we walked among the flowering wisteria and observed the crumbling facades of faded empires.