exploring my world, one park at a time
It’s not really quite winter, of course.
It’s not even all that cold.
But the sun is edging toward the horizon
In what feels like it ought to be mid-afternoon.
The trees are stark and skeletal along the river and over-flow ponds
A well packed new trail now winds through the woods,
Where the paved one, once again, tumbled off into the river in the rush of the early spring floods.
Suddenly summer, muggy and hot after days, maybe weeks? of feeling like I lived in Seattle. My son, who did in fact live there for several years, asked if this drizzly cool spring was normal, searching the fog of his childhood memories.
Normal?
No, it doesn’t seem that it is; but what meaning does that word even have right now? In a timeless drift of vaguely identified days, the world tumbles on in its own oblivious path.
Could I really even fairly say? How much attention did I pay when early spring weeks were filled with classes and schedules and corralling teenagers counting down to summer vacation?
The trees grow thick and lush. Flowers bloom and robins splash in cool streams. The tiny bunny creeps out of his nest to explore the path.
Those teenagers now struggle to finish their last assignments from bedrooms and living rooms and kitchen tables while I coach and coax and try to instruct while suspecting I’m little more than an annoying notification ding.
I putter in endless loops around my neighborhood park, surprised every day by the joyous explosion of life.
Sunshine burst between threatening rains
Afternoon escape to bird song, flowers, and the splash of the river
Clouds brushed away the sunshine last night. The rains and the winds rushed through scattering lawn waste bins and limbs and blossoms.
The morning is thick and early spring cool
A day after trying to be June
The old nursery rhyme tumbles through my mind with memories of the toddlers I sang it to
Early morning art show with tree top symphony and acrobatic show
Somehow, it works. Full of jittery frustration, longing to go somewhere to get outside …
Somewhere except back to Gentry …
And yet,
It works,
Just steps onto the familiar tree lined path,
Calm descends
Lawn mowers drone and birds swoop and call,
Children, banned from the playgrounds, run and giggle in the sunshine,
While the shadows sway in the heavy breeze
Infinite joy of new discoveries in a place I’ve been so many times before
A warm and beautiful mid morning walk. I stopped at the corner, walking away from my house. Turn right for the park or left for the road? If I went to the road, then what? Where else could I go but the long route to the park?
It sounds worse than it is. Decision made, I head toward the park, immediately cheered by the green and pink and purple of the trees lining the street and the flowers growing in bed near the houses.
Sunshine cools in the shadows of the trees
Streams splash gently over stones and children’s voices call from the nearby houses
It’s mildly busy with others
Strolling and smiling and moving aside
We all work to stay safe,
to protect each other,
to rest in the peace of the ever changing trails
Sunshine break;
A little too cool for conferences on the deck
But a beautiful morning for a quick turn around the nature trail
Cool breezes, brilliant colors, a breath of peace in the midst of the day.
Summery
Sunny
Bordering hot
Swampy spillways,
border the highway
The endless drone of frogs
Nearly overpowering the highway roar
Quietly patient
She poses at the edge of the trail
Then floats in an instant off into the air
This is so awesome!
It’s been possible for a few years now to cross the river on this trail.
It was also mildly terrrifying
Not that it ever stopped me, but it was just a rough shoulder completely open to the highway.
As it turns out,
Stopping to write on the bridge is still mildly terrifying
But I love the river breeze and thunder of the traffic from behind the thick new barriers
Well, no … not so much
I’m always trying to capture birds,
Occasionally with results that delight me,
Mostly with blurry swaths of green or brown where a bird rested seconds before I focused my camera
So, my daughter bought me a “squirrel proof” bird feeder to try to lure them onto the deck
Squirrel proof lasted the amount of time it took them to figure out:
they could jump from the top of my porch swing
to the railing the feeder hung on
to hang upside down on the edge of the feeder and get to the nuggets
Twenty minutes tops in other words
They’re lucky they’re so cute
It actually did work. A cardinal pair discovered the feeder shortly after we moved it to discourage the squirrels.
The squirrels were not discouraged.
The cardinals flitter around, dashing in for a quick nip when the squirrels wander off.
The squirrels climb and snatch and scurry off with all they can manage to carry.
So I order more bird seed and wander my park and make the little twerps my theme for the day.
To be fair, I’d probably be mostly inside on a day like this anyway.
It’s cold and drizzly and overcast,
I might at least have the option of being inside a movie theater though,
Or wandering through the science museum
It’s a window rambling day instead,
Finding colors, and angles, and interesting shapes,
Carting my stack of devices in one hand and my camera in the other
Papers to score,
Lessons to write,
And I really need to clean those windows!
Rambling ... 