Back to the Park

The bruised leg has taken a quantum leap in healing, and it was great to get back to the park today.
the big bruise is almost gone - probably should have taken a picture for posterity, but I'm not about to recreate it. Hamstring still a little achy, but I can almost touch my toes now, and I tied my own shoes for the first time in 2 weeks! (Lucky for Ber that I have so many clogs and slip-ons).

Poor JJ didn't want to go at all, after the last 2 days of pouring rain. Funny how she jumps in the lake at every opportunity but doesn't like being rained on. Anyway, she went and hid under the table, and Ber and I spent some time coaxing her out with promises of dry weather. And it was!! Sky gray, but dry, and we even got a bit of blue sky and sunshine for a while.

I really missed going. I do believe the swans were actually happy to see me, even without popcorn, and I was certainly happy to see them. Cayuga and entourage are now venturing onto dry land - probably because there have been very few people for the last couple of days. Most of the trees are still bare, but a few are already in flower, and really looking fresh and cheerful. See photos of magnolias and forsythia. Ed and Ann were there, as they are almost daily to monitor park conditions, and caught us up. The injured swan as seen in the Channel 11 newscast, alas, died. He was only a cygnet and should have had a long and full swan life. He was taken to a Wildlife Rehab Center way out in Nassau County, and Ed hasn't been able to get much more info than that. The Parks Dept. is testing the lake water, but first they lowered the level, then refilled it. So if it's ok now, they'll never know how bad it was, and why there were all the dead animals (2 opossums, 1 bird, 1 crawfish, 2 ducks, several turtles, several fish) plus all the chicken heads. I suspect the Parks Dept. is into that "Don't panic the public" syndrome, as seen so successfully in the movies. You know, "the earth is just taking a rest, not standing still," and "Pay no attention to the man-eating blob swallowing your grandmother, everything is under control." I wonder if this is the Ronald Reagan influence - you remember how he cited movie plots as if the were real events?

It's great to be mobile again.