Diving dog and swooping swan

Approaching Peninsula meadow with JJ to the sounds of regular splashing. It was diving dog~! I caught one on video - about the tenth dive. Numerous more followed. The dog's name is Maya and she is absolutely insatiable about jumping into the water to fetch her ball. She is an impressive swimmer. JJ will go into the water at any time, but she hates swimming. She'll go in as long as her feet can touch the bottom. Well, that's not exactly true. But she's not a great swimmer and will grab on to you as soon as she reaches you. N.B. This is something we do in the Adirondacks, NOT in Prospect Park. My daughter took her to a friend's lake house in Vermont, and got her a doggie life preserver so she'll float in the water without clawing people. It really worked!! Anyway, she showed no interest in following Maya's example.

Then, Ber took some nice pictures of a swan keeping his territory clear. A couple of days ago these two swans were swimming in parallel formation, quite close to each other. I wonder if they've had a following out or if one of the swans violated the other's personal space by a fraction of an inch. These birds are very sensitive.

The playground on the SW side of the park is almost finished. This is amazing because for about 2 years the whole area has been a big, fenced-in, torn-up, dug-up mess with nothing happening. Suddenly, tada!!, it's starting to look like a playground again! I suspect they were doing a lot of underground work, putting in a sprinkler system so the kids can keep wet and cool in the summer. Could it actually ready by summer? Or it is all a big tease? Stay tuned.

A bumper sticker I saw on the way to the park: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." My first reaction: how cool! Imagination is indeed a beautiful thing. Then I kept thinking. No, it's not more important than knowledge. They're equally important. Imagination without knowledge leads to:

Obama is the anti-christ.
I don't believe in evolution or global warming, in spite of what thousands of very knowledgeable people say.
Black helicopters are out to get me.
I understand Russia because I can see it from my doorway.
And most of the other nonsensical garbage currently being spewed by the ultra-right.

So no. Imagination is great, but so is knowledge, and let's not forget it.