It's My Park!

We had a really great day in the Park yesterday. It was "It's My Park Day," and we were two of the many people who volunteered to clean up the park from 9:30 to 2. Our group collected 54 bags of trash from our part of the lake front (from the Wollman parking lot to the southeast end. We met and were in the same group as Greg Mocker, the Channel 11 guy who's been the squeaky wheel that's gotten more action from the park. He and Karen, our Parks Dept group leader, both wore waders and were impressive walking around in the water. The rest of us had bags, gloves, trash-pickers, lake scoopers, and rakes. A car radiator, a trash can lid, a complete pair of shoes, what looked to be a family size bucket of chicken and biscuits, and bags and bags of blankets and clothes were some of the highlights. The weather was perfect, and the smells were horrendous as they stirred up the muck amongst the phragmites. I could use a camera with smell-o-vision. Ber and I are contemplating getting waders so we can go in the water next year.

I got a souvenir. What looked like an open can buried in the ground was hard to pull out, so I used a toothbrush (found in the phragmites, along with a razor and underwear) to dig it out. It turned out to be a large piece of hand made pottery! You can see the coil marks on the inside.The top was broken but otherwise intact! I wonder how many years it had been buried there.

We also spotted 2 groups of goslings. Nine in one group and 6 on the other. I am no longer worrying about their numbers. They are plentiful and doing fine. They are so funny looking, staying close together and trying to keep up with the adult geese.

Since we were so filthy and smelly after hard work and mud, we stayed in the park and went to our friend Vanessa's BBQ in the Nethermead, where Rigel, Norana and Austin, and JJ were, had set up a spot. Greg Mocker joined us and no one seemed to mind our post-cleanup condition. They had Purell, with which er were generous before touching food. Vanessa is in from California, where she now lives, and served (among other things) "California Dogs." Bacon wrapped around a tofu dog, with guacamole. She said she went to a Dodgers game and asked for sauerkraut on her dog, and they acted like they'd never heard of sauerkraut. My how the dodgers have changed since they left Brooklyn.

We also noticed that all the trees in the BBQ areas have ribbons wrapped around them with the phrase "charcoal kills trees." Hope this helps. I suspect people think charcoal is natural, and therefore good for trees. Not so! And the brand new BBQ Plaza is already being used.

No posts for a week - we are leaving for a week in a cabin near the Finger Lakes. Enjoy your park now that's it's spanking clean.