Nature abhors a vacuum, really

For about the last 10 years or so, we have had very wet springs and summers. So much so, that the idea of watering is a forgotten skill - sort of like using a manual typewriter. This year, it is dry, dry, dry. I really notice it when walking to the park. All the lawns are brown and yellow, with a merest hint of green. My own front yard looks pathetic. Then, you get to the park, and it's all green, lush, verdant, all those good words. Soothing to look at and pleasant to be in. The phragmites are 12 feet high or more - all that nice lake water and sun. the trees are all pretty old, with huge roots that feed them well. The top of Lookout Hill, which was pretty bare in winter, is a small forest. No longer can you mark it the center of the world - you can't even get in there.

And there are more geese! We saw Ed and Anne, who count them scrupulously. There are now 28 of them. Four escaped the extermination, and the rest have flown in to the beautiful, empty lake that they saw from above. I wonder how fast the population will grow. The Dept. of Agriculture claims that they have done all the killing for the year. What a peculiar statement to make! Also, I think they are doing some thinking - after all the publicity about the secret extermination, the fact that they killed resident geese, not migratory ones, and the possibility of other methods of geese control.

A bit cooler today - people and dogs were back at the center of the Nethermead, not just in the shady edges.