Mystery of the Blue Dots

We noticed that a bunch of trees, especially near the Well House, have blue dots painted on them. At first, we were unconcerned, assuming they marked trees that had been counted, perhaps, or checked, or identified, something like that. But now, with the "taking care" of the trees (aka killing) we are quite concerned. Are these beautiful, majestic, remarkable trees about to come down, to look the tree trunk of last week's beautiful old tree? I certainly hope not. Inquiring minds want to know, and to stop any such arboricide. ...So many unsettling thoughts on what was a lovely fall day with a very light drizzle and a small flock of migratory geese coming in for a coffee break or some such thing.

Also spotted a bunch of tree branches and limbs near the Nethermead that have been "taken care of," and are ready to be ground to bits. We actually liked it, since we pulled out sticks for JJ to chase. Have I mentioned that JJ is great at chasing sticks, but will not let us have them again. We need a steady supply to keep her happy.

Another mystery: the duckweed is almost gone by the boathouse, so I actually did some research on why. I never thought there was poison, but still wondered why the pond is now clear and beautiful, except in a few corners. Cool weather? The weed-whacker boat? REALLY hungry ducks? None of the above. Duckweed has a life cycle. When it ages (or becomes senescent as my research calls it, it produced fronds and then dies. It is actually a good idea to skim it off at this point, or the fronds eventually sink, decay, and use up too much oxygen in the process. We don't know it it sank or was skimmed, but it is really gone. Until next year. There's still a lot of it along the Lullwater, but even there it's getting thinner and streakier.


The Times today had an article on eyebrow toupees that seem to be making their mark on the political scene, No wonder I prefer Prospect Park world. Even when I disagree with some thought or action,m there is some kind of at least semi-logical reason behind it. Unlike eyebrow toupees.

I am off to visit Occupy Wall St. this afternoon. They will be cleaning Liberty/Zuccotti park, and I want to see if that "cleaning' is anything like "taking care of" the trees. Hope not.