Second hand notes

Miserable, rainy, windy - I slept till 10 and never went to the park. Ber and JJ are indomitable, however, and did go. Well, Ber is indomitable. He tells me that JJ objected until they got to the park, when she decided it was fun after all. This is Saturday, after all - the day of the big Farmers Market at Grand Army Plaza, the day we like to get special treats, like the organic, homegrown bacon from the Flying Pigs Farm people, and the herbed goat cheeses. Ber also brought home what was probably the world's most expensive liverwurst - absolutely delicious, but destined to be a rare treat. Long Meadow was filled with puddles, and the dogs were having a grand time jumping in them. This picture, by the way, is from a sunnier day - looking up the steps up Lookout Hill.

Big news: a stand of phragmites have been burned. Phragmites are very tall grasses that grow in clumps at various points at the edge of the lake. They grow thick, almost like small forests, and are quite beautiful, but invasive (meaning not native - invasive does not refer to their intentions) and give a lot of privacy once you're in the middle. The park mavens are abuzz with speculation - pyromaniac? plot to destroy the park? what? This particular stand had a path going into it - I went in about a month ago to check it out, and came out with two large bags of trash. This was before I decided to become a Bag-Of-Trash-a-day lady, but luckily, since we have a dog, we always have pocketfuls of plastic bags. Anyway, there were many beer cans, a few condoms (I wore gloves), empty DVD boxes that used to contain porn (cover pictures - very graphic), and some fabric stuff that suggested someone might have slept there at one time. My suspicion is someone was trying to keep warm, careless crack user, "concerned" citizen trying to get rid of the riff-raff, or local juvenile delinquents having a wild and crazy night. Any serious pyromaniac could have done a lot more damage. It looks disgusting, but I'm not seriously worried at this point. The very same stand burnt 4-5 years ago, and grew back by the middle of summer.

Crack bag count: only 2 + 1 used condom