We're Back!!

We had a wonderful extended 4th of July weekend in New Hampshire. My kids (who are grown) have been going for years - friends of theirs have a family place on a lake. Their Grandfather bought it about 60 years ago, and it's been in the family. Two branches - 1 gets July, 1 gets August. Every 4th of July, all the kids go up. We've always been invited, and decided to go this year - a perfect respite when the temperature is over 100! It was quite wonderful. 28 overnight guests! Tent city! They have two houses plus two little cabins, plus a nice lawn for tents. Opportunity to compare their lake with Prospect Park Lake! Would make a nice Venn diagram.

1. Theirs is bigger, but not a whole lot. 1/2 mile by 1 mile, more or less.

2. Both have plants growing and taking over the lake. Their's are native, and slower growing than our invasive phragmites. We took a shift pulling them out of their lake - roots were quite firmly in place, but we had a grand time getting cool and covered with mud pulling them out.

3. Clean swimmable, cold water vs. warm, shallow, not-so-clean water in prospect Park Lake.

4. Both have ducks. Only PP has swans and geese and occasional seagulls.

5. Both have fish, but you can catch and eat the New Hampshire fish. Both have very loud bullfrogs. Don't know about New Hampshire turtles.

6. PP Lake has pedal boats. NH has canoes, kayaks, and a few motorboats and party boats. Also a raft with chairs that putt-putts around the lake. Looks weird - like chairs walking on water.

7. Prospect Park has fireworks on land, NH has them around the lake - different lake-house owners put on their own display for the rest of the lake. One guy had a huge display, trying to outdo everyone. Our group had a few largish rockets, but mostly small ones - sparklers and such. They are legal in "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire, though you have to pay and get a permit for a campfire on your property.

8. NH - hardly any trash. No point in mentioning the PP trash situation. It gets pretty bad in summer. However, there are now a few large dumpsters in the park (see photo). Definitely better than the too-few trash cans, p0lus they are probably safe from raccoons.

Today was FIDO's Coffee Bark - usually it's the 1st Saturday of the month, but they moved it one week after, cause of the 4th. Norana and Austin and their new adorable Australian Terrier Chewie joined us. A fine time was had by all. It really feels like a peaceable kingdom - dogs and owners sharing food and liquids, with no barking, fighting, or any of that.

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.