Weekend review

Another beautiful day. Loads of bugs (Thank you, wet spring), but they seem to be keeping to themselves. Well, I say that, but they seem to go after my daughter a lot. Diet? Genes? Who knows? I certainly eat my share of sweets, and more, but I also eat a lot of whole grains, which supposedly contain all those great B vitamins that make you less attractive to insects. Nice to know I'm doing something right with my menu.

All of the geese seem to be at the Western end of the lake. Didn't notice gosling, but I didn't look too closely either. Busy picking up trash from the weekend, as was everyone else. Two day weekends are not QUITE as bad as 3 day weekends, but the day after is still pretty bad. There was a nice looking family group at BBQ Plaza yesterday, which might explain why the trash was prettily neatly packed. THANK YOU!!

Turtles out already - at 7:30! Lets you know what a nice day it is.

Dear Anonymous: You asked if the gosling + family could have walked from Doggie Beach area to the Lake. Probably not, but they could have swum. The waterways in the park are so wonderful, that most people forget that it is a totally fake system, and one system only, starting from the general area near Doggie Beach. The geese could have easily swum, walking around the various waterfalls. For a more detailed explanation, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Park_%28Brooklyn%29 This is part of Wikipedia, which I normally HATE, HATE, HATE, because of its frequent subjectivity and slants, but this article seems pretty clear and objective.

Art in the Park

First, the good news:

Our tornado warning time is now over, and I can go back to thinking what a great day it was in the park this morning. There's some beautiful new art there - three huge sculptures near the Audubon Boathouse. They look like giant rocks and tree trunks, but are aluminum, silvery, lovely. And there is more good news: 5 new baby swans (cygnets). All looking healthy and happy. And with no "Fishing Day" this year, they have a good chance of staying that way.

The bad news: On Friday and Saturday, the first days of Memorial Day Weekend, all the trash cans were already full. Didn't look good. Apparently, they came on Sunday (I didn't), but Tuesday morning it was a disaster. People left entire picnic sites in the park - blankets, grills, toys, shoes, basketballs, soccer balls, and bags and bags of food and trash. And this was in all areas of the park, not just the official BBQ areas. All the dog owners were carefully monitoring their pooches, keeping them away from the piles of chicken bones left all over. Truly disgusting!!

An article in one of the little Brooklyn papers had people claiming that they had no idea that you couldn't just BBQ anywhere. What crap!! So there were fires in the trees, 3 crates of corn cobs picked up from the "No BBQ" Peninsula site, trays of charcoal thrown into the lake at several places. It's like they want to picnic in a dump site. I'm lucky enough to have my own back yard for BBQing, but you would think that people would take better care of the park if they want to keep it available for BBQing. There are a lot of people working hard to keep the park clean and lovely. What can we do about these trash people?

Picnicers, yes. Trash, no. Please

I started this because we were seeing new and interesting things in the park every day. That doesn't seem to be true these days. We see lots of people enjoying the park, bagging tons of trash and putting it by the cans, and none of it gets picked up. there's no parks dept. presence to stop the few that do the nasty things - let their trash fly away, dump coal into the lake, etc. And the clean-up crews only empty the trash cans, completely ignoring days of overflowing.

Here's what should be done:

1. Pick up trash every day on the 3 day holiday weekends. Sure it may cost a little, the it's a lot cheaper than the bad publicity and outrage. People don't want to come to a park where trash is flying everywhere, where your kids can't walk around safely, where it looks like a dump. Unless that's the net ad campaign: HAVE YOUR NEXT PARTY AT THE DUMP!! Actually, that's what they did at the end of an ancient, wonderful film called My Man Godfrey." William Powell and Carol Lombard comedy set in the depression. At least there, they had cleaned up the actual dump and replaced it with a nightclub called "The Dump"

2. Have a few of those roaming golf carts with official park rangers in the park on summer weekends. They could even talk positively to groups about how important it is to stash those coals and fishing lines in the right places. Maybe even create a little good will?

3. Arrange to have the port-a-johns cleaned more frequently on the weekends. People actually use them, you know. No one wants to picnic near a latrine, so the less it smells like one, the better.

Bare basics, but I think it's very doable.

We meet a parrot

According to a Writing teacher on NPR some months ago, you are never supposed to start writing by describing weather, as in the often-made-fun-of "It was a dark and stormy night." But the weather is so much a part of the park experience, it's impossible not to acknowledge it. Overcast, warm, humid this morning. It felt like an imminent storm. But the gray cleared to blue, and the storm hasn't happened...yet - it's mid-afternoon now and I think I just heard the faint sound of distant thunder. We skipped the park yesterday - those doctor's appointments! - but it must have been great. All the trash cans are overflowing with picnic detritus. What a shame they can't empty them between Saturday and Sunday. The raccoons will have a field day tonight, and Monday should be a giant mess.

Nesting swan was setting peacefully, with Papa patrolling nearby, looking suspiciously at a fisherman, but not hissing. The lake level is down a bit more, so I could climb up a downed tree to get a better view.

The stairs up to Lookout hill revealed 11 crack bags, including the cute little unicorn style, and several dozen cans and bottles. Many were the little half-size water bottles that the joggers drink. They weigh maybe 1/4 of an ounce. Would it be so much trouble to carry them to a trashcan??????????? Come on joggers and runners. You are not high on rum, vodka, beer or crack and have no excuse not to clean up after yourselves. Do I sound like your mother? Do you listen to your mother? ...There was also a guitar on top of Lookout Hill. We left it there - it's still there if anyone would like it. Just waiting for a friendly musician.

Yes, I do find it odd to call a crack bag cute, but there it is.

There was a man walking his 16 year old Amazonian parrot and his old service dog. All 3 were very friendly. The parrot will live to be 90! He's named either Buttons or The Anti-Christ, depending on who is talking to him. He's on a leash, although he will fly and come back when he is not on the leash. Some kids got him and pulled his feathers out one time, so the owner is quite protective, with good reason. He will eat little parakeets when he can, but not little boys.

All in all, just a beautiful day in the park.

Swan vs. dog vs. swan

Another beautiful day. We met up with a friend and dog, but, alas, they got there at 9:02 and couldn't let Summer (the dog) loose. We had been running JJ back and forth across the Peninsula Meadow for 1/2 hour, so she was exhausted, mellow, even tempered, all that good stuff. Summer was still high energy and wanted to after the swans. Lots of luck. I know for a fact that swans are not the serene, dignified creatures that they seem - at least not all the time. Swans have broken people's legs with their beaks when attacked. Anyway, they had a great barking/hissing contest. Another park visitor got upset, so we called a truce. But I think they both held their own beautifully. There's a picture of the swans sleeping in the sun, enjoying the day, when we first arrived at about 8:00. Enjoy the video! It's the first one I've put up, and I hope to improve my skills. Still trying to get the swans flying in for a pontoon landing.

Trash update

There are numerous pictures of piles of unsightly trash that we saw today. We learned it is the racoons who tip over the trash cans and break into bags that are waiting to be picked up. Several people in the park doing pick up - we'll register to volunteer and do the same, rather than just pick up a small bag every day. You get to use one of those cool trash grabbers! I want one of my own.

The can/candle thing was gone today, replaced by a clean pack of Bambu rolling papers, which I did clean up.

The guy on his back? He'd do an abdominal crunch and toss the ball at the same time, then keep on crunching until the dog brought the ball back. Repeat. They had quite a coordinated rhythm going.