A Day at the Park

With the closing on the house scheduled for this coming Friday morning, the 18th, we took advantage of the beautiful weather Saturday to enjoy one last day out before moving and settling in to house dominates our lives for a few weeks.

We spent most of our day downtown, leaving the apartment around noon to fill our bellies with pizza before heading to the park for the afternoon. We wandered the pathways near the falls and along the river below, watching the ducks and skipping stones. There is a plethora of old weathered brick that litters the banks of the river from old buildings who no longer stand and I collected a few small pieces to grind down to dust.

We spotted a goblin hidey-hole nestled in a weathered tree's roots and obscured by brambles just off the river's edge.

I reveled a bit in the greenery that's exploded amid all this wonderfully warm weather, admiring the first violets I've laid eyes on this season. While oh so tiny, violets are some of my favorite flowers.

As we were leaving the park a few hours later, we came across a juggler whose banter and talents were tremendously entertaining.

It was a welcome and much needed break from packing, stressing and waiting around to hear back about day jobs; the perfect end to and start of a week.

P.S. I'm intending to start a botanical grimoire of sorts, filled with sketches, musings on and clippings from all manner of plants. My ability to identify flora of all manner has gone to pot through lack of practice as well as coming across things I didn't encounter when I lived up North. Here's where I need your help. I've started a set on my Flickr page to house all the mystery plants I find but can't seem to remember/know the names for. If you can identify them, leave a comment on the photo telling me the plant name and as each plant is identified I'll remove it from the set. Conversely, as I find new ones I'll add them.

In Need of Identification

I know some of you may be wondering why I don't invest in a good field guide and the truth is, I like to buy my books used and have yet to come across any at the local book shop that seem worthwhile. I'm aware that I will most likely end up with at least two field guides for wildflowers and trees and am fine with that, but if I'm going to put out the money for them I'd like them to be fairly detailed with good photos/illustrations.