WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY

It seems I’ve done neither of the above much lately.

Oh, I did that post the other day about my boss and his trip on the high seas, which was an occasion to tout that I had surpassed the halfway mark to my eventual goal.  I am still striving to stride toward that goal, though Mother Nature made it tough to do so this weekend.

Friday was designated as an errand day, much as I hate to waste my walking time for such mundane stuff, but one must eat and thus a visit to the grocery store was in order.  Then there was the tax bill to be paid, plus a few other miscellaneous and sundry tasks requiring the car.  The pedometer told me that I racked up almost two miles and two miles was better than nothing, but it was not fodder for a Friday post.

Saturday it rained all day.

This morning I didn’t fare much better, but, unlike yesterday, at least I made it outside.  I listened to the weatherman and checked out “The Weather Channel” online and it was all good, so I hustled myself to get going before the rain’s expected arrival in the 9:00 o’clock hour.

But once outside, the sky was dark and ugly, it was just 65 degrees and quite blustery.  I took the car to give it a spin, and, while driving to Council Point Park, the first little “spits” began.  A few raindrops dotting the windshield here and there … okay, maybe I could live with that, except I didn’t bring an umbrella as I believed I’d be home before the rain’s ETA.  I even went so far as pulling  into the parking lot at Council Point Park, but then the spits became splats and I muttered a few words, pulled back out and headed for home.

It isn’t like I would be twiddling my thumbs in boredom here at the house, because I often put blinders on to the dust bunnies and clutter that persists.  Between working, walking and blogging, it leaves scant time for little more than eating and sleeping.  Housework always gets put on the back burner.

My other dilemma, besides the rain intruding on my weekend walks and the chance to visit different venues and take more photos, is that Council Point Park has been very boring lately.  I wrote about the squirrels last week – the young‘uns  are skittish and the “regulars” seems to be missing in action most days.  Occasionally, I drag out my Ziploc bag of peanuts and my camera is at the ready, but those occasions have become few and far between.

The Park robins, having reared their young, have abandoned their nests and are now at large in the Park.

The geese and goslings are long gone and won’t return until Fall, once their flying feathers have all grown in.  By then, the goslings will look (and act) like their parents, so any photos shall be just ho-hum.

So, I’m sharing a few photos from my morning jaunts over the past few weeks.

First, a dirty old pear was what this chubby squirrel was chomping on as I passed by.  I don’t know that I’d scramble down from a tall tree for this morsel when my friend Linda is offering up peanuts … but then, I don’t think like a squirrel.

This peanut pal was acting a little squirrelly, dancing around in the middle of the pathway.  It is the same squirrel I featured the other day, but this time in a standing pose.  Perhaps he had been out in the sun too long?

In trying to establish a rapport with the young squirrels, I toss out some peanuts whenever I see them, even though I’m usually rewarded with a deer-in-the-headlights look for my efforts.  But, I know they will come around eventually.  The peanuts don’t go to waste because the cardinals and red-winged blackbirds try to remedy the squirrels’ snubbing of treats, by flying down to snatch a peanut for themselves.  Here’s a photo of a cardinal who flew down to the asphalt pathway BEFORE a peanut landed there.  Imagine his surprise, he who lives by the motto “the early bird catches the worm” – I made it worth his while for his incredible swooping efforts.

This inquisitive bunny caught my eye one morning.  I inched closer to him and he did not bolt, but posed nicely.  I wondered what the heck was on the back of his ear, and zoomed in for a closer look, thinking I could tell better when I got home and uploaded the photos.  I’m no further ahead, but it looks like a snail?

Here’s the heron who humored me this time by posing for a photo.  He is in the same place every morning, scoping out the murky water for his breakfast.  I peek through the bushes as I near the cement landing, so I know whether or not to have the camera ready.  Aha!!  Gotcha … this time anyway.  Usually, just as soon as I appear in his peripheral vision, he takes off, pulling his feet up from the cement landing, flapping those huge wings, his hurried flight accompanied by a prolonged croaking noise as he heads down the narrow passageway of the Ecorse Creek.

These might be the tiniest inhabitANTs at the Park, but at least they weren’t at someone’s picnic.  I had my share of ants this year, first the wiggly ones at the kitchen sink, then the winged ones flying around my face seeking a mate, which siege lasted 24 hours, then they mysteriously disappeared (thank goodness).

The grass at the Park is filled with morning glories as far as the eye can see.

The bunnies love munching on the morning glories.

One morning I came across a woman who was picking something that grew along the pathway.  From a distance I squinted to see what she was taking.  I knew it wasn’t berries at that location, so I snapped her picture from afar.

As I neared her, to satisfy my curiosity, I asked why she was plucking leaves off a plant.  She told me it was milkweed and she was harvesting the leaves for her Monarch caterpillars she had at home, because, even though she grows milkweed, (the host plant for Monarchs), she needed many more milkweed leaves for all her baby Monarch caterpillars.  Her reply initiated a whole conversation as I relayed my story of when I bought a milkweed plant from the Wyandotte Street Art Fair, complete with a half-dozen Monarch baby caterpillars and mosquito netting wrapped around the plant and pot.  I thought it would be fun to release these butterflies when they emerged from their cocoon.  But, in record time, the six baby caterpillars ate all the milkweed leaves and I had to find more leaves to feed them pronto, so I gave the “kit” away to a butterfly enthusiast in Allen Park who raised Monarchs and released them from her backyard.  Just like me, this young woman had run out of “baby food” and was there picking leaves for the growing caterpillars.  As she reached into the leaves, she was triumphant over the discovery of a tiny Monarch caterpillar and showed it to me.  I should have taken a photo of it, but we were busy talking and I didn’t want to be rude.  (It was bad enough I asked why she was picking leaves off the plant … the plant didn’t belong to me!)

Here is a photo of the milkweed plant.

This young woman also raises Black Swallowtail butterflies and their host plant is Queen Anne’s Lace, so she has plenty of this lacy-looking wildflower (pictured below) growing in her backyard.

The rain was pesky in that it interrupted my walking plans, but truly it was needed.  We were in almost drought-like conditions before this weekend’s rain.  My lawn was not just brown, but crispy.  The Park pathway is strewn with leaves, mostly yellow and brown, crinkly and curled up, just like it was the end of September rather than mid-July.

Our weather is not so stellar this coming week, with fits and starts of rain and thunderstorms intermingled with heat and humidity.  Once again, I will scratch my head and say “and I waited all Winter and most of Spring for this?”