Scenes, 7 Mai 2026

My walk this morning was just wonderful. I headed out after having done my physical therapy so I felt good, I felt ready to greet the day and whatever it may bring. My first encounter was with the plants my neighbor put on her front stoop.

This reminded me that I need to get some potting soil as I have a trio of buckets now and want to grow some jalapeños, tomatoes, and flowers. My front stoop gets a lot of sun with its southern and western exposures.

That refulgent orb in the sky was beginning to peek above the horizon at us mortals and the tree canopies down the street were aglow.

About 30 seconds after I took this photograph some clouds rolled in. For the most part they weren't grey and didn't seem to portend rain. And so I headed down the bike path and into the Carpenter-Ridgeway neighborhood. At the first chance I got, I detoured to follow the path along Starkweather Creek.

Despite the din of morning commuters on Highway 30, it was simply wonderful to be out in the woods.

I quickly got lost in my thoughts. At one point I looked across the creek only to find a pair of doe eyes staring at me. She must have done so for a few seconds as I fumbled with my camera before she and her companion lazily meandered into the woods after concluding that the human who could not easily turn on his camera was not much of a threat. My consolation was a mallard drake a bit upstream who was happy to bathe and preen for my camera.

My next destination was Carpenter-Ridgeway Park where I walked the labyrinth.

When I had finished my session of omphaloskepsis, I ducked into the woods on the north side of the park. You don't have to go in very far to see some exposed blacktop from the old Truax Air Force Base.

Shrooms!

On my way home I noticed a group of trees in Washington Manor Park whose trunks had rough, scaly bark but the larger limbs were covered in a rather smooth bark.

I am not sure what type of tree these are but I believe I have a map of city-owned trees bookmarked somewhere that may tell me.

...

They appear to be Freeman maples. Now we know.