Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods, and I have been stealing time to go for a walk on the way home from work every day. Well, every day I can justify it - some days, it's hurry home to take care of something time-sensitive. I can usually manage 30 minutes, which is almost a mile with stops.
I don't stop for rests, although that's a technique I have used in the past walking with others. I stop to take pictures.
The Pink Trail
Yesterday's walk was at Possum Creek Mass... er, Metropark. It's an interesting place. There's fishing lakes, which I shy away from, although with the pink trail you can't entirely avoid one of them. Too peopley. I like lakes just fine. Swarms of fishers... well, there's a reason I don't usually take hikes on the weekends locally. Although I'm planning a trip... But I digress. This used to be a farm, and the enterprising farmer also set up a recreational area, with swimming pool, concession stands, and a dancefloor. When it was donated to the city, it came with the specification to dedicate the forest to the Argonne. Which confuses the First Reader when I tell him I was walking in the Argonne!
The 'concession stands' were retired streetcars. This is part of what remains, rusted steel bones deep in the new Argonne Forest. Striking to see what a hundred years will do to man's creations.
A Stellaria (Chickweed) bloom, close up. You can see why the Latin is star!
An old pear tree in bloom. This isn't one of the ornamental pears that have become so invasive, it's probably been here since the place was a farm. I'll have to go back in late summer!
There were so many little frogs in this vernal pool! Tiny and cute and hard to capture in a photo.