The temperature was falling as I ventured into Forest Park today. I waited until afternoon as I had gotten enough rain walking the dog this morning. The sidewalks in my neighborhood were streams, and the streets rivers, and I did not wear my boots. Big mistake. Rigby hesitated when I opened the door and I had to urge him to go out. In fact, I think I gave him a nudge with my foot before he slowly stepped onto our porch. I, at least, had an umbrella, but he, poor hound, had only his thick red fur to protect him from the elements. It was that very same fur that required 3 large bath towels to get reasonably dry when we got home.
The park today was filled with puddles of various sizes and depths. The geese in the north east corner of the central fields were dabbling in rather small puddles about 2-3 inches deep when I pulled up next to them. A larger puddle under some pine trees by the Columbus Bridge was six or 8 inches deep (I only walked a short way into it). An even larger one just north of Jefferson lake under the cypress trees there was even deeper. I think you get the idea that the park was on the soggy side today.
I managed to get a bit grubby as I was photographing the cypress knees around the perimeter of Circle Lake. Getting the angle that I wanted required me to lie flat on my belly, so naturally I arose soggier and dirtier than I went down. The cypress knees there resemble the buildings in a small city, and if I were a bit younger and had some hot wheels cars with me, I would have build roads and had a good time driving them. But I forgot the hot wheels.
The bird count was low today. I managed to startle some northern flickers on the south side of the Columbus bridge, but wasn’t able to get any photos of them. The cardinals were also elusive, and the sparrows sent only a single emissary to greet me. So I traipsed over the freezing grass with a very satisfying crunch, crunch, crunch and went to fetch Rebecca from her school.
Water under the cypress trees. The bridge is off to our right.