parked

The other day, the ladies checked out the new Star Trek movie (checked out being the appropriate term for the reason they went), while I stayed back with Will who does not particularly care for scary, loud things on movie screens. 

 

Jared decided to hang back with us, though, he probably came to regret it -- expecting to lull about on the youtubes -- as staying home with dad will usually involve some sort of adventure.  Well, adventure may be overstating it -- not sitting around inside, regardless.

 

 

 One of the great things about where we live, is that it is centrally located between, and within walking distance of both the library, and a string of parks that line the Clinton River.  My plan was a nice walk through the parks to a playground that has unusually tall swings and slides, much more fun than the typical puny swings and slides.

 

As we entered the woods, we came across a lovely bush, with beautiful shades of pink flowers, of which I stopped to take a photo, the movement unleashing a hoard of mosquitos.  They walk was consequently a bit brusque.

 

Finally satiating the critters, we broke from the woods to the playground\playfield, where gathered were two sets of soccer teams, comprised entirely of older, hispanic players. They had a decent size crowd watching as well, and there was a food truck and several bbq's ongoing as the games played.  A fun and very festive atmosphere.

 

Reaching the slides...  Will is aghast!  They were easily 15 feet fall -- perhaps too great a liability in this day and age. 

 

On to the swings.

 

We are a bunch of fun guys, checking out a mushroom during a swing break, down on the banks of the Clinton.  We discovered an unidentifiable plastic object that we were unable to dig free, imbedded in the bank, with a familiar looking WH on the end.

 

You might not know it by his expression, but he had a blast.

 

 Whee! 

 

Emulating big bro', who evades view.

 

One dandy seed globe!

 

But Will prefers his more densely packed pod.

One more shot of the soccer crowd as we made our way back.  I told the kids it was only about a fifteen minute walk, but it was likely more than twice that -- longer because they're just slow, frankly.

 

 

And because we frequently became diverted, here, making dandelion necklaces.  I remember several of the girls in the neighborhood, growing up, made some really nice ones -- Will is clearly not impressed with my efforts.

 

Celebrating columbine!  We may sneak off with some to add to our garden.

 

 

Logging a rest, a bit past the halfway point, back.

 

They elected to stay.

 

Removing a fallen tree from mom's and dad's, this weekend, an interesting thing was discovered:  Box Elder, or, Ash Maple as it is sometimes called, has the exact same leaf formation as poison ivy!  It made for several moments of panic!

 

Creepy charlie and some sort of lovely crucifer.

 

Shrub.

 

On our wildflower hike on mother's day, the naturalist picked one of these and said he wasn't sure what it was.  Clearly barberea vulgaris, I mentioned such, to which he mocked, "We've got one of the Latin types, I see."

So here's a lovely picture of yaller rokkit.

 

And this is known as a mosquito shrub.

 

Exhausted, Jared wished he had gone to see the movie.  The next day we went back with a shovel and dug out the unidentified plastic object from the bank.  It turned out to be the back end of a Wonder Horse, which we have, of course, brought home as a souvenir.