Wednesday, December 17, 2014

December 13

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On the 13th I got dropped at the downtown library.  They were having a "local indie artists" holiday sale.  I bought several postcards from David Zinn, who does excellent sidewalk-chalk work around town

I walked home, doing a bit of light retailing along the way.

I was pleased to see this one of David's chalk drawings on a downtown sidewalk!  It needs a touch-up....



There is a lot of holiday painting on the store windows.  I liked the ice-skating bears on Cherry Republic.  I went inside and sampled some interesting cherry goods, and made a small purchase.



I made a few more small purchases , and then headed for the park.  I hadn't walked through West Park for weeks. 

I was struck by these very pale Japanese maple leaves, still on their tree.  Ghost leaves.....  These would have been very red, two months ago.





The pond doesn't look frozen, at first glance, but look at the branches and stuff that people have heaved onto the pond.  There is clearly some substantial ice, under a layer of water, holding up all that stuff.





Looking 90 degrees to the left -- bittersweet, in the trees on the south side of the pond.




I heard a noise; I looked back toward the west -- look, there goes a muskrat under the bridge!  I saw it running across the ice, but by the time I got the camera on it, it was almost in the water.



Closer crop.



I stood still, for a while.  It came back, but stayed right here, under the bridge, as long as I watched.



Closer crop.


There was some bread on top of the ice.  I bet the muskrat was snacking on the bread, when not disturbed by annoying monkeys.

I thought this muskrat looked smaller than the ones I saw over the summer.  I wonder if it's one of the young ones I kept hearing about, or if I just can't remember how big the ones I saw were, and this is one of them.


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