And to think that it happened in Greenwood Park

One of my favorite things to do in the spring is to walk the little loop at Greenwood Park in Thief River Falls.  It's not nearly long enough for my preference, but it's still a gem of a place. 

Nice things I saw and heard today

• Yellow and purple violets
• Canadian anemones
• A very cool looking flower I had to look up when I got home called a uvularia grandiflora aka Large Flowered Bellwort
• The just unfurling fiddleheads of many ferns at the right point for foraging for those who enjoy such delicacies
• birds singing
• deer prints
• A toad sunning himself on a log.  This was so cool.  I did the loop twice and each time, as I walked passed this one spot that was open to the river, I'd hear a plop.  There was a small log wedged into the bank, the end of which was covered with tangles of hanging debris from  the higher water earlier in the spring.  I suspected it was a toad, but I wanted to get a look at him.  So next time around, I appraoched very quietly and walked up to the edge of the bank to peer over.  Just as I got far enough to see the log, I stepped into a noisier clump of grass.  Sure enough the little guy once more plopped into the river.  But I did catch a quick glimpse of him.  I think he was about as big as the palm of my hand.  I waited frozen, hoping to see him return, but after several minutes, I gave up.

Things I saw today that were not nice

• cigarette butts
• a beer can
• a Pepsi bottle
• a disturbed geocache container (which said quite plainly on the outside, "Official geocache, do not disturb.")
• much grafitti on the walls of the shelter

Things I saw today that puzzled me

• a solitary solar light and a little bit later, a solar collector and a collection of various garden decorations that appear to be connected to it.  Perhaps all lights?  These have never been there in the past.  They seem too random for something the park dept has developed.  And yet, ...?  What other purpose would they have?  Both times were spots where the foliage was open to the river.  Would they be some sort of markers someone put there to see from the river?  Would the residents across the river have arranged them to see from their decks and yards?  Strange at any rate.