As I cast my mind backwards, I recall a Saturday when I had little else to do so I wandered out to Eagle Creek. This somewhat private park on the North West side of Indianapolis has always been somewhat of an enigma to me since it exists as a large and important park but is somehow not part of the Start Park system. It's likely that I notice this mostly because my annual pass to Indiana State Parks does not gain me admittance to this urban nirvana but instead costs me the heady sum of $5 per visit. Whatever the cost, however, there is much to be seen.
This first photo is evidence merely of my appreciation for the boundaries between land and water. I have an excessive appreciation for the plants that somehow span the gulf between the aquatic and the terrestrial.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Similarly, there's a certain symbolism in the manner in which trees procreate. I believe that this tiny messenger is from the cottonwood tree. Whatever its origin, the seed is a symbol of hope and optimism as the parent sends out millions of its progeny and can only raise up a prayer to whatever divinity represents the hardwoods that its seed will find purchase in some hospitable soil far away.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Now we get to the dragonflies. I spent the better part of my sunburned day in an Indiana July chasing these things all over their marshy abodes. They really are quaint miracles of nature. It boggles the mind how they can fly at all, let alone do so efficiently and with such precision. There are more things in heaven and Earth...
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Those delicate wings...
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Yeah, ok, so here's where I admit that I chased this ONE dragonfly around for 20 minutes.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Probably my favorite. Note the posture and also the delicate lacework on the wings.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Alright, so here's where I also admit that somehow I've lived a charmed life. If you read my auto-bio you'll see that this wasn't always the case but over the past few years I can't help but feel that when I just let the winds of randomness blow me whence they will, they tend to blow me into exceptionally interesting spots. In this case, I just happened to get blown into a bicycle race.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
In fact, the race was so ... well, circular in nature, that I was able to get a bit artsy. This photo makes me think more strongly of an oil paining than a photo.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
After the bikes, it was time to find our way to the pond, aka "the next random place I wandered to". The butterflies were in evidence.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
And more of these, of course.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
And one very cooperative... moth?
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| From 2011-07-09 |
Reptiles.... well, reptiles have always fascinated me. They seem at the same time utterly independent and at the same time at the mercy of the weather. No matter how stubborn a tortoise might be, give him a cold morning and he is at your mercy. Luckily, these turtles sunning themselves had no such worries.
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| From 2011-07-09 |
And thus ends, apparently, the trip around the park on the ninth. To extend the visual elements, I recall that the park was very, very warm and that I was more than a bit lonely. Someone for whom I have great affection was off doing her own thing so I was compensating with a bit of natural beauty. Either way though, a fine time was had. And thus we close.
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