Tag: brookside gardens

Today I wanted to go on an adventure.

On December 29, 2022

“In the Garden
Sit Quietly in My Presence”
RND 3-28-1945 to 3-3-2018

Today’s adventure needed to happen. I needed to get out of the house. I needed to not be inside anymore. I needed to go do something out in the world and be among trees and be among birds, and just be among something different than the four walls inside of my house.

I started looking at thrift stores. I thought maybe I wanted to go have an adventure that was a treasure hunt to see what unknown and untold trinkets and treasures and items I might stumble across in my wandering’s, but as I looked around, I realize it was just another building another set of four walls. Another place the felt like my house filled and cluttered with things things I knew things I didn’t because I never would at the end. It was just more stuff.

So instead of going and standing among other things and other peoples things from other people, I decided to do what I often do and think about what I wanted to eat.

So I went to our favorite little sandwich shop and got a Susie’s special and then as I was sitting with it there in the car alongside the root beer because there’s something about adventure in repair that just go together in my heart, I remembered we have a fantastic garden near us.

You can just go for free. It’s part of our county park system. It’s something that my taxes help support and it’s just a free resource I could just go to. I can be outside among the birds in the trees and whatever plant life there is this time of year. Or just sit there and eat my sandwich and look out over the little lake so that’s exactly what I did.

I drove to Brookside Gardens and I sat in my car and I ate my sandwich, and I watched the gaggle of geese that were being fed by one of the other patrons. There were a couple of ducks and turtles that were also out, trying to sun themselves in a little bit of winter sunshine that was coming down through the cloudless sky.

I ate my sandwich and I drink my root beer and I grabbed my camera, because the proper adventure can happen in real life or can happen through a lens, because you never know what secret there are.

I saw a beautiful bird among the marsh grasses took a number of pictures of it don’t know what it is. I’ll have to get back home in consult the buckle birds to try to figure out who it was. I saw when I walked further on Pastor geese and ducks and turtles, saw some cardinals fall from chickadees and finches and then I saw a big bird.

It soared from somewhere in the distance and landed on a tree branch where your pie, but just across from the path from where I was standing. I slowly got my camera out slowly crept towards it. I did not want to disturb this magnificent beast but you can never be too careful, so slowly walked up to below, and tried to angle around to get a decent a photo for this beautiful hawk wasn’t completely obscured by all the brown brown branches it was standing in a few photos will see if they turn out to be anything in the few moments before his giant wings open. He just took one powerful flap of those wings and soared off into the distance. Out of sight.

This post was written by speaking softly into my air pods sitting on this bench at the park.

Thoughts on bird appreciating brought on by How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

By Carl

On February 6, 2022

In Books, Observations

Reading How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell over the past few days took me back to both Oakland, CA and to my own backyard. The author lives in Oakland and talks about her time lingering and noticing in the Morcom Rose Garden and Lake Merritt. It is always fun to read a story where the author spends time if you happen to have spent time in the same place.

I was introduced to Lake Merritt one afternoon. Around after dropping off a bridal party to get their hair done for her friend’s wedding. Only, I had no idea how big the lake was. So when I estimated how long it would take to walk around, I fell short and ended up late to retrieve the ladies.

You see a neat lake in life and have time to kill, you park your car and go for a walk to explore the city on foot and enjoy the water birds and water humans you encounter along the way.

Granted, I’ve not lingered among those particular roses, though I’ve spent many a sun-kissed afternoon strolling through Brookside Gardens. While the author thinks of the birds as friends and greets them by species name, I do the same.

While my come to bird moment didn’t take place in full until the global pandemic, I had started identifying birds by sight and call from my own backyard feeders. I liked to know who I was hearing and who came with their entire family to my yard to pick it clean then move on.

While she greets the pelicans and egrets, I have my Mourning Doves. Birds simply too silly to take seriously with their mournful calls and absolute imposter syndrome whenever they manage to flap up to the bird feeder.

*I’m up here. I made it this far. What do I do now?*

I notice the American Robins picking through the yard for bugs once I’ve cut the grass in warmer weather. The Cardinals trying to impress the Lady Cardinals by soaring through trees as bright red flashes. The gold finches are my current favorites. They come and go so rarely. We had a neighbor with sunflowers and I would see a small flock of the birds in their yard on my daily walks past it. I made a note to plant yellow flowers this year since that’s what they seem to like.

It makes sense. Small yellow bird. Big yellow flower.

I realize by reading this book and take in her thoughts about the attention economy, my thoughts go to my feathered friends. That’s the part of the book that stuck most with me. She called the birds as who and not what. I do the same thing. I greet the birds as friends and the squirrel as on-again-off-again love affairs.

Watching and listening to the birds is peaceful. It’s calm and focusing. When you’ve absorbed in the birds, the rest of the world washes away and there’s only the many calls and flapping wings when once whooshes by your head at top speed.

Visiting old friends in the garden

By Carl

On October 10, 2021

In Observations, snapshots

Brookside Gardens will always be a special place. The gardens are always beautiful and every time I visit, there’s always something different in bloom.

This weekend’s visit was special because the indoor garden building was open. It has been closed last year and every time we went this year it was a little too late to go inside.

We were able to see the cacti, orchids, palms, and other beautiful indoor dwellers. It was like revisiting old friends. Such a peaceful place to sit and breathe deeply and take in everything around you.

I struggle not to take a thousand pictures every time we visit. I limited myself to just a few. Including the obligatory proof that I leave the house at times.

Gardens Nourish

By Carl

On April 21, 2021

In Introspection, snapshots

I got Moderna #2 on Monday.
Yesterday, I felt wiped out. I can best describe it as the flu with a touch of dementia. I couldn’t find words. My brain was foggy. Everything ached. I laid around all day half-watching things on Netflix.
Today, I took the day off to fully recover before leaping back into the stress of work.
I spent the morning listening to poodcasts and taking a photo walk around my favorite lake.
Then I went to Brookside Gardens, and took more photos of the beautiful flowers there. It was a superb day that I desperately needed.