July 08, 2004

A walk to the lake.

I did finally get to take my walk to the campus lake yesterday. It turns out that my caffeine-driven office time paid off, and I finished what work I wanted to finish by the end of the week by early afternoon on Wednesday. And it was not as hot or humid; there was even a pleasant breeze roaming across the southern side of the university campus. And the sun was out in full regalia, including its blue sky cape with puffy, fluffy, white cloud collar. I walked over to the the lily pads at one of the small coves on the edge of the lake, and I just missed getting a photo of a spotted frog, as he jumped into the lake. I did shoot a photo in time to get the ripples made by his watery escape. In all, I didn't get any photos of wildlife, except for some blurry photos of a haughty squirrel who was not very afraid of me. I did, however, get some nice photos of the greenery. This is the bottom of a lily pad, close up. That is really the color green they are on the underside; I used no photo effects at all. These pads are large enough and flexible enough that I suppose one could roll one up tightly, sew it up into a cone with some thread, and drink tea out of it -- though I am sure this would not bode well for the lily pad. I have yet to try this experiment, however, so I am unable to report whether or not one can drink Darjeeling from a lily pad. I guess that, if one could, Thoreau would have told us so already. I was lugging around my backpack and had too caffeine, so I began to get a bit warm. As such, I retreated to the safety of the car -- a fifteen minute walk from the lake -- and basked in the air conditioning. This is the sky and some oak leaves through the darkened glass of the Mazda's sunroof. I'm quite ashamed that most of the green life I ever view is through one of the panes of glass in the car. I am not sure if that is a consequence of the abundance of green beings around here, the fact that one has to drive everywhere in this part of Illinois, or my own laziness when it comes to a good walk lately. I suppose it's a combination of all these things, but I really could -- and should -- make more of an effort to get outside more. A nice walk to the lake was a good start, I think.

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