Walked 5.23 Miles to Westmoreland Park

Posted on Jan 18, 2013 in Brooklyn, Hipstamatic, Portland, SE Portland, Walks, Westmoreland | 0 comments

This week was pretty much sheer insanity at work. I have a few deadlines that are hitting at the same time creating a perfect storm. It’s been stressful and keeping me up at night. One of the reasons why I like my job is because 90% of the time, when I walk out the door I don’t have to think about it until I return. That quality of life is important to me. Sleepless nights and too much to do that I’m wishing I could bend time isn’t fun at all. I blew off walking Monday and Wednesday, because I was so overwhelmed. Today I left work (Friday is my usual day off) feeling more on top of things than I had in weeks. I treated myself to a bellyful of Zenbu (my very favorite sushi place) and then went for a long walk in the glorious sun. I usually never walk the same place twice in a row, but I made an exception today. I walked to Westmoreland park hoping I’d see lots of birds again. And my last walk was just so great that I was hoping to recreate a bit of it again. I needed that after such a hard week.

I’ve really fallen hard for pictures of frost. I like how it accentuates the texture of the plants. It’s just so beautiful. I didn’t really expect to find frost at 2pm on a crazy sunny day. I was happy to see it.

The sun is shining through the peeling bark.

I didn’t think that Westmoreland had any alleys, but I found two today that were each a block long with gravel. They were no where near each other. These were the first two alleys I’ve ever seen in this hood. I’m curious if are any more.

Throughout the entire holiday season, I looked for a giant Christmas tree ornament for a self-portrait. I saw many ornaments, but never any that were close enough to the sidewalk for me to get a decent picture. Finally, I found one on Jan 18th.

When I got to the park, there were no geese! Well, there were maybe 15 grazing on the lawn, but I’m pretty sure they are the same 15 that are always there. I saw a few fly overhead, but nothing like the huge skeins I’d seen the week before. (Fun Fact: geese are in gaggle when not in flight. They are in a skein when flying. Thank you, Wikipedia!) I headed to the back baseball field, because I thought they might be hanging out there.

I did find too many seagulls. There were probably a few hundred hanging out on the lawn and in the water.

Their reflection is so crisp and the light was just perfect.

The ground was covered in feathers.

The casting pond (a 1936 WPA project) is one of my favorite parts of this park. The perfectly square pond of water with the beautiful ring of trees surrounding it is just spectacular.

I hadn’t seen this benchmark before. It brought back memories of when I worked for ODOT on a survey crew the summer after high school.

I was surprised to find ice at the back corner of the casting pond.

When I got to the baseball field, there were still no geese. Instead, I hung out with my favorite ducks, the American Wigeons. They are so cool looking. You can see the ice on the water in the background.

This is called Uroboros, the name for an ancient Egyptian and Greek symbol that depicts a snake that bites its own tail. This public art was created by Charles Kibby and installed in 1979. I couldn’t resist the-sun-through-a-hole shot.