Simply Shaken ... Or On The Rocks?

No. Not talking about mixed drinks.
Another walk though the Magnolia Swamp section of Ravenswood Park.
The glaciers had a grand, old time here!

Simply Shaken ... Or On The Rocks
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Simply Left Or Right

Down one of the less traveled paths in Ravenswood.

Simply Left Or Right
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Simply A Turtle?

I don't know what others call this rock in Ravenswood Park.

I call it "Turtle Rock" since it reminds me of the head of
a turtle straining from its shell to take a look around.

Turtle
Written by Kay Ryan

Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing-case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she's often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.

Simply A Turtle?

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Simply A Walk

A solitary walk through Ravenswood Park often gives one a chance
to slow down and reconnect with nature. The paths through the woods
offer many similarities to one's life. It could be climbing a hill
or tackling a problem, or perhaps wondering where a path will lead.

Other times, the path is littered with broken trees, much like
broken dreams or plans, or old trees yielding to new ones much
like old ideas and habits yielding to new perhaps better ones.

Where will this path lead?

Simply A Walk

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Simply Once A Tree

Where once a tree stood, now a stump with a hole in its center mopes.

Sadly, even in a place as well-cared for as Ravenswood Park,
at least one visitor decided that the hole in the stump serves as a trash barrel.

Simply Once A Tree

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Simply A Mushroom

Sometimes, even a lowly fungus can be beautiful in its own way.
I found this little guy (as in "fungi") hiding behind a rock in Ravenswood Park.

Mushroom
Written by Emily Dickinson

The mushroom is the elf of plants,
At evening it is not;
At morning in a truffled hut
It stops upon a spot

As if it tarried always;
And yet its whole career
Is shorter than a snake's delay,
And fleeter than a tare.

'Tis vegetation's juggler,
The germ of alibi;
Doth like a bubble antedate,
And like a bubble hie.

I feel as if the grass were pleased
To have it intermit;
The surreptitious scion
Of summer's circumspect.

Had nature any outcast face,
Could she a son condemn,
Had nature an Iscariot,
That mushroom,--it is him.

Simply A Mushroom

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Simply Raven-ing

A tree and a rock fight for their own space.

I still don't know which one is winning!

The beginning of a trek down into Magnolia Swamp.

Make sure you don't zig when the boardwalk zags.

A rock with a fern problem. Must have been a "bad fern day".

Or, perhaps it was a "bad moss day"!

Simply Raven-ing

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Simply Breath Taking

Here are few more glimpses of the view from the top of Ledge Hill Trail in Ravenswood Park. On Wednesday, the weather was perfect for walking in the woods, as well as sitting for a spell taking in the vista of Eastern Point down below.

The beacon atop Eastern Point Lighthouse flashes every five seconds.

We are so lucky to be surrounded by so much beauty.

Simply Breath Taking

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