Edgewater

There’s something eerie about a summertime place when the weather turns cold. In the summer months, Edgewater is bustling with swimmers and surfers, joggers and sunbathers. Today, it was empty save for a few intrepid beach combers, and a handful of park staff. The volleyball nets and lifeguard chairs are retired. It is quiet and starkly beautiful.

The wind was cold and relentless. Flocks of gulls swooped and dove and hovered over breaking waves. They lined the railings of the pier and perched on the light posts. Chuck and I enjoyed watching them watch us as we crept close to take pictures of them. We walked with their haunting calls always in our ears.

It’s been some time since we hiked at Edgewater. Today, the lake was calm and pale blue in the morning light. Huge flocks of house sparrows surged into the trees near the trail. They swept up into the air in a mass of fluttering wings and moved as if driven by a single collective mind.

Pale clouds decorated the sky out over the lake. They broke the monotony of the blue sky and moved gently in and out of various formations. I loved the way the sky and lake and land formed tidy visual layers topped with the subtle, unruly clouds.

We stopped at the spot where we always see killdeer and quickly found one of our friends. It was small and vocal. I think perhaps it was one of the young ones that just hatched this summer. It shouted at us and skittered across the sand, standing up tall every now and then and looking at us in a childish display of bravery.

Many of the rocks along the break wall are carved with names and romantic gestures rudely etched into the stone. But just east of the pier, we found a beautiful and intricate carving of the terminal tower.

We looped back toward Lakewood and followed the break wall past the willow where we found a flock of ducks bathing and fishing just along the shore. It was a treat to see them so close; they looked lovely in the blue-gray water!

This morning was a perfect blue sky, restless lake, bright sunshine morning. The milkweed is tall and its heavy blossoms are drunk with pollen. The grasses are long and seedy and if you walk along between the groomed lawn and the rough, you can see where deer bedded down for the night, flattening the grass to make a private little nest.

We spotted some young red wing blackbirds, gawky and awkward teenagers with downy feathers still showing in places. I watched one young one struggle to balance on a branch until he finally gave up and flew down to rest on the ground. I’ve never noticed all the juvenile birds growing up, but I’ve paid particular attention this year and it’s charming to see them test their independence while still accepting food from their watchful mothers.

The killdeer were in their typical place along the rocky seam between the grass and the sandy dunes. I love them so much! They are beautiful, I think. But I’m most impressed with their bravery. They shout and run right at us to get our attention and then put on their broken-wing show, looking back now and then to be sure we are still following them away from their young.

We wandered down to the break wall and found a family of geese swimming in the calm water near the shore. On the rocks, people have carved their names and declarations of love. It made me smile to see that someone had etched “Chuck” into one of the stones!

As we were heading back across the meadow to the parking lot, I spotted my first monarch of the summer. I was so excited to see it and we watched it for a long time before I was able to get a good shot of it with its wings outstretched. I don’t really care that much for bugs, but butterflies are magical creatures. Their wings are so delicate with the vibrant color dusted on in spectacular patterns. Seeing the monarch just capped off our perfect morning!

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In his essay Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.”  I was thinking about this today as it relates to social media.

Emerson wrote those words in 1841, ages before anyone could have anticipated bifurcated lives that social media would foster.  But how relevant those words are today!

I don’t engage much on social media anymore.  I don’t like the pressure it exerts on us to demonstrate how wonderful and fun and interesting we are.  I don’t like the way it makes us think not about enjoying the moments of our lives, but about how those moments will be received and responded to by others.  

Social media frequently makes me kind of angry.  I think that’s because there is so much potential good in it, but that good is largely squandered.  And we are all so unwittingly manipulated into sharing our dreams and fears so companies can find our vulnerabilities and sell us stuff. 

I find when I step away from social media, I enjoy life more.  I find it possible to exist in a moment without witnessing that moment through an exterior lens.  

But I do get joy out of social media.  I keep up with dear friends.  I learn about new places.  I see beautiful art and photography.  I follow global events unfolding in real time.  So, I don’t think I can abandon it all together.  I’m not sure where the happy balance lies, but I’m trying to find it.

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I love Edgewater Park in the morning. If you start from the lower parking lot and walk the bird trail, you pass through a sun-filled meadow full of songbirds. Today, a deer walked out into the grass and came right toward us! He was so close, I could see the fuzz on his antlers. I was hoping to get a shot of him with the city behind him, but he got spooked and disappeared into the trees.

Beyond the meadow, is a stand of trees. It’s dim and cool there and it’s always amazing to me that I can stand in the forest and glimpse the lake and the beach through the trees. Today, I spotted a woodpecker on the forest floor and I could hear a lot of bird activity in the trees, but the vegetation is so lush right now that it’s hard to get a clear view of the birds.

Chuck and I wandered down to the break wall and watched the gulls and the fishermen for awhile. I love how Chuck seems to smile when we’re on our adventures. She struck a good pose for me today! Finally, on our way back, we passed through another grassy area. I saw a bird on the ground and, at first, I thought it was a blue jay, but it kept running towards me and I realized it was a killdeer! I was so excited to see it. It was very busy in the grass and didn’t notice us at first. But once it did, it began scooting around and pretending to have a broken wing. Then, it would stop to look at us. Seeing we were still there, it would continue its show. I’m guessing it had a nest nearby and was trying to lure us away. I read a little about the killdeer and, apparently, they frequently nest near parking lots and other human development. So, keep an eye out for them!

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