Burdock festooned bench

After a stormy night, it seemed like a good idea to take a walk in as wild a place as the Twin Cities could offer.  The Girl from the North Country (GFTNC, who is still in the south country) and I decided that a walk in Fort Snelling State Park was just the ticket.   We thought that perhaps Pike Island could offer some deer photos and besides a walk in the wild is a part of a good exercise program.  The island was open again after having been closed by flooding after our last few rainy weeks.  There weren't many other folk with the same idea, and we resolved to count the people and the deer that we encountered on the island.  It was likely that the deer herd would be visible somewhere on the route around the island, and the GFTNC guessed we'd see five deer.  Unfortunately, she overestimated, but she did get the number of people correct.  There was a photographer trying to get a photo of a rare bird, a runner, and a group of three young folk out for a walk on the island - one of whom was wearing flipflops, a bad choice, because of the thick layer of mud that resulted from last night's rain.  We, too, encountered enough mud to get a thick layer of wet dirt on our shoes.  Still no deer, but plenty of very fresh deer tracks, lots of birds and a lovely morning in June.

One of my favorite subjects for photos lately has been benches.  It's interesting the variety of benches and settings that can be found in wild areas.  This bench hasn't been used by humans very much lately and has been surrounded by burdock.  Burdock looks a lot like wild rhubarb, but Wikipedia assured me that there is no wild rhubarb in Minnesota.


 

 There is a pond on Pike Island very near the Mississippi River.  It's bathed in shadows and is very, very still.   The reflection off the water is like a mirror in a darkened room.  It was a lovely spot to stop for a moment and reflect on reflections.

 

We circled the island in a couple of hours and came home for a lunch of Asian restaurant leftovers. The last three nights have been all Vietnamese cuisine. I'm really starting to like the Bun (noodle salad) at Mai Village.  Very tasty.

I also played about an hour of tennis in the wind with the codgers at Marie Park this afternoon.  It was too windy, I played not so good, and quit early to get home in time for a trip to Mai Village.  I'm hoping the next day of tennis is calmer and that I play a little bit better.

Rafa Nadal won the French Open this morning after the rain delay overnight for his seventh victory in the world's premiere clay court tourney.  He's the best ever on clay now and he's only 26.  It was a four set heavyweight fight with Novak Djokovic, the world's number one player on surfaces other than red clay.