Daughter

 

Photos

 

Folly Beach

 

Dew walk today

 You can't really see the bird soaring.

The burnoff has regrown.

Blurry tortus scampering away.

Crossing the Van Wyche

You can call me flower if you want to.

Walked to Willow Creek which wasn't muddy today. When the waters rise I wonder how much of this area will be left. Lots of land has been filled in of the swamps, and lakes have been created. I wonder how much of a levy or other oceans rising measures will be put in place.

I read Climate psychologist says neither gloom-and-doom nor extreme solution-obsessed optimism is the best way to discuss climate change productively

What kind of climate change is at debate, and how much can we stop it?

I can't stop singing Muskrat Love when I'm walking along. I bet there were a few non muskrat rats swimming during the flooding of the hurricane. 

Henri

Felt like the downpour last night was more intense than the gentle rain we're getting today. No wind which is not what I expected with Henri still a tropical storm. Looks like the eye of the storm is going over the tip of Long Island.

Spider webs seemed to be more prevalent on the path. I wondered if the spiders thought they would get less foot traffic during the tropical storm, then realized I was anthropomorphizing. Probably they just don't like their webs being taken down so they move to another place, and their moving all over the place, they accidentally come back to the path.

Must be a dry summer, because it's not too soggy in the swamp.

I think about the water level rising 1-4 feet due to global warming was the estimate I got. I just checked my elevation, I'm 95 feet above sea level.

This tropical storm is more gusty towards the outside, than the inside. It was more windy when it began and when it's ending. I wonder how many inches or centimeters of rain we got. 

Willow Pond

Asked a guy with binoculars, seemed to know the lake, if it was a controlled burn. He said he'd tried to find out from the parks department but hadn't so far. He thought it was a controlled burn. He pointed out a Mourning Dove. Said there were cormorants. I said they called it a lake but I called it a pond. He said it's a city lake. I said I'd read about the 64/5 World's Fair. He said there was an earlier one. Looks like there was a 1939/40 one. He was right, it was the earlier one that created this "lake".

I haven't seen a muskrat, but I have seen a turtle. My 5 year old daughter gets into language power struggles with me. She said it's a tortoise. I had to look it up, but a tortoise is a subset of turtles, that don't go into water. I think the turtle went into water, so it's not a tortoise.  She insists on calling a snow cone "ice cream." I like to joke with her with language, and she can get upset, but I point out that calling things the right word is important. Being stubborn, using the word you like is fine, but don't think you're using language right, and if you don't have to use language right, then I don't. Little father/daughter drama.

The vines on the bridge fence seem like they were cut off, but they're growing back. I guess they cut them because they compromise the fence, but I like them. 

Some people go there to smoke marijuana. I found a bag from a store. I understand that people need to find private spaces to smoke if they can't at home. I've seen a neighbor smoke there, he doesn't want his mother to know he smokes. He's a grown man but still lives with his mother. She's probably against it. He works all the time and smokes. The workaholic addict thing is pretty strong in our society. Work so hard you need some chemical stress relief. I think walking in nature is also a stress relief.

There's mulberry trees at the entrances, like that tree and fruit might somehow keep animals from traversing the bridge. When I was a kid I could climb into a mulberry tree and eat my fill. 

Willow Pond

Poverty is really good for the environment in some ways. I'm not flying off places or driving much, I'm not consuming a lot of things, buying things.

The food pantry uses a lot of individual packaging, which isn't good. Just give me a can of something instead of putting it in a bunch of plastic containers. Beggars can't be choosers though.

Walked down to Willow Pond. I don't think it's a lake but I could be wrong. It's man made, when they were developing flushing for the World's Fair in 1964.

I hope the Dolan family who donated the money to get the path named after the deceased matriarch isn't the same Dolan family that runs Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the Rangers. As a Knicks fan Dolan is often to blame for the man woeful years of the Knicks. The Knicks had their first playoff win since 2014 on Wednesday. Today is Friday. 

Walked down there today. Past the coop apartments, past the nice houses, to the park, across the bridge over the Van Wyck expressway. 

I've taken my daughter there and we saw a turtle the other day. She gets scared, but she's trying to master her fears.

There was a fire. It seemed like a controlled fire to give a view of the "lake" alone the path. There's a side trail with some blinds. The path goes from Kew Garden Hills to Forest Hills. It's another swampland in New York City, along with perhaps Gateway Park in Jamaica Bay. That one is more salt water, sandy.

I have found a willow tree, but there isn't an abundance of them. There are a lot of trees that have been blown over, storms and tornadoes. The wet soil doesn't allow the roots to go deep so they spread out along the path and when the tree falls over there's quite a lot of uprooted soil. 

Lots of vegetation, insects, birds, rodents. I'm going to read Walden again soon, and perhaps more about Thoreau, and Willow Pond is my reference point to nature, even though it's in New York City. I wish I lived in the country but I'm in the city and that is my closest walk to take in some green.

Who's land was this?

Take Willow Pond, and creek as a point of occupation, in Queens. Who lived around there? Mind you Willow Pond was created for the World Fair. But Willow Creek was there.

The information is spotty, here is what I found:

Matinecock is supposedly the tribe (1). "The name “Maspeth” derives from a word for “bad water place,” perhaps because people there relied on the salty waters of Flushing Bay and Newtown Creek. Kissena Park was a region once controlled by the Matinecock, and “Kissena” may have meant “cold place.” The name of the large public housing development in South Flushing, “Pomonok,” is from a word meaning either “land of tribute” or “land where there is traveling by water.”"

The Dutch called Flushing "Vlissingen"

"...in 1662, a smallpox epidemic spread through Queens, killing huge numbers of the indigenous people."

Thomas Hicks in the Battle of Madnan’s Neck got Native Americans out of Douglaston and Little Neck in 1656.

"Much later, when Northern Boulevard was being widened in the 1930s, Matinecock graves were discovered there. They were moved and re-buried in the cemetery of Zion Episcopal Church (GMAP), where a stone marker announces, “Here rest the last of the Matinecock.”"

"there are still some Matinecock around. A modern-day tribal leader, Osceola Townsend, has said that some 200 Matinecock families live in and around Queens."

"Matinecocks have stated that Fort Totten in Bayside is land that should still belong to them, and that the fort lies on top of ancient burial ground. In a 2009 documentary film called The Lost Spirits, Eric MaryEa (who is of Matinecock and Italian heritage) explores some of these ongoing struggles."

Immigrants displace other immigrants: "Before the surge of contemporary immigration in Flushing the town was mainly a white, moderate-to-middle income area with residents of Jewish, Irish, Italian and German ancestry. However, by the 1970’s, Flushing saw an influx of Chinese immigrants." (2)

"In 1684, the tribe signed a deed giving the colonists control of all land consisting of Whitestone. The tribe then left Whitestone and headed east towards Long Island."

There were 13 tribes in Long Island and they were a branch of the Algonquins. Long Island was called Sewanhacky, Wamponomon and Paumanake. (3)

Links:

The Lost Spirit

Matinecock Tribe Nation "In 1789 the Flushing courthouse was destroyed by fire, and all records of transactions with the Mattinecocks were consumed."

Willow Pond (YouTube)

Willow Creek

 

Birds