Look Again

It looks like a lake. It’s not.

It’s a reservoir of water that is unsuitable for drinking and for swimming. It’s maybe not so hot for wildlife, either.

“radioactive material, high bacteria content,
and abnormal pH levels”

Tempe Town Lake is a still body of water “at the confluence of the intermittent Salt River and the ephemeral Indian Bend Wash.” With those transient sources of natural water, it is filled primarily by water brought in by aqueduct under the Central Arizona Project.

If you’re wondering why it’s “aqueduct” rather than “aquaduct”
you can look here for the answer, but you might be sorry.

It looks like a lake. It’s not. It is, however, a fine place to walk at the start of a New Year to see a snowy egret and three bridges.

Collage of snowy egret shots

Collage of bridges: pedestrian, heavy rail, and light rail

 

This entry was posted in Language and Communication, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora, Thinking Broadly and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Look Again

  1. Your photos are beautiful. Friday I took the underside of a bridge in much the same light. Stark and soaring!

    I thoroughly enjoyed the intricacies of why aqueduct is spelled the way it is and probably will never spell it wrong again. Thanks!

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Judith – 🙂 Many thanks. There are a few more bridges close by, but I think I’d need a drone to get them all at once. As for aqueduct, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had reason to use it and my impulse (to aqua) was wrong. A little knowledge and all that.

  2. Tom Watson says:

    All this time I thought it was “aquaduct.” But, from the picture, it looks like a pretty benign aqueduct.
    Tom

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      TOM – LOL. I know, right? The things we didn’t learn – or the things we learned wrong.

  3. John Whitman says:

    Isabel – “learned wrong”?? Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      John – Well, it can be moronic, no question, but we all learn wrong things (things we think we know that are untrue), and learn how to do things but wrong(ly) – badly, in effect.

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