I have no idea what this path sign means, but at least I saw it. (To call it a trail marker would be a tad overwrought. The wide, groomed-but-dusty paths accommodate pedestrians of all skills and levels, as well as wheelchairs. The wilderness it ain’t.)
Our recent return to Veterans Oasis Park showed great growth in the plantings surrounding the artificial ponds–so much growth that it was sometimes hard to get close to other Park visitors.
It’s hard to give/get the feel of these urban-but-also-desert parks. The fluttery to-ing and fro-ing of small flocks of birds above my head. The grit under and on my shoes. The smell of the creosote bushes alongside the path. The sudden sighting of a well-camouflaged roadrunner. The sprinkle of colour through sage-green bushes: tiny flowers that lift the heart even though they don’t take a good picture.
This 10-second video adds at least something to the false quiet stillness and sameness of any photographic view.
It is getting somewhat “over-grown”. The non-human visitors are likely just as happy about that, but I suspect the human-types are not so happy.
Jim R – Yeah, I expect the birds and their buddies are fine with it, but the photographers (even just the watchers) feel a bit shortchanged.
Surely you see the bemused expression on the face in the bewildering trail marker? No more bemused than the walker who sees it, I think. Never have I seen a more confusing direction-pointer. We are permitted to descend without ascending and to move to either side as long as we neither move forward nor retreat. Who sang, “Stuck here in the middle of nowhere”?
The sound track on the video opened a marvelous dimension that, I suppose, I should have imagined all along but did not. A lovely addendum.
Laurna – I did note the bemusement – and looked for it on subsequent markers, but it turns out the vertical placement of the screw-heads is critical. As for the song, I’m not familiar with it, but Google knows all. Here’s one YouTube version.
Isabel
I love the picture with all the birds in the pond.
You’ll recall, I imagine, that there’s a lake in southwestern Magnitoba called “Pelican Lake.” At a given time there’ll be thousands of pelicans in a bay on that lake.
Tom
Tom – I had not heard about Pelican Lake, although I’ve seen biggish flocks near Lockport MB.
Isabel – I think your sign is trying to say, “Any direction works, so go in the direction that works for you.”
John – 🙂 That’s an affirming posture (and one that I don’t usually expect from the powers-that-be), but it’s a nice thought so we’ll go with that.