Mason, Michigan (USA)
Photo Walks Around Town

 

My photo walk of 26 April 2011

 

26 April 2011 (69th birthday)

52 minute walk

Today is my 69th birthday and I was determined to celebrate a bit with what I ate. We went to a local Mid-East restaurant Woody's Oasis. I had talked by phone earlier to my sister Carolyn and we talked about making homemade chocolate pudding and how my mother was a master pie maker. She made my favorite chocolate cream pie, and I determined I would have chocolate pie for a treat tonight. I chose the restaurant based on it being near an excellent pie store. We picked up pie at the Grand Traverse Pie Company on the way home. However, after waiting an hour I took my BG reading and it was high (139). That wasn't so bad after a meal, but I couldn't eat a piece of pie with that reading. It was such a nice Spring evening I decided to go for a walk instead of to the gym to exercise and run my BG number down to a safe range for eating a desert.

I headed towards a local Rayner Park with the intention of visiting the nature trail behind the park. I traveled the nature trail, exiting at Kipp Road. Then I walked past the local High School and headed home. Though I normally achieve a bigger drop in my BG reading I determined it was sufficiently low to have my beloved pie. Success!

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26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

About a block from home I spotted these beatiful yellow flowers, a nice sign of the arrival of Spring. The temperature was perfect and there was a nice breeze. Nearby I noted the paper flowers made by the children in a class at the Steele Street Elementary School. I thought the stone has I then passed was quite striking and some nice flowers growing next to the wall.

26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

This extraordinary tree with peeling bark impressed me a demanded to be documented. Then east on Ash Street where I reached the entrance to Rayner Park. The green grass and running water made a good impressing.

26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

Inside the park are some nice sports playing fields with beatiful green grass. Here you can see some soccer goals. Looking towards the Ingham Fairgrounds I could see construction equipment. Further along looking to the west I could see the tennis courts of Mason High School.

26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

At the back of Rayner Park is the entrance to the nature path leading into the trees. The ground was dotted with small wildflowers. Several of the trees had buckets attached to them containing what looking like water with lots of dead bugs floating in the water. I saw no sign of the trees being tapped for sap. A mystery.

26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

The path had a few signs marking specific items plus some labels describing various trees. The later afternoon sun created a golden light that made some of the trees glow.

26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan
26 April 2011 - Mason Michigan

Here are two more labeled trees. After that last tree my camera battery suddenly failed so I couldn't document the rest of my walk. However, after arriving home I charged the battery sufficiently to get a shot of my reward, a lovely piece of chocolate cream pie. Boy did I enjoy that pie! If you think the pie seems to have an extra amount of whipped cream, well, you could be right.

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