[ Wed Oct 08, 04:22:25 PM | Mary Margaret Hansen | ]
A Week of Discovery

October 8 2003 is quintessential fall – brisk wind, blue blue sky, moments of rain, yellow leaves falling. I enter the park at the gate near the money plants. Ahead of me is a grey haired man in denim jackets and khaki pants. His stride is slower than mine. I can’t decide if he is beginning or ending his walk or how I should pace myself to overtake him. His walk appears aimless and I am suddenly happy to see a young woman approaching us. I am not alone. The man cracks off a tree branch far too lean for a walking stick and heads up a minor path into the trees. I am not liking this man. I look back and see that he is simply standing among the trees. A swift decision changes my walk to a jog. The most I want to be surprised by in this park is a rabbit.

Damn. Dissolved are years of visiting Seattle and walking Discovery Park trails without a look over my shoulder. I head for open space where is it always possible to see Puget Sound – and distant figures intentionally walking, jogging, seeking the view.

On the bluff, a walker approaches, a greeting is shared. He looks prepared to make the entire Loop. Off we go, he unaware of his follower. At the junction of South Beach Trail and North Loop Trail, he heads down toward the beach down the steps through sunlit trees and brisk wind. Halfway down the bluff, I decide I am being foolish for following. The beach is not my destination.

Take back the park, I say, and turn back up the steps through falling leaves. Common sense says that the man with the lean walking stick will not walk this far into the park. Back on the Loop trail, I pass a woman with headphones and see a couple in the distance. This is my experience of Discovery Park. I return the same way I entered the park and pause to watch the light on the trunk of a medrona tree. There is no one on the path but me.


[ Sun Oct 05, 06:34:59 PM | Mary Margaret Hansen | edit]
Brilliant bouquets of sunflowers, asters, roses and mums at Ballard's Farmers Market. Jeanne bought a bouquet for Dan, Caroline found a bright yellow oil cloth baby bib scattered with hibiscus flowers and I bought the world's tiniest set of Tarot cards for Mary's Christmas stocking.

There were a few other things I couldn't leave behind. Seduced by an $8 flat of fresh blue berries - the last of the season, a handmade cake of citrus lavender soap and 3 totes made from bright funky Mexican oilcloth. No resistance here. I will photograph the totes and post on my website with a story.