Yard Work

 Visit #1308, Sunday 23 May 21, 6:45-9:15AM, 3.0 miles, 6.7 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 70's and mostly sunny, rising to near 90 degrees.

We are in the midst of a freak, early season heatwave. I started early this morning to avoid some of the rising temps.

The walkbridge over I-691 tends to get overgrown with vines during the season. I treated them with weedkiller last year. This year I did the same, and I also climbed through the fence and down the highway embankment, and cut as many of the vines as I could find. We'll see in a few weeks how successful the doubled approach worked.

After finishing, I spotted some new graffiti on the bridge, which was quickly addressed with sandpaper. Unfortunately, the shadows cast by the fence and the early morning sun obscure some of the detail.

In the past I periodically reported on the conditions of American flags which were displayed on the I-691 walkbridge. I would remove the flags when they became unserviceable. I never knew the identity of the person who placed the flags, until they stopped appearing, and an article appeared in the Record Journal. Below is the reprinted article from the newspaper.

Shortly after this article was published, in November of 2020, I documented the last, unserviceable flag.

Well, it's been six months, but the flags have returned!

I don't know whether it's the family continuing the tradition or someone else, but there they are again.

It is nice to see.

I hiked over to the Halfway House to continue my  yard work, performing trail trimming along one particular trail.

At the Halfway House, people have an unusual tendency to smash bottles against the outside wall. Today I brought a dustpan and attempted to rake up what broken glass I can. While I couldn't capture all the broken glass, it was a good start. I hope to periodically collect more as the dirt yields it. This picture was just a sample.

While raking up the glass and whatnot, I became a little richer, just like last week. I was hoping it would be some vintage coin. Alas, 2007 doesn't qualify.

I then used the remaining weed killer to treat the perimeter of the Halfway House.

I moved on down to Merimere Reservoir and at the guardrail found some new graffiti. I'm getting pretty proficient at removing it.

Back at the parking lot, I dropped off my trash for the week.

As a parting note, the Meriden Historical Society held an on-line presentation this week on the Faces of Hubbard Park. It's a fascinating look at the people who built and cultivated the park. You can view it here or on youtube. You can also check out another presentation on the history of Castle Craig. Justin Piccirillo deserves more credit than I have to give for archiving the history of Hubbard Park.

Until next week, maintain.