After The Party

 A stiff, chilly wind funnels through Merimere Reservoir early Sunday morning.

Visit #1366, Sunday 8 May 22, 6:30-9:40AM, 5.4 miles, 5.0lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 50s, party sunny with a brisk wind.

One week after the Daffodil Festival and life is returning to normal in Hubbard Park.

The Meriden Parks Department did a commendable job cleaning up after the festivities; If you didn't know it, you wouldn't have thought there was a festival in the park for two consecutive weekends.

I started early because I would be running my chainsaw close to the park and did not want to alarm anyone.

When the Daffodil Festival was running and I was still able to hike the trails, I found this small tree had fallen across a trail close to the daffodils and Mirror Lake. Today I would be able to remove it without raising any eyebrows.

That was only a couple minutes' walk from the parking lot. Done, I turned around and walked around Merimere Reservoir, to continue trimming my roadside trimming project. Except instead of using my polesaw to clear low hanging branches, I would use the chainsaw to clear brush so I could reach the branches on another week.

I picked up where I left off a few weeks ago, at the north end of the reservoir.

This week I made reasonable progress of a couple hundred yards or so. Using the chainsaw instead of my loppers as I did in the past, was a trick I learned from pal Dave, who helped me clear this stretch of road several years ago. This quarter mile needs the most work. I'll tend to it every other week, then return with the pole saw to access those low hanging branches.

After my allotted hour, I walked the road up.

As I headed up the road toward East/West Peak, I noticed the tagged trees I reported on in mid-April have been cut down by the parks department.

I followed the trails down and over the I-691 walkbridge, where I found this sticker.

Of course, I had to look it up when I returned home. Apparently they're trying to capitalize on the soon-to-be legal sale of marijuana in Connecticut. I guess all Cannacticut can sell for now are trinkets and baubles.

Over 15k applications were received by the state after this week's deadline for the first twelve licenses to be awarded.

But the stuff is already here! After leaving Hubbard Park, I stopped at the Meriden Mall (not realizing they don't open until noon). With my car being one of only two in the entire parking lot, I could smell the distinct, pungent aroma of pot. Really, already stoned at 10AM on a Sunday...?

On the return leg to the park, I stopped to trim one more wayward fallen tree.

Whoever does not like me is persistent, if not deranged. They insulted me a few weeks ago on this stand of birch trees and I removed it.

They returned again this past week. So did I, except this time I used a paint approach.

With the party over, it's time to return to our regularly scheduled of fun.