Tagged With "squirrels"
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I've often advised travelers with jam-packed itineraries to step back and leave themselves time to take a walk in a park or sit there a while, experiencing what the locals see and do. That is absolutely excellent advice. I hope that most people were wise enough to take your advice. Many of my best trip memories are made of such stuff. Thank you so much, PHeymont, for this walk in the park. It is just what my jangled nerves needed today.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I suspect a walk in the park is a habit acquired over time and familiarity with a place. I have a feeling, too, that the urge to go at top speed is the initial and overriding one. Or is it years and not travel experience that slows us down enough for such places to finally come into focus? Looking back over the decades I think maybe it's the latter.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I do think people's perspectives and priorities change with time. For example, I care little about a bar or nightlife scene in most of my destinations nowadays; that mattered more to me when I was much younger. I have always loved walking in parks because of the beautiful gardens, etc. But I think i'm much more into people watching in these places than I used to be. One of my favorite places to visit is the provincial park a short block from my home. It's grand to go for a walk in it, see...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Maybe travel advice of the very concrete sort then, hotels, trains, etc. is the most satisfying for all concerned. A suggestion to slow down just may not compute, something for each of us to discover on our own. So PHeymont may be preaching to the choir...may he continue.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Good advice is good advice. People can accept it or ignore it. I'm all for freedom of choice. But sometimes an alternative needs to be presented in a clear way, as PHeymont has nicely done in this piece.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I don't disagree. Just pointing out the nature of human beings and, like world peace, we can wish for it while not actually expecting everyone to join in. But lessons are learned from war too and how would we feel about every tourist in town flocking to OUR park.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I've mentioned in other pages that I love wide open spaces - like the State Delaware Park - but the designer of New York Central Park rung a Bell with me. Frederick Olmsted came to Liverpool to check out the "Peoples Garden" and he wrote in 1850 : "Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
It is clear that the "dumb" animals always seem to know the best places to hang out. We can never have enough parks. Nice to read that Frederick Olmsted also knew a good park when he saw one. Thanks for that info GarryRF
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Garry's note about Olmsted's travels (and he was quite a traveler) set me off on a quick look to find the park he was referring to (which I didn't; apparently "people's garden" was a description rather than a name?) and found that Liverpool has more parks and especially top-class parks than any British city besides London. The article also mentioned that for reasons of health—and keeping social unrest down—the city commissioners set out on a park-building spree starting about 1833. Many...
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Another Park from the 1850s. People would escape Liverpool for the day and travel north to Hesketh Park. 20 minutes on the train. This is taken in Mid-Winter.
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Re: Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
Originally Posted by Grouchy Gumbo: The last pic is of my cousin Priscilla, who lives in Prospect Park. I see that you gave her a little gnosh. Not that she needs it. She seems to be putting on a little extra "winter coat" this year. She has a fine home. I would really like to visit the park sometime. Grouchy, I'm curious how a squirrel manages long distance travel to visit relatives. Maybe you can enlighten us mere mortals.
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, December 10, 2014: Black Arctic Ground Squirrel
Ground Squirrels are fairly common in western North America. Many people call them gophers but this is not correct. A gopher is an animal that lives underground and stays there. Most people have never seen one. Ground...
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Red Squirrels
Ian Cook shares some great photos and a detailed natural history of the charming Red squirrel, whose population is declining.
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Aug. 3, 2014: A Squirrel's Life
I met this squirrel—and quite a few of his furry friends—on a late-winter stroll through Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I don't climb well enough for close-ups in his world, but the magic of telephoto made it seem very personal. After a...
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Sometimes a Trip is just a Walk in the Park
I've often advised travelers with jam-packed itineraries to step back and leave themselves time to take a walk in a park or sit there a while, experiencing what the locals see and do. When we travel, it's one of our favorite things to do (we even...
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March 28, 2016: Chipmunk Mountain, Caleta de Fuste, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.
While visiting Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Ian Cook discovered these chipmunks (actually Barbary Squirrels, but equally cute!)
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, December 10, 2014: Black Arctic Ground Squirrel
Great photo. And I like a man with a mission!
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Re: Red Squirrels
I don't love squirrels (from a family that calls them furry rats), but these certainly ARE adorable...
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Re: Red Squirrels
Great photos! And who knew they could swim?? That would be pretty cool to see!
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Re: Red Squirrels
Unfortunately this little fellow likes to nibble away at the wiring in houses. If he finds a way into basements he can cause untold damage. He will travel through the trees and hedges attacking nests. He loves to find a garden where people will leave nuts and seeds for the over wintering birds. Very clever chap. He will soon find a way in past the "Anti Squirrel" device straight to the Bird Feeder.
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September 4, 2020: Columbian Ground Squirrel, Banff
DrFumblefinger shares some images of Columbian Ground Squirrels, a species found only in the northern Rocky Mountain regions.