Oct. 27th, 2006

urbpan: (Default)


I take these pictures in large part to remind me that I work in a beautiful place, and to stop complaining and enjoy it.

Expandfrogs and worms and rocks )
urbpan: (vernal pool)
For what I believe is the third time in my life, I just saw a dead body in the city. Alexis and I frequently make what seems now to be a very unfunny joke that, walking dogs in the park at night as we do, we will inevitably find a dead body. I'm always looking into the river as I walk to the train, looking to see unusual ducks, or a swimming muskrat. Instead I saw a pair of pale legs in the dark water. I stopped and stared for a while, eventually convinced that I was looking at someone's idea of a halloween prank--a partially dressed mannequin dropped into the river to scare someone like me, and waste the time of emergency responders. I actually considered for a moment, getting a long stick and dragging it out of the water, to keep someone else from wasting police time.

I struggled with it a bit, and finally called 911. When I said the words "body in the river," the officer on the line repeated them, shouting to the others in the room or on the dispatch line. "Body in the river!" I tried to stammer out that I suspected it was a prank, but the action was in place and he cut me short. I took a few steps, turned back, paused, and then walked to train platform, worried that I was going to be late for work. A man with a T uniform was there; I asked if he was a T policeman or inspector, and he said no, but I told him what was going on anyway. As I was talking to him, sirens and blue lights arrived on Longwood Ave, and I realized that they were going to have to find the body/dummy which wasn't close to a street.

I resolved to be late to work and went back into the park. In seconds there were cruisers on the path, and officers with flashlights everywhere. I found the first policeman and told him "it's over here--I called 911." An EMT caught up with me and I took him to the site. A very frightened looking man (a familiar face from the park) was there, and I was saying that I thought it was a dummy, the cop shook his head and said, "this man found a note." He explained to other officers that the man had found a backpack with what appeared to be a suicide note in or on it. It wasn't until then that I realized that it wasn't a sick prank, but that I wished that it had been. Some mother's daughter is gone.
urbpan: (vernal pool)
Many thanks to all of you for you well wishes and sorrow. I'm fine, a little weirded out, and wondering if I'm going to have residual psycological problems (I don't feel traumatized...) but once I got to work it was just another day. It was kind of strange to be working on the halloween event and to be surrounded by halloween imagery (including my own mock grave)--but the difference between real life death and pretend halloween death is very clear. I never felt like "Oh my god, we can't have pretend death! There's real death out there!!" Halloween is still fun to me. I hope I don't feel weird about walking by that place in the river from now on, but I imagine I will.

I still feel bad for the family of the woman who died, and I wish I knew more about her. I googled her name (see the comments to my last post--they include a link to a short article) and came up blank. That in itself is almost the strangest part of this. Every name exists somewhere on the internet! But not hers. Her life is none of my business, but I feel like I should know something about it, because I discovered her just after she left it.

Well wishes to all of you, and thanks again.
urbpan: (Autumn)

Photos by [livejournal.com profile] urbpan. Location: Brookline, by Beaconsfield station.

Urban species #299: Kousa dogwood Cornus kousa

Kousa dogwood is a small, exotic-looking tree, often planted in urban lawns. It is native to east Asia, and is sometimes called Korean dogwood or Japanese dogwood. Its flowers appear later than those of "flowering" dogwood, and the four petal-like bracts come to sharp points, giving the flower an appearance similar to a pinwheel. When the flower has performed its purpose, a berry-like fruit develops. Some authorities believe that the fruit evolved to be dispersed by monkey; they are edible for humans, as well. Reports are consistently unenthusiastic, and frequently mention the fruit's "mealy" texture. Squirrels make up for the lack of primate attention to the tree. Some birds will take the fruits as well, though since they are large and unwieldy, compared to the fruits of Cornus florida, birds will more often feed on fallen Kousa fruits than pick them from the tree. The fruit's relatively late arrival mean that overwintering birds benefit more than migratory birds. Kousa dogwood is hardier than flowering dogwood, resisting cold and disease better. Some authorities predict that kousa may eventually outnumber florida, or even hybridize with it, causing the weaker native tree's demise.



Readers' photos of the tree in flower are especially welcome!

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