Shades of Southards - Spring and Summer 2015

Southards Pond at twilight

There is untamable wilderness that is difficult to reach through bushwhacking and steep hills and there is a paved sidewalk that runs around your block that your house is built on within the suburbs. In between there is a secluded pond with short meandering trails hidden from the streets just a short distance away. This is Southards Pond of Babylon, NY. It is a peaceful retreat after a day of work where you can go and watch the sunset behind the trees.

My mom and I had taken up the habit of walking more frequently. We would walk from Argyle Lake in Babylon to Southards Pond and make a loop of it. If we had more time we'd continue on from Southards and keep going to Belmont Lake. The longest route being 6 miles, but our weekday walks being more around 3-4 miles until the sun set and we had no choice but to stop.

Each day since we began walking looked different to us. There would be new flowers, more insects, more animals. Spring blooms and summer comes underway. The same location can look an infinite number of different ways. When you visit the same place over and over again it is easier to discern the minor differences that take place over time.

The same trees are always there. The same dedicated runners. The one mean swan who growls to let you know when you've come too close to it's personal space. It is always dinner time for the swans. Their tail ends wag out of the water as they dive for fish. Sometimes people will feed them bread and ruin their appetite. Please don't feed them bread.

Late April
The number of swans and their groupings are influenced by the weather for the evening. Each day the  sun sets, but the view the sun leaves in it's goodbye can be a colorful pink sky set ablaze or a dim yellow behind a cloud filled sky. Sometimes the wind will be strong bringing a chill with it. It is not warm enough yet for t-shirts, but we will be there soon. The gnats will arrive. The days will become warmer. This night's walk we saw the bloom of the white and pale pink trees. Are these the cherry blossoms? There are still many bare trees amongst the few that began to bloom.

Mid-May
We notice the minutes that we can add on to our walks each day with the later setting sun. Along the trail on the side of Southards Pond there are numerous caterpillar nests. I see a squirrel run through the brush and I remark to my mom that I've seen a fox here before a few years ago. Then a few minutes later down the path a fox with it's dinner in it's mouth runs across our path hurriedly. It's too quick for me to grab a photo, but it is the same area I saw the fox previously. It was the highlight of that evening's walk.

Early Spring and Mid Summer teem with new life abounding everywhere. It is a joy to see all the baby ducklings grow up through the season. Their parents are always close by ready to protect them from passing strangers. Don't step too close to the babies and bring your zoom lens for a close up shot if desired.

June
Today there sprouts white flowers along the path. We arrive at the pond just in time to see a fiery sun glow above the treeline and then it vanishes quickly behind the trees gone for the day. Today at Arglye Lake the geese are plentiful and you can hear them chomping on the grass if you pause for a few seconds and listen. The scary mother swan has moved on to a different area with her babies and no longer inhabits the small stretch of water between Arglye and Southards. Nature changes so quickly.

Southards Pond was my Walden Pond. I wish I had the time to come here each day and journal each change I see. I imagine if I had no other obligations, I'd come here each day and sit on a bench to write about nature and life and observe or walk and sit with my friends (who also would have free days) and ponder life.

I've relocated this past summer to Fort Collins, CO. My new pond is Fort Collins City Park and when something a little more is needed, there are the various open spaces in the surrounding area. I'll post some photos of this area soon enough.

City Park

I encourage you to find your Walden Pond in your neighborhood.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” 

"The universe is wider than our views of it."

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden