sunday afternoon in the park with bill ~

Yesterday was the Cornwall Park Disc Golf tournament. Dad (aka Bill) decided to take part. He’s been playing every morning for a year ~ about two hours a day. He may not be the local pro yet, but at (almost) 73, he scored better than some of the younger dudes.

We grew up with our backyard leading into the park, so this was our natural playground. We’d play on the park swings, roam the hills, and bike like mad through the trails before there was even a hit of a mountain bike fad.

I remembered to bring my camera with me to take some shots of the tournament. But I have to admit, the “nature” in the park was enchanting ~ the tournament soon took a photographic back seat.

There were mushrooms and toadstools galore throughout our walk as the group dad was playing with circled about 10 holes. Most of these mushrooms were at least 7” in diameter and 6-7” tall. They were amazing.

The park is filled with the most amazing trees: cedar, fir, hemlock, maples, etc. They are some of the oldest and largest trees in Bellingham. One of the problems with the disc golf course in the park is that the trees are natural obstacles and get whapped by discs constantly. The bark gets damaged like the cedar in the photo above. This, supposedly, isn’t a big deal for the older trees, but is not good for younger ones. Personally, it is really a shame they can’t figure a better way to play around some of the trees.

Not sure which hold this was taken at, but it gives you an idea about the height of the trees.

There’s a small row of chestnut trees at the southeast entrance to the park by the elementary school I went to 35 years ago. I use to collect the chestnuts on my way home from school ~ it was my “collection”. I’d glue each chestnut carefully to a sheet of paper ~ oh, how I loved my chestnut collections.

I couldn’t believe how close I was able to get to this dragonfly ~ such wonderful shape and color.

The colors of fall were starting to show everywhere.

This is the last hole we watched before heading home. See the big pack the guy on the left was carrying ~ most of the guys what these filled with their discs. Poor guy wasn’t play so well, but he did have a lot of discs.

Dad told us where there was a patch of native cyclamen that we would pass on our way up the hills. The leaves were starting to break through the ground ~ another sign of impending fall. Soon the shuttlecock flowers will be gone for another season.