In an earlier post I mentioned how Ashes and I have been particularly active since moving. Well the place that we go to most often is Stanley Park, a large block of land in the suburbs with gardens and ponds. It's quite unlike any parks we had in Maine, at least in the Bangor area. This is a park that actually drives us to get up and go to it on a near daily basis. We have already had a few denizens of this park, which I will talk about in a bit.
Hearing About It and Finding It
We came to Massachusetts at just the perfect time to still be active outdoors without the need for heavy jackets or shovels to clear a path. Ashes had known about Stanley Park since her family had taken her their when she was younger. So she was excited even before we moved to go back to this place she remembered from her childhood. I guess I was looking forward to going to the park a bit myself. She built it up to be a cool place and it delivered. It was a bit of luck that the park was only a few miles down the road by car. A bit of trial and error on the back roads led us right to the entrance on the second or third day after our arrival.
First Impressions
We parked our car right by a small Japanese torii gate. Already I knew this was going to be a good place just by seeing that within the first five seconds. Under the gate we went onto a stone pathway that led us through some sculpted, but dying, gardens. All around us could be heard small animals scurrying in the shrubs. Chipmunks, squirrels and tiny birds were all playing in the woods around us without fear. Clearly these animals were used to humans and weren't about to stop their capering just because we were walking through their home. The little buggers would run right in front of us on the path constantly. It made this place feel really alive, and I like that in a park. To me it can't just be about the scenery it has to be about all of nature. Stanley Park drew me in from the get go and has become one of my favorite places in the area.
The small animals along the paths weren't the only residents of Stanley Park. Beyond the Japanese garden, past the pathways, down a hill via stairways and next to the waterwheel are three ponds. In these ponds live several dozen ducks, a handful of geese and a swan. Ashley says she remembers there being more swans but all that is left now is just the one. They can be heard loudly quacking as you approach these ponds from any direction and are most likely declaring their dominance to any passersby. The top pond, which has the waterwheel attached to a house, is most often where the ducks can be found. The middle pond, which has a New England-style covered bridge, has quite a few ducks but is the stomping ground of the geese. Those geese own the area, but I'll get into that in a bit. The third pond has a wooden walkway encircling it and only has a few ducks at any given time, but is often home to the swan. The bottom pond is full of lilypads and has a high arching stone walking bridge over it. I've only seen ducks in there once.
Ashes Tries to Make Friends
These ducks living in the ponds are very friendly. They know who feeds them and therefore will always be willing to make friends with the public in hopes of getting some bread or seed to nibble on. Often this works for them. We went to see the ducks on a holiday and the place was overcrowded with kids and elderly people throwing entire loaves of bread into the water, much to the delight of these ducks. The ground was littered with bread and the water had chunks floating everywhere. Yes, these ducks do quite well. So anyway we went up on a different day and were passing by the ducks. They were mostly on land and kept right where they were as we walked by them. Ashes, overcome by their cuteness, decided she had to make friends with a duck that was quietly quacking at us. Slowly she approached it with her arm outstretched hoping to pet it (or rip a feather off, I'm not quite sure). The duck was taken aback by this approach and waddled to the water and hopped in. I discouraged Ashes from trying to make any more feathered friends and, to her sadness, we kept walking.
Attack of the Feather People
On a different day we decided we wanted to feed the ducks. We chose a midday on a weekday and brought some bread along. I'm sure the ducks would've preferred seed but all we had was bread. When we got to the top pond and tossed the bread in for the ducks, which was gobbled up right quick, we caught the attention of somebody else. We heard loud honking quacks and looked off to our left as an entire troop of geese started plodding towards us. We were sort of shocked at the sight of about 10 geese all marching at us loudly honking. We tossed them a piece of bread to placate them but it didn't slow them down at all. We actually turned tail and ran in the other direction when the geese showed no sign of slowing down. Fear of being trampled or attacked by this marching attack squad of geese was enough to keep us running. We threw them the other pieces of bread as we ran off. It wasn't until we were out of their sight in the bamboo groves that they stopped following us. Ashes and I couldn't stop from laughing for minutes. Those damned geese won the day, but we'll get them back!
I love Stanley Park.
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