This morning was apocalyptically dark...thunder in January? Between bouts of torrential rain, I decided to check out some denizens who like it wet.
En route, I walked along Flatbush Avenue and gazed into the deep woods on the park's eastern border. Well, they seem like deep woods, until one spies a car flickering past on the East Drive. I could have entered through any one of a half-dozen breaks in the fence to well-worn shortcut footpaths (I believe they call these "desire lines"), but it looked a tad deserted. Okay, as deserted as Mordor before the Hobbits got there. Sylvan isolation in the Catskills, say, is without menace (unless you have watched too much Blair Witch Project); in the city, it still gives me pause, no matter what ComStat says.
Ah, but some folks were having a grand day already. Here, hours before opening, was a sea lion and his keeper in the Zoo (easily visible through the fence), polishing up the act with the old morning bucket o'herring. Several young ladies were already waiting on the whiskery dudes before most of us were at our desks; somehow, I was put in mind of long-suffering admin assists fetching coffee for a barking boss. (A boss who had to point his flippers the right way before he got that cuppa joe, however.) CORRECTION: An astute reader points out that the sea lions at PPZ are all female...so make that "The Pinniped Wears Prada."
NEW FEATURE: TWIPP
Every Friday, I promise an exciting new bonus at AYITP: 'This Weekend in Prospect Park.' Not a comprehensive calendar (for that, go here), just whatever intrigues me. Like:
* Moonlight Ride. On Saturday night, Time's Up (the enviro-activist group) sponsors a ride from 9 to 10 p.m. open to cyclists and "skilled skaters." Bring a bike with lights and warm clothes, and meet at Grand Army Plaza at 9. (They do one of these a month; I will wait for spring.)
* Nature walk. Saturdays and Sundays, 3 to 4 p.m., from the Audubon Center; look for birds and the source of the Lullwater with a naturalist guide.
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