Could almost forget it's a metropolis

There's a regional park, about 15 minutes drive from home. It's actually right alongside the freeway, but that's quite easy to forget. The park features a swimming lagoon and a fishing lake. The lakeshore, beyond the picnic benches, is deserted. There are some narrow overgrown trails, and it's quite easy to think yourself into the depths of the woods.
Around the lake there are a mix of eucalyptus, bull-rushes, oaks and pines. Add to that shallow waters with young fish clearly visible, dragonflies and various other bugs. Quite a peaceful place to be. When it's all over, it's a few minutes to a good ice cream or great greasy spoon burger joint.
Just like being in this park, a slight change in camera angle changes your perspective significantly. Removing the buoy makes nature more evident, loosing the reeds defies proximity.
There is a row of houses in this vista, a reminder of how close to it all we were, but the dangling branch can cut them out for the photo.


The translucence of leaves always pulls my camera to my eye. If I took the effort to crop these pictures, there may be one worthy of enlargement. But still there is something refreshing about greenery. Remember in Solaris how Snow suggested Kelvin put paper in front of the ventilators, to sound like leaves.