Lake Parker Park

I went to Lake Parker in Lakeland in April 2021. It took a while to get there. I took a wrong turn but that was not my fault. Approaching from the south, I saw a long walkway on the shore with many amazing views. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to park.

​At last I reached the park. The first thing I noticed was all the cypress trees. The park is dominated by them. The second thing I noticed were the birds. Ibises, wood ibises, grackles, limpkins, herons, and gallinules were everywhere. They came right up to me and did not seem to care when I approached.

I parked in the first lot near the playground. It had some unique equipment, such as a giant xylophone complete with mallets and drums. There was a simple jungle gym disguised as a sailing vessel on one side. Since I often imagine jungle gyms as ships, it’s as if they read my mind. I saw a chair suspended from a sort of zip line. There were swings. The best thing was the merry-go-round. It was a cage ball with two levels.

I took a walk along the lake shore. It had many plants and birds that squawked constantly. Three gallinules got into a fight, splashing water at each other and yelling. They were soon joined by a fourth.

​One thing I noticed that season were the pink egg masses on the cypress knees. There were dozens of them.

I soon rounded back to my car without further incident. It’s not a big place.

After lunch, I sat under one of the many pavilions and wrote the rough draft for this post.

a snake?

a dog?

a brain?

a fence to keep out alligators?