Cemetery and Parks

Mom wins the tree identification contest, the tree in front of my house is a Catalpa tree. It was the pioneers' choice of trees to plant on a new homestead because it can survive most conditions and grows rapidly. They put on a big, but brief, flower show in June or July, the flower pollen is quite allergenic, and the seed pods and seeds contain a mild narcotic and sedative. Maybe I will send some of the seeds to Dad to feed to the Jays.

The cats are no longer hiding in the bathroom cabinet, but spend most of the day under the quilt on my new bed. When not under the quilt, this is Cruiser's new spot, which unfortunately shows he is not sweating off that pot belly while under the quilt.


I let both cats out in the yard in the late evening starting Monday. Both first roll around on the warm cement and then survey the perimeter of the yard. Monday, Cruiser tried to jump the fence and fell far short. Tuesday, Spit stuck her entire arm through any spot in the fence where she could and then jumped and hung on to the top of the fence long enough to take a good look around. I don't think they want out, they just want to see what is there.


I went to the bank to get a cashier's check for the mover. The assistant manager upgraded my account so I would not have to pay a fee for the check and got me the check herself. She was very friendly. The bank still has a drive-up teller, you remember, with a window and a person.

I took a walk around the corner from my house and the opposite way from the sword and sorcery store, and in 5 minutes I am at a huge graveyard. I like graveyards, maybe because they are so quiet. The oldest marker I saw was 1887. There is a large Basque population in Idaho and they must like to be buried because at least a quarter of the names were Basque, there were more Mendiolas than Johnsons. The most common appeared to be Hummel, or else they were the rich people that sprang for big, noticeable headstones.



5 minutes farther after the graveyard are 2 parks. On the right, Ann Morrison Park, which is Boise's largest park and today it was full of geese with a few ducks and seagulls. Seagulls? Maybe they are lost from Salt Lake. There were a few really colorful ducks. I watched geese honk their way in and one do yoga, left foot on the ground, right foot straight back and off the ground, right wing outstretched. He stood like that for 5 minutes and I thought there was something wrong, until he put himself back together.



On the left is Kathryn Albertson Park, which is 41 acres of restored wetlands and its use is more restricted, including no dogs during nesting season.



If I walk about the 2 miles through Ann Morrison Park, I reach Julia Davis Park, which includes a 2 mile running path along downtown and the Boise River. I don't know why so many parks in Boise are named after women, but if you want to like Boise, you will have to like parks.