(This post was originally published at Sweet Amaranth in 2015.)
Lately, I’ve been working with coach Kellie J. Walker on some stress-busting strategies and planning some amazing things for Sweet Amaranth. She and I had just gotten off the phone; I was bursting with inspiration and ready to do sketching and journal work. I generally write digitally — my hands are more easily able to keep up with my thoughts that way — but sometimes the slow stroke of pen on paper is better for brainstorming, so off to a local park I went.
Clark Lake Park is a nice little park down the road from us in Kent, WA, with winding walking trails leading to a small lake. This was my first visit, and I had rushed out of the house in a floor-length maxi dress and flip-flops — not ideal for strolling roughly graveled paths. Oops.
Tall pines and grassy undergrowth at Clark Lake Park in Kent, WA.
Thankfully, the trail to the lake was pretty short. The lake itself was in full sun and incredibly bright, so I didn’t take many photos that day (though I did the next time I went). Instead, I settled down on the blanket I’d brought and wrote for an hour or so.
Joggers jogged by, walkers laughed at their dogs splashing in the shallows, and the wind ruffled the sun-warmed grasses.
(According to a document [PDF] from the City of Kent, the park is actually partly privately owned. The owner has been petitioning the city for permission to subdivide the land and build homes right on the lake shore, which would ruin the park. Instead, the city’s trying to buy the land and preserve it. Fingers crossed that it works out.)
A shaded boardwalk near the lake
Late-summer wildflowers
A small dock on the other side of the lake. A trail winds from the dock around to the lakeshore where I stood to take this
Pond plants and ripples
A tree-shaded trail leading through the woods to farm fields
Raindrops from a passing shower on a spiderweb
Wild cyclamen growing pink and perfect in the shade of tall trees and undergrowth
Delicate shadows on a tree trunk. I don’t know my Pacific Northwest trees yet, so I can’t identify this one!
A farmhouse and rolling hills bordering the park