MEADOWBROOK PARK in Urbana. July 21, 2004
This is a 130-acre park with a difference, beloved by the locals, including us! It has the usual facilities like picnic areas and a large field for ball play. But, the kids’ play structures are different to usual playgrounds – super-sized, and made of wood. Also unusual are the prairie and the Wandell Sculpture Garden, a series of large-scale outdoor sculptures that line the three miles of walking trails. The trails wander through a broad swathe of re-created tallgrass prairie, organic and wildflower gardens.
It’s really gorgeous now, at the height of summer. Tall, bright green grasses cover the fields across to the trees ringing the area. But the dominant color is not just green. Wild flowers, massed, swaying slightly in the breeze, attract bees and birds. We watch a redwing blackbird perch atop a tall stalk with huge yellow flowers, and nearby a small sparrow chirps on a bush with some other yellow flowers. White Queen Anne’s Lace, aptly named, polka-dots the green, along with pinkish Echinacea, bright blue cornflowers, and masses of purple and yellow, daisy-like wild flowers.
Rod and I hear a Chinese pheasant calling and watch for the deer, which are usually here, munching calmly, unworried by humans. If this kind of vegetation covered these prairies in days gone by, before the settlers came in and cleared it for farmland, the sight must have been truly awesome.
Today, in the relative cool of the morning, other runners and walkers pass us. Everyone smiles and greets us, the spirit seems relaxed and friendly. We are soothed by the beauty and perfection of this piece of Nature we are privileged to share.
This is a 130-acre park with a difference, beloved by the locals, including us! It has the usual facilities like picnic areas and a large field for ball play. But, the kids’ play structures are different to usual playgrounds – super-sized, and made of wood. Also unusual are the prairie and the Wandell Sculpture Garden, a series of large-scale outdoor sculptures that line the three miles of walking trails. The trails wander through a broad swathe of re-created tallgrass prairie, organic and wildflower gardens.
It’s really gorgeous now, at the height of summer. Tall, bright green grasses cover the fields across to the trees ringing the area. But the dominant color is not just green. Wild flowers, massed, swaying slightly in the breeze, attract bees and birds. We watch a redwing blackbird perch atop a tall stalk with huge yellow flowers, and nearby a small sparrow chirps on a bush with some other yellow flowers. White Queen Anne’s Lace, aptly named, polka-dots the green, along with pinkish Echinacea, bright blue cornflowers, and masses of purple and yellow, daisy-like wild flowers.
Rod and I hear a Chinese pheasant calling and watch for the deer, which are usually here, munching calmly, unworried by humans. If this kind of vegetation covered these prairies in days gone by, before the settlers came in and cleared it for farmland, the sight must have been truly awesome.
Today, in the relative cool of the morning, other runners and walkers pass us. Everyone smiles and greets us, the spirit seems relaxed and friendly. We are soothed by the beauty and perfection of this piece of Nature we are privileged to share.
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