9.29.2006

A Beautiful Day


And my beautiful Mister. The other day we went for a walk after lunch in Columbus. This is a bigish park west of the Short North, in an area called (we think) Victorian Village. We both wanted to wade into that pond to collect the Lotus seeds. A couple years ago in Shanghai, the subway stop next to our hotel had this guy on a bicycle selling these at the station, and we ate a whole bunch of them over a period of several days, coming to and fro points of fun in that boiling city. So, we really were thinking of jumping in to get some. But the prospect of what urban detritus may lay in the muck stopped us.

Oh, and by the way, the brutal 70s skyscraper in the background is Nationwide where Steven works. Even though I call it brutal, I really mean that as a compliment. Up close it is not bad at all, and the gardens they have around that building, inside and outside, are actually pretty incredible. There is a particular grove of white-skinned river birches floored with a field of mondo grass that Steven really loves. And there is a very nicely designed water feature/river that runs through the gardens and plaza, with bridges, a wonderful mixture of manmade cut stone river bed and more natural sections, all crisscrossing and making a really nice oasis. All the work i'm getting started on at the Ohio Statehouse has made having lunches together quite convenient!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is the first time that I have even seen lotus pond(I mean real one) in US. I t was everywhere I grew up in China. It is simply just beautiful. I will grow some when we have water pond next year.

Somehow I do like Columbus better than Atlanta. Small, less populated, a lot of trace of the past, a bit real at present.

Fight the H8 in Your State