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Given that it was a school day, and it had been raining, it isn’t surprising that Ashland’s new ice skating rink sat empty earlier this week. The new rink has taken the place of the old Darex Family Ice Skating Rink generously donated by the town philanthropist. This one is sponsored by Ashland Rotary and was strongly pushed by one of Ashland’s famous residents, Tai Babilonia.
Yesterday was a good day for taking photos in Lithia Park as it was raining and yet there were spots of blue sky. The rain is good for photography as it keeps the people away while at the same time making the moss extra green and the rocks a richer, darker color.
This picture looks much better (on a big screen) if you maximize your browser and then click on it.
Another one from the archives today. This is from a couple of Octobers ago.
Lower Duck Pond (2008)
All the tourists are long gone on an early, frozen morning at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The lower duck pond in Lithia Park is completely frozen over and snow has fallen overnight.
When the temperature drops below zero (-20 Celsius) all life seems to disappear. At the upper duck pond in Lithia Park all the ducks were gone. Where to I do not know. People were also gone. I’ve never seen the park so deserted or so beautiful.
My camera wanted to run away and hide too. It took three attempts before the lens would come out of its retracted state. I don’t think the image stabilization feature was working, and I didn’t have a tripod. Nor could I risk setting the camera on the ground as it would probably be stuck there until spring. But I did get this shaky image of the frozen pond.
This may look like ordinary playground equipment. However, if you are in Lithia Park at just the right moment you will get to see that it is actually a moon launching apparatus. After particularly successful launches a bunch of snow sprays out as a sort of afterbirth. It’s very beautiful to watch. I was about 5 seconds too late with this picture for you to see the actual moment of launching. Sorry.
Continuing my walk on Ridge Road from an entry 3 or 4 days ago, this is a view across Lithia Park from the east looking west. You can make out pieces of Strawberry Lane (where I took a nasty spill on my bike many years ago before they paved it) and Scenic Drive.
The nice thing about Ridge Road is you can see so many different things from it. Look to the south for nice views of Mt. Ashland and the Siskiyou Mountain Range; to the west you get Lithia Park (if you look down) and this; to the north is downtown, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Ashland Springs Hotel; and to the east you can see SOU, Grizzly Peak, and much more.
100 years old — read all about it here.
I haven’t made it down to Lithia Park this October, which is a shame since I’m sure it is gorgeous right now. I took the above photograph last October (on the 14th to be exact) in the Japanese Gardens. You can see some more pictures from that day here.
We have a couple of Japanese Maples in our backyard that turn colors later than all other Japanese Maples in town. One of our Japanese Maples goes the last week of October and the other doesn’t give up its green until about November 10th.
Photo taken in August of 2008.
Almost 10 years ago the Ashland Creek flooded downtown Ashland. The creek is pretty tame in August. I find it more exciting during a rainstorm or on a warm day in spring when the snow is melting quickly.