This used to be one of three baseball diamonds in the park. The area has gone through many “incarnations”, excluding the (very bad) idea of replacing the grass with synthetic fibers that look like grass.

I have good memories of couching Tee-Ball after work during the week on that diamond – giving the “team” freezies after the game. During the weekends, groups for friends would be “regulars” playing baseball.

Currently, it is a “hill” that used over the winter as a children’s slide – other than that, it is rarely used.

This is what the area could have been:

https://michaelld2003.wordpress.com/?s=what+could+have+been

A rain shower in Westmount Park.

The Mallard duck family in their adopted home in the park’s lagoon.

At last – picnic tables in the park.

Russian Olive Tree (Elaeagnus angustifolia) categorized as an invasive species.

According to Columbia University:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Elaeagnus_angustifolia.htm

“The Russian olive, with its tendency to spread quickly, is a menace to riparian woodlands, threatening strong, native species like cottonwood and willow trees. They are responsible for out competing a lot of native vegetation, interfering with natural plant succession and nutrient cycling and choking irrigation canals and marshlands in the western United States. This displacement of native plant species and critical wildlife habitats has undoubtedly affected native birds and other species. The heavy, dense shade of the Russian olive is also responsible for blocking out sunlight needed for other trees and plants in fields, open woodlands and forest edges. Overall, areas dominated by the Russian olive do not represent a high concentration of wildlife.

Control Level Diagnosis: The Russian olive has been categorized as a noxious weed in New Mexico and Utah, and as an invasive weed by California, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming state authorities. There is a serious concern that should the Russian olive continue to establish itself, it will become the dominant woody plant along Colorado’s rivers, where it is already taking over hundreds of thousands of acres of cottonwood and willow woodlands. Some cities are already taking steps to remove the Russian olive.”

A “well worn” observation well on Melville Avenue.

A mother Mallard duck watching over her ducklings in the park’s lagoon.

Reflections in the lagoon in Westmount Park.

Corner stone, Westmount Baptist Church.

Stone detail on a Grosvenor Avenue house.