Photo: Martin Cox

This morning my friend Martin Cox called me to tell me about what was going on at the lake. They (the City) were pulling out the lotus. Martin agreed to email me some details as there was no human way I could get down there except to close my eyes and imagine: grappling hooks, dumpsters, the city calling it a day for the lotus. Never mind that maybe four of them still were blooming. I am sure everyone is happier without a giant compost heap in the western petal of the lake.

City workers told Martin that this year the dump load was lighter than usual. Probably related to the late bloom and who knows what other atmospheric forces.

Martin writes:

OK so here's what's happening in the lake: Yesterday, on October 31, starting early, I could see across the lake as i was leaving my home that the "Final Days of the Lotus" had come. The annual removal of the dying lotus had begun. Park workers had commandeered some peddle boats and began cutting the storks and leaves that are now beginning to collapse into the water. Today, Nov 1, I investigated their progress. Half a dozen green dumpsters had been placed at the waters edge. Six men with grappling hooks were reeling in the fallen lotus, by the end of the day the lotus will be but a memory. The close knit domestic geese families were watching avidly, until someone came along with heaps of stogy food for them to eat.

Martin has many interests, one of which is ships, Brit that he is. His site Maritime Matters has received almost 975,000 hits.

Photo: Echo Park Lake, October 2006; Dave foster tosses a grappling hook
By Martin Cox