Because it's just such a pain to have to keep watch on your bike when you're busy going down the slide at the playground.

Laura Scannell photographed the Moving Wall Vietnam War memorial at Millennium Park in West Roxbury. It's there through today.

Copyright Laura Scannell. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

As yesterday afternoon's storm wound down, I drove up to the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury, figuring there might be a rainbow. There was! Split in two, with one end landing just left of the high school and the other end between the VA hospital and the Great Blue Hill. Alas, it was just a little too faint for my camera to do justice, so no photos, but I did take some shots of this twittering bird, which seemed to be enjoying the wet road. Anybody know what it is?

A little kid navigating the path at the top of Millennium Park today.

Lizkdc meditates on Millennium Park:

... Here people come and fly kites, run laps, stroll babies and dogs. Ducks paddle, a heron stalks, and red-winged blackbirds were calling to one another today, defying the still melting snow and half frozen stream.

It's a good place to focus on one's awareness, because there's nothing here, and everything.

I went down to Millennium Park today to take pictures of stuff like the frozen Charles (except it wasn't frozen) and barren trees set against dismal clouds (like the ones below), but as I was driving up from the canoe launch, I saw this huge kite above the soccer fields.

Chuck Donaldson is the man who wants to build a windmill right at the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury. When I first read about his proposal, I wrote NO!!! Donaldson invited me up to the park to try to convince me to support the idea.

It was fun watching a pair of local Brazilian teams play soccer at Millennium Park yesterday (I think the complex behind them is the apartments by the Chestnut Hill Mall).

The Transcript reports some retired engineer in West Roxbury wants to put a wind turbine right at the top of Millennium Park. He also wants to replace a wildflower field with solar panels.

At the risk of sounding like an environmental hypocrite (I drive a Prius and stuff): NO!!!

The park is a wonderful, rare commodity in Boston: A wide open expanse with gorgeous views (plus plenty of room for recreation). Now this guy wants to stick a big pole in the middle of this view - a 100-foot high, 16-foot diameter pole at the end of the park - where there are now two sheltered benches for looking out over the countryside. Why not investigate putting windmills on top of downtown buildings or the Pru and Hancock? Or up on Bellevue Hill at the other end of West Roxbury - where there are already two MWRA water towers? I bet there's a lot of wind there, too.

Also, he wants to create a West Roxbury advisory group for the project. Given that this is a citywide resource, why limit it to them, as opposed to opening it to people who actually use the park (raises hand). It's not like the park is in the middle of the neighborhood.

I got to Millennium Park today about 10 minutes before the first bolt of lightning flashed in the distance and the announcer at the annual kite festival told everybody it was time to call it a day.

Even as most people reeled in their kites, some still looked skyward, hopefully:

Every time there's a heavy rain, this woman, who lives on the southbound side of the VFW Parkway, just past the West Roxbury Parkway, dons her boots and raincoat and goes out with a rake to try to keep the storm drain and "dry" catchbasin outside her house clear, to minimize the damage from flooding. She's been doing that a lot lately.