This is a quick update from yesterday’s post about the trees in the park.

I took my walk in the park yet again this morning. I have a thing for trains. I love the sound of train whistles and there is a train track at the very farthest edge of the northern side of the park.

As I was preparing to leave the park today, I heard the train whistle! I got all excited and wanted to watch the train through the trees as the train skirted the park, so I took a detour from my usual route out of the park.

I did indeed see the train rushing by through the tall pines and, of course, was reminded of all the times in my younger days when I wished to be “going somewhere.” (Train Whistle Blues, I think it’s called!) And when the noisy rush was over, I was heading out of the park, and I spied some buds on a tree that I hadn’t noticed before (because I never leave the park from that direction.).

Nothing else in the park was budding yet. When I got up close to that one tree, sure enough, it really was budding. And I looked at the plaque to see who had planted it and to whose memory it had been planted and I had to do a double-take!

It was a Royal Star Magnolia, planted in honor of the Revolutionary War Veterans, and it was planted  by an old American Legion Post on July 21, 1938!

It’s the oldest tree marker I’ve seen in the park so far.  I have to wonder now how long the park has been a park.  I thought it had only officially become “a park” in the late 1980s. How small this town must have been back in 1938!

I googled an image of what the Royal Star Magnolia will look like in full bloom and here it is:

Well, come spring, I’ll have to start taking my own photos of the park because a whole lot of the trees planted there are flowering trees. I’m really looking forward to that.

In the meantime… Tonight’s the night of the table read in Burbank, CA, for my TV script The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder at Parsons Ridge!! I am super excited! 8 actors have come on board to participate in the reading. I don’t know any of them personally but I’m really honored that they all got involved. I will be Skyping in — assuming that the WiFi there is strong enough.

And here’s a peek at the real town that I’ve named “Parsons Ridge”:

Okay! Now for a fresh pot of coffee and some re-writes on Cleveland’s Burning… A script that is visually a very far cry from “Parsons Ridge”:

All right. Have a great day, gang, wherever you are! Thanks for visiting. See ya!