Woman in the Park

Three Women Lying in the Grass at Como Park, 1910

From the Minnesota Historical Society Collections

Here's a pleasure: On my recent walk through Como Park's Enchanted Garden I held out my fingers--like a doctor checking testes in an annual exam; er, sorry, like a gardener pulling off grape tomatoes from the vine--and I kiped a few seeds from various plants I liked. It's late September and the plants were loaded. I know, I know, "what if everyone decided to kipe seeds from those precious plants?" But I took only a few from a bush loaded with over two hundred wispy seeds, and then I took another few from another plant, and soon my hiking shorts were filled with these things that normally would blow in the wind. I had buddleia seeds in my right pocket, white cleome seeds in my left, delphinium seeds in my back pocket, echinacea seeds in the side pocket on my leg. And then I hiked all along the bike paths, checking out the fountains and ornaments and stone benches. Then I went home and made some dinner, watched a little television, washed my face, brought down the covers, and plumped my pillows for the night. And right before I took off my shorts I remembered all the seeds. So I delayed my bedtime and sat under a nightlamp sorting and labeling them in little envelopes.