How Dragonfly Park Came To Be

So often when I look back at how something special came to be, it is often through a series of events that I couldn't have orchestrated if I had tried. It's as if the special something was just meant to come to life and I was a bit player in the action. There were synchronous events that came together several winters ago. James and I decided to replace an aged fence on the property and an exceedingly rare ice and wind storm proceeded the tear down. During the ice storm I watched as a large ash tree came down on the neighbors house and watched a few on my trees split as well taking down parts of the fence that was already on its way out. In response to seeing the tree land on the neighbors roof I decided to be a good neighbor and have a grand old white oak that was behind our back fence on land covered up to the eyeball with blackberries highly pruned to reduce the weight of the mighty tree limb aiming towards the neighbors property. The arborist who pruned the magnificent white oak also cut back blackberries on the banks of the storm water creek that was obscured behind our back fence. This trimming back of the blackberries happened at the same time as the fence builder demolished the back fence. Voila! There was the prettiest creek with tiny water falls at the back of our property. We knew that it was there but had never seen it because of the thorny thicket obscuring it's view. I immediately redesigned the new fence and had a decorative metal fence put in that would give us a year round view of the creek. The property was ours but ordinances would not allow us to fence it in or build on it because the storm water drops underground on our property.
With uncanny luck a friend knew just the right consultant for us to hire to help design the park. Planting was proceeded with a year of taking a tool similar to a pick axe to dig way down in the clay to get to the corms of the ancient blackkberry plants, some the size of canteloupes. Land was sculpted, hundreds of large rocks moved around, trails were created all with a permaculture method of helping to bring the dense clay soil back to life with leaves and bark chips.
The first year the plants went in the baby slept. The second year they crept. By year three they leapt.
The park has one creek that has gotten about 11 feet wide during our wettest winter and 2 winter springs that flow from neighboring land. Many plants have edible berries: huckleberries, gooseberries, salmon berries, salal, wild plum, indian plum red currants, blue elderberry, black elderberry, chokecherry, emerald creeper and strawberry as well as hazelnuts. The herbs oregano, thyme and rosemary are also part of the Mediterranean section of the park. Flowers abound in spring and summer.
The city declared our land part of a wildlife corridor in the city so we coexist with many birds, deer, raccoon, brown squirrels and gray squirrels. Best of all the park is home to many dragonflies and damselflies. At this moment 6 gray squirrels are racing around the park going up and down and round and round the white oaks and birds splash in the vernal ponds that in winter are part of our several small waterfalls.
A friend remarked that I should find people who are sad and have them come sit in the park to help them cheer up. Maybe nature does have healing powers.