Sunday morning walk around Lake Nokomis before the weather went to hell

Beautiful September Sunday, enjoyed my early morning walk around Lake Nokomis.

Nokomis is a pretty lake in the Twin Cities, although I wouldn't be caught swimming in it. Rumor has it that you can't get the smell out of your swimming suit after you've been in the lake even with repeated washings.

As part of the Park Board's desire to make Lake Nokomis more accessible to the public, walking and bike riding paths were constructed around the lake.

To create these paths, the Park Board had all of the wild flowers removed that had grown around the lake, who would want to look at a bunch of wild flowers when you can look at a nice green suburban type lawn.

Years later someone realized that the wild flowers and natural grasses were an important part of the ecological health of Lake Nokomis. They acted as a filter to keep the lake clean.

Now parts of Lake Nokomis have been replanted with supposedly the original wild flowers and grasses that had grown around the lake.

The Park Board has now put up large signs in these spots trumpeting their approach to keeping Lake Nokomis healthy.

Since Lake Nokomis is a Twin Cities lake it has been extensively over fished by every would be master fisherman ready to drop a line in the water.

Nokomis is basically "fished out," leaving only carp and assorted rough fish populating the lake. You can see the fish at the surface of the lake gasping for air, probably because the oxygen content is very low in the lake water.