You drive west on West D street in Springfield until you hit the end of the street and either turn left to pick up the parking area/boat ramp (sort of a ramp) bike/hiking paths or right onto Locust. There used to be a building there that had something to do with the water system. Frankly I forget because it was torn down about forty years ago. The land was eventually turned into a little park and some houses were built along the access road.
Near as I can tell that building was the only reason there is a little creek running off the Middle Fork, down by what used to be a landfill, now bordering the bike path, and rejoining the main river at Alton Baker Park. Anyway there is a short bridge across the creek that allows park personnel access to the bike path.
At the southeast end of this bridge there used to be a beat up stump about say, eight inches across and three feet high. That stump was its own little world. Of all the places I took pictures of I never thought to take a picture of that microworld. I remember at least two kinds of moss. The green velvety kind and the rougher yellow green kind.
After a rain there would be a little cluster of midget toadstools about and inch or so tall. A few grass seeds would come in on the wind, looking like tiny trees with their seed clusters. If you looked closely there might have been a lady bug or two and the tiniest daddy longlegs spiders. At least they looked like daddy longlegs. On a foggy moring there might be a tiny spider web woven between the grasses and sparkling if a puff of breeze parted the mist. Midget spiders weaving webs to catch even smaller prey.
The bark on the stump was raggedy with moss in the cracks. It had either been a very small tree or a bush with delusions of grandeur. I don't remember how many times I stopped by that micro world and almost got lost in that world. It's been years since I remembered that little world. May have been a couple of collections of haiku no longer hiding on my bookcase.
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