Textured Tuesday: Detritis

We've gotten a short reprieve from winter's torture; 

the forecast was for freezing rain, but we got rain instead. 

With temperatures in the mid-50s, the Speedway alps 

have melted away, leaving no more than 

small hillocks of snow in the parking lots, if that.

I found these images in the parking area of

a vacant restaurant, a place where, in the past, I've seen killdeer, 

screaming away from me, doing their "broken wing" act, 

to draw my attention from their eggs, 

laying in nests among the rocks.

These images were found in one of the "islands" in the parking lot.

The plants and rocks have been neglected, with milkweed

growing into another plant, and the remains of a broken concrete

parking barrier have been thrown among the rocks.

While they provided attractive color and composition, 

they speak to the attention needed to maintain the neighborhood,

to keep it from becoming rundown, and inviting vandalism.