Nature therapy, with homemade syrup

2025 has been miserable in a lot of ways, but this weekend the good people of Cedar Rapids could take comfort in a long-standing community tradition: the spring Maple Syrup Festival at Indian Creek Nature Center. Saturday was overcast but unseasonably warm--we might have beaten the normal high temperature by 20 degrees. The Nature Center announced on social media Sunday the total attendance over the two days was close to 3000, about 10 percent above last year.

Skies over the Nature Center grounds: If you look
very closely, you can see a kite in the sky

Saturday mid-morning the crowd was sizable but easily managed. The parking lot was very full, with cars spilling out onto Otis Road.

Parking lot, Indian Creek Nature Center

There was less competition for parking spaces farther away, for those willing to walk. I parked just off Mount Vernon Road, which netted me a pleasant walk in via the Sac and Fox Trail...

Trees along the trail, including derecho damage

...as well as sighting two unusual birds as I drew near. (I tried to identify them with the resources at the Nature Center, and guess they may have been red-breasted nuthatches. Many people know birds better than I do, but they weren't with me, so as far as anyone knows they were red-breasted nuthatches.)

Volunteers from the Carpenters' Union served pancakes and sausage

I sat in the main room next to a couple I recognized from events at Coe College; a lively young family of five presently joined us. Elsewhere in the room there were people from church, one of my sons' former teachers, my former physician (now retired), two former attendees of Corridor Urbanism meetings, and many many people I don't know. 

Volunteer Justin Voss kept us supplied with juice, milk, and coffee

For this morning, anyway, we all were comforted by comfort food and surrounded by nature. Maybe not everything will be okay, and things certainly will never be perfect, but for the moment we were together and all was very very good.

Obligatory food porn picture

Music by Sheila Stevens: I caught covers of Kacey
Musgraves and Starship

After lunch, looking through the picture windows 
at the Bird Sanctuary

SEE ALSO: 

"Making Sweet Connections to Nature," Indian Creek Nature Center, 26 March 2025

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Day," Holy Mountain, 24 March 2024

"Maple Syrup Festival 2016," Holy Mountain, 19 March 2016 [last one at the old Round Barn location]

Last year, there was snow!