Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge this week didn’t have a topic or theme. Rather, it was an assignment to venture forth and take a new photograph.

As I was going through my mental catalog of north end parks I remembered the merry-go-round at Matthews Beach. Sadly, not many remain in playgrounds these days. They were my favorite equipment, after swings of course.

They were a great spot to sit and quietly chat while slowly pushing with a languid foot, or an adrenaline pumping ride when getting it to spin as fast as possible before leaping aboard.

So I ventured forth with camera to Matthews Beach.

I dunno what the people there thought of the weird lady studiously taking photos of the merry-go-round from every conceivable angle in between little tykes going for a ride, but I did eventually end up with over twenty pictures. (All the while the refrain from an old Neil Diamond song “Merry Go Round” playing in my head, even though I hadn’t thought of it in more than 30 years.)

The photograph above was my favorite of the bunch.

Afterwards I sat down near the lake for quite a while, enjoying the numerous birds floating and flying around. I saw crows, mallards, ring-billed gulls, double-crested cormorants, American widgeons, gadwalls, a Canada goose, a bufflehead, a lesser scaup, and a pied-billed grebe. Not bad for being in one spot!