Day 299: It's a sign

...that marked the beginning of the trail we walked on Saturday morning. There are lots of kills around here - some are the result of hunting such as this one reported by a colleague of mine. However, the trail is named for a different kind of kill - it is a Dutch word for creek and survives from when this whole area was New Netherland - the largest city in the state being known at the time as New Amsterdam. As for Vlomankill - presumably it is named after M. Vloman, but I can tell you no more. Exile #3 who is enjoying exercising her emerging reading skills was slightly thrown by the 'VL' combination - we reassured her that it was quite uncommon in English on either side of the Atlantic. Not all the Kills sound so Dutch however - for example: Norman, Fish (Not Vissen), Cats and Arthur each have one.

Later in the walk we saw this sign:

Well, you can't argue with the erosion warning (or that staying on the trail is a good thing) - but somehow I doubt that passing walkers have caused this tree to be precariously suspended in mid-air on a network of roots.

Also, inspired by this post which quoted Woody Guthrie deliberately reading the side of the sign with no rules on it, I looked at the back of the Vlomankill trail sign. It didn't say nothing however:



It's a sign for sure.