Category Archives: Walking/Hiking Trails

A warm and beautiful mid morning walk. I stopped at the corner, walking away from my house. Turn right for the park or left for the road? If I went to the road, then what? Where else could I go but the long route to the park?

It sounds worse than it is. Decision made, I head toward the park, immediately cheered by the green and pink and purple of the trees lining the street and the flowers growing in bed near the houses.

Sunshine cools in the shadows of the trees

Streams splash gently over stones and children’s voices call from the nearby houses

It’s mildly busy with others

Strolling and smiling and moving aside

We all work to stay safe,

to protect each other,

to rest in the peace of the ever changing trails

So …

Broken glasses

Plus

Global pandemic

Equals a fuzzy blur of color, shape, and motion

My camera becomes my eyes as I wander my neighborhood park and streets, not always sure what I’m even pointing at

There are some pleasant surprises.

My husband: Don’t you want a picture of that?

The brown glove on the sidewalk?

That’s not a glove.

Sometimes, things spring into view as I focus my lens

Sometimes, I don’t see anything until I play with the editing at home

Sometimes, it’s still all a confusing blur.

Seems a lot like life right now.

I pass this every week when I pick up my son from his city apartment.

I’ve even been up in the water tower once years ago. I’m sure we must have walked around the park at the time, but I didn’t remember so much being here.

It’s a city oasis, surrounded by heavy traffic and fascinating old buildings.

Flowers and fountains

Pathways and benches,

And the sun setting on the purple and red and gold of the spring

Nice to be out

In lightly cool spring evening breezes

Nice to move

To climb stone steps

To touch the strength of a hundred years

of the endurance of our city

Some of the pictures are getting a little repetitive I guess. Sometimes it’s just because they’re so beautiful I can’t stop taking them day after day. I’ve been really surprised though, when I pick a new theme for each day, how many new sites and angles I find.

Today, I set out to find signs. I expected traffic signs, and I knew there were signs to mark the nature trail, but I wasn’t expecting this one!

It’s well over normal temperatures today. It’s not quite record breaking as far as I know, but definitely far from a day to worry about the snowplows.

It’s nice to be out in the sunshine. It’s fun to look at things in a new way, to find new angles on the beautiful spring color that incorporate my theme.

Alone together

In our narrowing world

The neighborhood waves and smiles and steps aside

Living in the hopes that this sign will someday soon be true again.

A neighborhood walk again, on a beautiful spring afternoon. Virus numbers have jumped again in the county. I spent the morning trying to get the grocery delivery app to work in between video chats with my students, recording tomorrow’s lesson and grading the work that sporadically drifts in.

My theme walk today is color. I expect a lot of purple, based on the pictures I’ve taken recently. There is of course, but so much more as well when I really look.

It’s as busy and cheerful as the bright yellow flowers in the late afternoon sunshine. There are several small groups of people walking. Mostly they’re in pairs, with a dog or two. Some are parents pushing strollers. Only a single school age child is out, riding a scooter, and moving carefully out of the way to let us pass at a distance.

I can’t imagine how the rest of them are staying occupied through the confusion of this time.

As we all are I guess, clinging to the gifts as they’re offered and stumbling into what becomes a normal day.

It’s official. The county parks are closed. I looked up the list on line. Several of my favorites were there, but I didn’t know as many of them as I expected. Which, of course, gives me a whole new list of places I wish I could go.

City parks are still open, at least for now.

Lightly dusted with strolling neighbors

Moving carefully aside

Hugging our refuge with six feet of space.

Anchored in place, I search for themes

For new ways of seeing these paths I’ve wandered for nearly twenty years

And so, today it’s benches …

There were fewer than I thought on the trail.

And so many more than I ever noticed in the park itself.

A welcoming hope of warmth and health,

A promise that children will shriek on the playgrounds again, families will feast at the picnic shelters, and summer concerts will drift on a warm evening breeze.

The world is closing in, even as it’s springing to life. Cheerful signs, encouraging everyone to enjoy the outdoors while keeping a careful distance, are still posted along the greenways.

I mostly see people following the guidelines, but horrifying clips on the evening news clearly show that not everyone is.

It’s quiet here, an easy walk from my house. The handful of other walkers offer smiles and greetings, while we all move politely to the edges of the path to allow the maximum distance to pass. Dogs, excitedly expecting to be greeted and pet, seem confused to be gently tugged aside, but enjoy their outings all the same.

Where will we all be tomorrow?

An announcement, announced –

To take place tomorrow.

The county parks will be closed.

What does that even mean? Will it be large over-used lakes and picnic grounds? Will it include the greenways and conservation areas and quiet neighborhood parks? Can we find a way to cling to the comfort and peace of the natural world, while respecting and protecting each other?

There’s a breathtaking faith in perennials

A gift in the effort,

Of a kiss of spring,

To generations unknown.

Close to home today, I walked down my neighborhood sidewalks, scattered with couples and wiggling dogs, and onto the little trail at the edge of the park.

The playgrounds and fields are empty in service to the caution we struggle to observe.

And yet … there are bears!

A weekend social media game I’d almost forgotten

Children … was it really for them?

Were challenged to find bears in windows and public spaces they could photograph and count.

Spring and hope march on …

In the midst of the new world we’re trying to understand.