Part III of this week’s Mill Creek Ravine walks. Part I, on Monday, I attended a class and then headed over to Mill Creek under cloudy skies. It was a cool walk, but beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice. It’s not a bad thing to walk without a camera. Instead of looking for that perfect thing to shoot, I can enjoy the intrinsic perfection of everything. But then, the moose. The day I walked in Mill Creek, and I came alongside a moose, and I’d left my camera at home. It’s my security camera. To prove the miracles.

Part II was yesterday. Met a friend for lunch, attended yet another class, in shorts, with the intention of hopping into the woods afterward. Deep in the interior of the building, I was hoping for sun, but when I emerged, it was POURING rain. Took the train home. Things started to lighten up. Thought I’d at least walk home from the train. I could see the dark sky at my rear, but I thought I could outwalk it. 10 minutes later, I was still walking, and the thunder started, and then the intermittent drops exploded into sheets of rain. Good thing I brought my umbrella, it kept the centre of my head dry. Everything else, soaked. OK though. I love the sound of rain as it’s falling on me.

Today, part III, I met another friend, had a great lunch, and was able to watch the skies as we drank our minty refreshments. Not a lot of sun, but no rain clouds. Headed toward Saskatchewan Drive after a few canopied blocks of green, then down the soft-wet stairs into Mill Creek. Simply glorious. I can’t help compare Whitemud and Mill Creek. The trails of Mill Creek are narrower, more enclosed. I feel surrounded, wrapped up in green. The creek is also narrower, almost parallel to the trails, so it’s more audible than the wider and deeper Whitemud. Depending on the chosen trail, the sound of babbling brook is never far away. On this last day of May, the effect is sensual overload. Everything is stimulated at once. So, so wonderful.

I did find it incredibly humid, uncomfortably so, which was weird because I didn’t feel it earlier, or later in the afternoon. By the time I got back to the south side of the city, I was almost cold. Well, as my grade seven science teacher said, ‘evaporation has a cooling effect.’  This is all I remember of Junior High Science, other than potassium permanganate is pretty.

3:45PM/22C