Went for a quick (one hour) walk this morning. Wasn’t sure  if it was going to rain this afternoon, and I didn’t want to miss the chance to be outside. It was beautiful. We’ve gone from drought conditions to double the normal precipitation in just over a week. Nobody was expecting it. Now, the ravines and river valley are lush, green and loud with the sound of rushing water.

This afternoon, I thought we might get caught in the rain, but it turned out to be sunny and hot. The dark clouds remained ominous in the east, but they didn’t explode. We drove down to snow valley and then walked north through Whitemud Ravine to the river. Just gorgeous. Saw wild clematis, a field of dandelions on the ski hill, a canoe (!) on the creek, and a bunch of people fishing in the river. The glistening foliage, still wet from last night’s rain, was throwing off humidity. Thought I saw a blue-headed duck, but it turned out to be a boring green-headed mallard. Also saw fuzzy gold moth-bee. Not sure what it was, but I wasn’t quick enough to take a shot. My new camera is still safe in its box where it can’t hurt my technology-averse brain. Maybe next weekend…

20C/10:00-11:30/2:00-4:15

More than 80+mm of rain over the last few days. So needed. All the grass was yellow, the creeks in Whitemud and Mill Creek Ravines were almost dry. Now, everything is beautiful and green.

Tom and I walked in Mill Creek Ravine this afternoon. It’s been solid rain for three days but there was a brief reprieve around 1:00 so we laced our running shoes and headed out into the woods. As soon as I got out of my car, it was spectacular. Birds were singing, I was surrounded by a canopy of green. Good for the soul.

Oh and the frog bog was full of water and frogs. They stopped when we approached, but we could hear the frogs singing far down the path. Again, good for the soul.

1:30-3:30/8C

Walked from Glenora, or should I say, drove from Glenora to Ravine Drive and then walked down the trail to Hawrelak. As I expected the park was full of geese, ducks, and happily, a good number of goslings. I always like to pay my respects. It was much cooler today, and hellaciously windy. A good, bird-filled walk.

3:00-5:00/18C

I would say, on a blossom per capita basis, we are a good two weeks ahead of schedule, spring-wise. Even with the lack of rain, the city has exploded with colour. We may even be just slightly past peak blossom. Dark red blossoms, pink blossoms, white blossoms, yellow dandelions, purple lilacs and lots of green. Fat bees. Grasshoppers. It feels like it happened overnight. One minute I was in my winter boots, the next – my sandals. May is usually quite brown up until the last couple of weeks. Not sure who to thank…El Nino or Global Warming.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s BEAUTIFUL out there. And today, warm. The air and the ground are full of poplar seed.

On the way home from my walk, I picked and/or stole some lilacs.

Now the house smells like purple.

It was unusually peopleless for the first part of the walk through the powerline and into Whitemud Ravine, but filled out toward the northern edge of the ravine. The creek is either low and slow-moving or still and stagnant. Even if Maggie was able to walk with me, she wouldn’t be able to take in a dip in the water. It’s too full of beaverish murk.

Walked up to the third bridge and then turned around and exited through Aspen Gardens. By that point I was very hot but filled with the scent of life in renewal.

11:30-1:30/24C

A BEAUTIFUL day! It’s like the end of May. Warm, fragrant and green. Early green. But still green. We went a-froggin’ in Whitemud Ravine. I noticed that last year at this time I took a bunch of photos of frogs in one of the bogs. Last week, there was neither water nor frogs (that I could hear) in Mill Creek Ravine, and today in Whitemud, the first bog was too dry, but the second one closer to Rainbow Valley Road had lots of frogs. We couldn’t get close enough to see them, but their love-sick frog songs were lovely.

Later, I spotted a squirrel in the tree-hole, the place of strange offerings and treasures. The hole was full of seed and the squirrel was shoveling as much as possible into its mouth, turning around to get the seed, and then eating it in front of us. When he left, I placed a few peanuts in the hole. Seemed like the right thing to do. Party on squirrel.

The sounds and smells in the woods today were magnificent.

3:30-5:00/22C