Is there anything nicer?  Reminds me of family trips to Jasper when I was a kid.

A summer walk, minus the foliage. Can’t believe it’s so warm today. Wore my shorts and a tank top, exposing my sparkling white skin to the sun and fellow albinos on the trails. All non-green life has returned to the river valley. The bugs, the birds, the motorcyclists…all of us surprised by a July day in April.

Wallked through Rutherford again (still looking for that moose)…through Mill Creek (still looking for that coyote) and then over to the north side of the river. Lots of pale Edmontonians sucking up the vitamin D as they walked, strolled, snogged, jogged, biked, and roller-bladed  along the promenade at Louise McKinney Park. One exception…a deeply tanned and very buff gentleman, generously (and entirely conspicuously) displaying his shirtless torso to all onlookers, making the rest of us appear to be suffering from tuberculosis. Loser.

I’m a little worried about the frog bog. It’s so dry, there isn’t even any muck for them to muck about and make little tadpoles. It’s usually around this time…maybe a week later, that I can hear them croaking in the bog. It’s a very unusual sound, more like a cracking than a croaking, and I look forward to it every year. Hopefully it will rain soon and all the little froggies can go a courtin’.

2:59 PM/23C

Just a quickie today…only about 40 minutes, but long enough to get overheated. Capris tomorrow…shorts on  the weekend. Spotted a spotted chipmunk, who spotted me and then buggered off. So skittish those chipmunks, not at all like Chip n’ Dale, the lovable (and courteous) gay couple from the Warner Brothers cartoons. Oh no wait…Chip n’ Dale are gophers!! I mean, Theodore, Simon, and Alvin, the lovable (and courteous) gay singing trio.

No rain, no surprise.

5:24 PM/15C

Looks gloomy, but I found the walk home to be rather mild and pleasant. I don’t know why some cloudy days seem oppressive and others, like today, feel cozy. Maybe it has more to do with my own internal weather patterns than what’s happening in the sky.

In late fall and early spring, I find the dull, but exquisitely detailed browns and greys of an unfoliated landscape wonderfully calming. Unless I’m in a bad mood, and then I just want to open a vein.

Walked through the woods behind the University to the LRT bridge, over to the Leg grounds, Rossdale and then various monkey paths to home. I wasn’t intending on a long walk today, but I was having such a good time listening to Dean Martin and Stevie Wonder on my iTouch, I just kept walking. (About 75 minutes)

5:48 PM/4C

Took the LRT to the north side of the river to see if the wind was any less windy over there, and I can now say with full authority that it is not. The wind tunnel that is downtown Edmonton extended all the way into the river valley.

Three of the four McKinney geese were sitting in their usual afternoon spot sunning their feathers and pecking at the brown grass. Don’t know where the fourth one was…maybe picking up a few groceries. Can’t be too many yummy things on the hill to eat this early in spring.

Once I got into Mill Creek, I kept my eye open for the coyote, but he must have moved on. In fact it was surprisingly quiet on the trail. No other walkers, no bikers. Few birds. Well, I did see Mr and Mrs Mallard (or perhaps they’re just wading in sin) sitting quietly on a bit of sand near the creek, and another small flock of waxwings, but the usual cacophony of birdsong was absent. I wonder if the wind disturbs them? It certainly disturbs me.

5:31 PM/7C

Saw my first coyote of 2010!

I was walking along one of the upper trails in Mill Creek when a biker stopped to say a coyote was on the adjacent trail. I said ‘thanks’ and turned around. It occurred to me later that he may have been trying to warn me, but as I am neither a poodle nor a small child, coyotes don’t scare me. I hear them all the time in the ravine, but I rarely see them, and I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to see one up close. I walked to where the biker guy had pointed and spotted the coyote almost immediately, wandering through the bush. He was relatively far away and quite blendy with his surroundings. If the coyote saw me, he chose to ignore me…not being a tasty poodle or an even tastier small child. Very cool.

Also spotted a couple of yellow birds (possibly goldfinches or warblers) and either a hairy or a downy woodpecker, but it was hard to tell from a distance. It seemed neither hairy or particularly downy…just ferociously intent on pecking out whatever was napping below the bark of the tree.

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…to stay inside, drink coffee, read a book, and be thankful I’m not one of the birds being knocked about by this wind.

2:06 PM/1C