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

It was a very cold Saturday, but Tom and I braved the wind to join a human chain of Cloverdale Footbridge supporters in yet another effort to show our love for a part of the river valley that will soon be torn asunder once the Valley Line LRT is underway. It was a great. It was cold. It was weird, or at least the guy carrying around a plush sturgeon was weird. I asked him about it, and he began a type of diatribe one might expect of a man carrying a stuffed sturgeon. Once he started talking about blowing stuff up, we moved on. Strangely, there were other people with sturgeon emblazoned placards. I know they have a point about disturbed fish and wildlife populations, but it struck me as odd.

Prior to the bridge protest, we walked from 99th through Mill Creek Ravine and the Muttart. There were a lot of puffed up robins bracing themselves against the wind, but they were still singing. The ravine is surprisingly green and the creek (not so surprisingly) is very, very low. I remember past springs when the creek flooded its banks and it was impassable in some areas. It rained later in the afternoon yesterday and then all evening. That will help.

On the way home, we ran into a trail blockage by the low level bridge. The funicular. Managed to get through the first gate, but not the second. Scrambled up the hill and then walked along the west trail behind Scona Road to Route 99 for a late snack.

In spite of the cold, it was a great walk, and I was glad to pay my respects to our beloved bridge and see friends from the Save the Footbridge advocacy group. They are true stewards of the river valley.

4C/12:45 to 3:00

A magnificent walk today. It’s April 17th, and it felt like summer. Dogs swimming in the river, people – hundreds of people – in shorts and tank tops, bikers, birds. Green. Blue sky. Heat. And geese. So many geese in Hawrelak. It felt great.

We drove through beautiful Glenora over to Buena Vista Park and into McKenzie Ravine. We walked down a hill and then along the river to the bridge that spans Hawrelak Park and Buena Vista/Laurier off-leash. We spent a long time on the bridge, looking down into river, watching dogs play around in the water. Talking. It was great.

Back towards the car, we followed a boardwalk to a steep set of stairs. Back into the car and then a winding road through Glenora.

Great.

A coupla hours/20C

A much-needed walk down to Hawrelak Park on Friday at lunch. As I have mentioned a few times, these walks with Tom take about 75 minutes because they include a 15 stop for a packed lunch, but I feel like I put in enough time to warrant a occasional leisurely lunch. Last time we were down there, it was still snow-covered. Now, other than the sad mound of melted ice leftover from the ice palace, the park is entirely clear and greening up fast. It was spectacularly beautiful and soothing. Lots of geese (probably preggers), ducks, crows and about a billion seagulls.

Just what I needed.

12:00 to 1:20/13C

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of seeing Edmonton and the river valley in an entirely new light, thanks to Tom. We walked through his Glenora neighbourhood all the way around the river to Valleyview (next to Katz’s house), replicating his running route. It was spectacularly beautiful, from the fountain in Glenora to the panoramic view of the snaking river valley as we walked from one lookout point and bench to another. As I have discovered in my 20 years of trail walking in Edmonton, there are myriad ways to experience the river valley and ravines of this city, and they all have their unique pleasures and secrets. What a great thing to ‘discover’ yet another incredible view, another series of trails, and entirely new levels of beauty. It was simply amazing.

The day was uncharacteristically warm, but as per usual in spring, hellaciously windy. Glenora is a well-known ritzy area of Edmonton and yeah, the houses were suitably grand, but I was surprised by the funkiness of some of the architecture and yard art. Kind of like an upscale Mill Creek. It was a only a few blocks to the edge of the river valley, and from that point on, we just walked around its periphery, stopping occasionally to watch ice chunks flow down the river. My photos don’t capture how beautiful the vistas were, or how nice the day was, but I am hoping for more walks in that area, especially as the city greens up.

We have many trails to discover.

3:30 to 6:30/21C