Went for a late afternoon walk in Whitemud Ravine. Not late for the dead of summer, but late for the end of November when the sun goes down just after 4:20. The rosy light was turning the snow blue and purple.

Oh yeah, we have snow. Last Sunday and Monday we got about 20cm. The first real snow of the season. Since then, however, it’s been blue skies and bright sun. Very beautiful. Not walking as much as I’d like. I need to take advantage of the lunch hours to get out into the sun.

2:30-3:45/-3C

Possibly the last ‘snow-free’ day? Sunday (yesterday) was beautiful. We had a light dusting of snow a few days ago, most of which is gone, but the ravine is still frosty. I’ve started wearing my boots because of the cold, but for the walk I wore capris and my running shoes. Not a long walk, about an hour, but still beautiful. I was surprised that Tom and I were almost the only people down in the ravine in spite of the sunny skies and above zero temperatures. Watched a group of kids playing hockey on the frozen creek. It was a very Canadian moment.

It’s supposed to snow a lot today (Monday) so it’s about to go full winter. Maybe.

5C(Sunday)/12:15-1:30ish

Made a specific trip over to the Fort Edmonton trail to get a closer look at the much-maligned Talus Dome. I’ve grown to love the thing as a kind of shared Edmontonian experience – the sculpture we love to hate.

Up close, it’s really quite beautiful. The thousand silver balls mirror the surroundings and even itself, making the Talus Dome self-reflective and therefore the deepest piece of public art in Edmonton. That’s something.

It was supposed to be about 12C, but it was colder and muckier than I expected. The frost on the trails made mud out of the dirt, once it melted. It was sunny though, and that makes up for what felt like a week of dull skies and rain. A refreshing, chilly, and sparkly walk.

6C/2:00 to 4:00pm

October 31st in Whitemud Ravine was a good day for feeding birds. It was cool and everyone including me remembered to bring seed and peanuts. Once the seed came out, the chickadees, nuthatches and blue jays swooped in. They fed off my hand, Tom’s hand, and any surface with food. The overlook was especially lousy with birds. It was beautiful.

1:30 to 3:00PM/8C

Fabulous walk in north Whitemud Ravine this afternoon. Drove down Rainbow Valley Road, parked, and then walked along the trail that crosses by Snow Valley and leads to the river (or Fort Edmonton trail on the left). Really beautiful. We sat on a picnic table by the river under the blue sky, watching ducks swim over one by one. Even with the Whitemud freeway in the distance, it was very peaceful.

On the way back, we walked up a giant hill in search of an entry point for the red pipeline which spans across Whitemud Ravine and should be a pedestrian bridge but isn’t. (Didn’t even know it was a pipeline until this afternoon.) At the top, we followed a grassy trail by the university farm in Grandview toward the bridge. As expected, it’s blocked off by a fence, down a steep hill, and completely inaccessible. Or at least inaccessible for two middle-aged people, not a teenage boy (or girl) with no sense of their own mortality.

I’m just not that kind of daredevil. Or any kind of daredevil. It’s cool to imagine jumping over the fence and walking down a very narrow pathway over to the other side of the ravine, but that will never happen. On the other hand, I do think it should be re-purposed into a pedestrian crossing. With high safety rails and stuff. And some stairs. And maybe a zip line. I’d consider that. But not this.

8C/1:00 to 3:30ish

A quick stroll after voting this morning. It has been a tense election. Walking in the woods is an antidote to all that ails. Even vile thoughts of another Harper Government.

Well, maybe.

Autumn requires few words. The conversation is in the leaves. In the pen and ink wisps of trees and bushes. In the softening light. In the echo of woodpeckers.

Peak fall has given way to the muted tones of grey and brown, but there are still bright daubs of colour in the woods. Reds and yellows and greens. A season for detail. For realism. Every dangling, spotted leaf. Every naked branch. Beetles and chickadees. Spruce cones. Tamarack needles. Bright white berries and clumps of red currants. The Impressionists can have summer. Autumn is for close observation, for high resolution imagery.