Short walk today under clouds. I don’t feel cloudy, but the sky does. The cooler weather is good for the dog anyway. She’s slowing down. I can’t rely on her anymore to take me for long, vigourous walks, so I’ll have to take myself. Now that I’ve voluntarily severed myself from my day job, it should be much easier to go for extended walks (while I’m still in the ‘burbs.) Six months should be enough to recalibrate. Too much stress, too many Mars Bars, not enough walking. It’s done a number, and now that Maggie is abstaining from ravine/river valley marathons, I’m on my own. OK, then…

Not much happening in the ravine today. A few dogs (lab, pug), but otherwise pretty quiet. All the activity is in the garden.

12:40PM/17C

And out with my buddy, Maggie, for a walk this morning in the Whitemud Creek. Surprised we didn’t get rained on. The clouds are heavy with some sort of pending drama, but after the last couple of weeks, refreshingly cool. I was in our nation’s capital and parts of southern Ontario for a vacation with my bestie.

It was spectacular, but hot and humid. The two and a half days I was in Ottawa, the temperature was in the low thirties, and the humidity pushed it to 40. And I was on foot. Situated in Byward Market, I didn’t have far to walk to everything I wanted to see, but distance becomes relative in extreme temperatures, hot or cold. I walked twenty-five minutes to the Canadian War Museum and by the time I got there, I was so hot I was ready to start a war (or at least a melee).

Other than the humidity, the city was spectacular. I loved it. I loved being able to walk to restaurants and fruit stands. I loved walking to Parliament in the morning and watching the changing of the guard (those poor buggers in fur hats), and taking a tour through the incredibly beautiful interior of the centre block building and the peace tower. I loved walking to the National Gallery of Canada, and then spending four hours walking around inside (in air-conditioning), staring in awe at Lawren Harris’ incredible canvases. I felt no ire for the Voice of Fire by Barnett Newman, but the modernist stuff was blown-out-of-the-water by the Group of Seven. It was an amazing mini-trip, in spite of the second-degree burns.

Port Hope and Sauble Beach (Lake Huron), were also amazing, but with fewer walks and more lounging, by the pool, or by the stunningly beautiful Sauble Beach. I have to say, I’m not really a water person. I like to swim, but I’d rather look at a forest or a mountain. Nevertheless, being pounded by waves in Lake Huron was about as much fun as I’ve ever had. Failing for words to describe it a few days ago, my niece said, ‘it’s kid fun, Auntie.’ And that’s exactly what it was….kid fun, playing in the waves. Thought I’d lost my contacts a few times, but I managed to hold onto them in spite of being sucked under the water on several occasions. Kid fun.

It was nice returning home to dry, and at least this week, cooler Alberta, and to a dog who is happy to walk anytime, anywhere, and in any weather.

15C/12:30PM

Or at least, a new part of an old trail. South of the Fort Edmonton Park trail, and left of the staircase in Aspen Gardens, or…the trail that was flooded two weeks ago. North of that bit. My kindly sister dropped me off at the top of the stairs and I basically walked south for about an hour and a half, through the now unflooded trail, Snow Valley, and then Whitemud Creek Ravine. All of it is Whitemud Creek Ravine, but for the purposes of this excursion, the Whitemud Creek I know…

Very beautiful. Coolish morning, with a little rain, but also some sun and butterflies. And, not surprisingly, lots of erosion from the creek spillage. No dog today. She’s in Hawrelak at a meet n’ greet for the Humane Society, otherwise known as Pets in the Park. I wonder if she found her Donnaless walk as weird as I found my Maggieless walk…

19C/1:20PM

Hotttttttttttttt! Silly me, went for a two-hour Canada Day walk at 11:00 AM, without the dog, of course. She had been taken earlier, when it wasn’t so steaming hot. I gotta experience one sweaty, boiling, stroke-out of a walk each summer, to make it feel like summer, and today was the day. It’s so humid that even if I had gone earlier this morning, I still would have been sweating down my ass (a marker of true humidity.) No point in taking any photos on this walk…noonday sun bleaches everything out. So,  some photos of bees I took on my walk out to the garden yesterday.

1:30PM/29C

It’s gonna be a hot one, so Maggie and I stepped out early, just after eight. Even so, it was warm, but beautiful, with a coolish breeze and a sky full of blue. Amazing what a couple of weeks and a LOT of rain can do for a ravine. Our favourite path to the right of the bridge over Whitemud Creek has exploded with green. Almost needed a machete to cut through the foliage. (My body and face were sufficient to break apart all the morning spider webs.)

As an almost eleven-year old dog, Maggie is definitely slowing down a bit, but on a trail, especially a monkey trail with only a dirt path, she is like a puppy, leaping over fallen trees and snuffling about in the tall, wet grass. She was so drunk on morning smells and tastes, she almost missed a giant water hole, covered by grass. I spotted it first, and called her back. She threw herself into it, and spun around and around like a mad dog. Awesome. If a dog can express joy, and they can, then this is what I saw. Turns out, the water was cleverly disguising a foot of mud, but Maggie has never been one for personal hygiene. We went farther down the path, meeting up with the creek again, and although Maggie had a dip, it clearly wasn’t the same as the mud bath.

The sun was considerably hotter on the return trip. Happily we managed to avoid the bloodied carcass thingy in the park, which Maggie unhappily discovered on the way to the ravine. Not sure what it was. Maybe a mouse, greatly stretched by some previous snacker. It had a tail, I know that, but the species was indeterminate. The perils of early morning walks.

9:30AM/19C

Should have written this post last week. I’ve been sick with a cold, but I did manage to walk down to Louise McKinney Park and the North Saskatchewan River to take pictures of the water, but that’s all I did. It was Tuesday, the day after it crested (Monday, June 24th), so it wasn’t quite as spectacular. On the Monday, the river overflowed the lowest path at Louise McKinney, the promenade, which would have been cool to see in person. The following day when I was down there, the water had receded, but the stairs to the promenade were still blocked off.

The river was indeed running very high, with lots of detritus, mostly wood. A high, fast river is not abnormal for this time of year, as the mountains unleash their winter cache, but combined with all the rain, it was higher than usual. I walked as far as the little bridge in Henrietta Muir Park, just on the south side of the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge, but no farther. The heat, my virus-heavy head, and the hanging tree caterpillars turned me around.

Nevertheless, the river was still flooding the banks, including all the ground below the bridge. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, there is a canal in that area which runs under the little bridge into the woods. It’s a good gauge of water levels because most of the time it’s totally dry, but during these peak periods, it takes on water. The further up the canal, the higher the river. As of last Tuesday, there was no canal…just river.

I feel sorry for all the little creatures and the birds who make their homes along the river banks, but I’m sure…even now, almost a week later, they’re rebuilding. Such is the resilience of nature. I did, however, manage to find this guy…a giant beetle…clinging to a caterpillar-ravaged leaf by the side of the bridge. Hope he made it.