Waited until the late afternoon before I stepped outside in my shorts. It was a slow graduation. Started out this morning in my jammies. Then capris for a lunch date in South Side Common. Finally, the shorts. It was 16C when I started my walk around 4:00 pm, and about 18C when I finished, about an hour and a half later. It just felt colder today, even though it was warmer than yesterday. I think I need to lay myself out on a rock slab like a reptile and let the sun warm my blood.
Maybe tomorrow.
A late winter bloom
About 45 minutes into my walk I stumbled across the rare Glovewood Tree in full bloom. I was tempted to pick the fragile flower but I remembered reading somewhere that Glovewoods are quite unique to these parts, and can only be found along the sides of trails in the days following the last snowfall. Almost all Glovewoods have just one bloom (which flower in a huge variety of colours, sizes, and weaves), and disappear shortly after their distinctive, glove-like flower blooms, usually within a week or two. I feel very lucky indeed!
The first sunny day in…well...a few, anyway. The air in the river valley is infused with the sweet scent of new life and everywhere else the smell of freshly mown grass. And the birds have turned their songs up to maximum volume. I always say my favourite season is winter, but after six or seven months of sense deprivation, spring, this part of spring, is like all my senses stimulated at once. Senses working overtime, to quote Andy Partridge.
Mill Creek is full of poplar fuzz. I hope it’s not toxic because I ate quite a lot of it. (Note to self: stop walking with mouth open, you’re not a whale taking in krill.) Took a few shots but the fuzz doesn’t register very well, in spite of the quantity. In some areas it looks like it’s snowing, especially if a biker disturbs a pile on the edge of the trail, or someone, possibly a walker, possibly me, kicks at the settled pillows of fuzz just to watch them fly up into the air and then waft gently downward in the sunlight. Things to do on the trail…
Checked in at the frog bog but it remains amphibian-free, I think. No bubbles on the surface, no tiny splashes. No moaning, groaning, or croaking. I’ll keep watching but I’m pretty sure the frogs would have made their presence known by now. More room, I suppose, for the other slimy things that live in bogs. Still, I’ll miss the froggies.
It’s 5C and drizzly this Victoria Day long weekend. I don’t think anyone is going swimming.
I took a circuitous path into the river valley because I had to stop by work. Today is the first day of my two week vacation, and I was at work. Work! But just for a few minutes. I forgot to enable my out of office thingy on Friday. Obviously, the excitement of not being at work for 14 days overwhelmed my deep-fried brain. However, if I didn’t have that errand to run, I might not have tagged a walk to the end of it. It’s been raining off and on today. I had my hood on, then off, my umbrella up, then down. The last 20 minutes of the walk was sunny. Even though I was repeatedly teased by the capriciousness of the weather, it was lovely.
Where's your island now, seagulls?
I know I’ve said this before, but really, the smell of wet spring foliage is just ridiculously beautiful. And yes, I’ve said this before too, but the city is green, green, green. It’s like the Maritimes, or the English countryside. Even the North Saskatchewan is much higher than it was. That island where the seagulls screech at one another is almost entirely submerged. This is good.
Today is Hip Hop in the Park, which takes place at Louise McKinney Park. I walked by it, but the crowds were sparse. Too early, I suppose, but the music was thumping and the rappers were rapping. I remember wandering by the same event last year and hearing one of the performers shout motherfu#!%$ over and over again. The reverberation throughout the river valley was kind of thrilling. I mean, who hasn’t had that fantasy of standing in the middle of the river valley and shouting motherfu#!% at the top of your lungs? I know I have.
It’s poooouuuurrrrrinnnggg! I love it. I love listening to rain as I read, or write, or draw, or rearrange my collection of hand-painted Royal Doulton porcelain clowns. It’s the perfect soundtrack for quiet activity. Or no activity at all. After a week of really hot weather, I’m once again in my hoody, drinking a hot beverage, and appreciating the heck out of this big ol’ drink of water falling on our droughty city.
I kept my walk fairly short today, only about 45 minutes. The skies were rather moody. But…didn’t get rained on, and I’m happy to report I stole my first bouquet of lilacs today. It’s kinda, sorta a public area, but what’s a girl to do? I don’t have a lilac bush…or is that a tree? Not sure. I don’t have a green thing that sprouts purple things in the spring, therefore I have no choice but to steal other people’s purple things.
And now, the thunder.
Could it get any better?
Hmmm…no chocolate. That’s a problem, but I’ll take the storm.
The city is no longer flirting with spring. It’s now full-on late spring. It’s lush. It’s dripping with green. And beginning to drip with other things. I saw my first worm hanging from a tree, (but we won’t talk about that. Yet.)
This particular route follows the south side of the river all the way from the University to Skunk Hollow, otherwise known as Lavigne Road. It’s a steep drop from Saskatchewan Drive, and it’s lined by three-story houses and …uh…public lilac bushes (or trees.) When I first started walking more than a decade ago, I relied on this route to get me home. It links to downtown and many other paths, and it’s quite lovely. Almost every time I walk this path I see Dennis Hoppercirca Easy Rider, biking through the woods. Except it’s not Dennis Hopper, it’s some middle-aged guy in a fringed jacket and leather hat riding his tricked-out mustang bicycle. Born to be Wild in south Edmonton.
Slurp
I rarely take the Skunk Hollow route now, simply because I’ve discovered other, longer paths, but the thought crossed my mind today that if the area south of Louise McKinney Park becomes inaccessible due to that fu%$#! LRT extension, I will be taking this path more often. Way more often. As far as my weekday excursions into the river valley are concerned, the proposed LRT construction is going to be the equivalent of an axe.
At least I have my hand-painted Royal Doulton porcelain clowns, and the rain. And the contraband lilacs.
