A sunset walk to Tom’s and then back to my place. Beautiful skies, nice crunch underfoot.
The sun sets around 4:36 p.m. so if I’m walking to his place after work, or today (Sunday) I have to leave a little earlier than I would prefer. Gone are the days, at least for now, when I could leave at 5 or 5:30 in full daylight! This is the worst part of winter for me, the darkness. Well, the darkness and the ice.
Still, a lovely walk under clear(ish) skies and not too cold.
-6C, 4:15 to 5:30 pm.
Yeah, I know I keep posting this particular scene at the old provincial museum, but I think it just really captures the season, whatever the season. Monet had his haystacks, I have this trail. Or something like that.
I was out at lunch and it was cold and overcast. After work, it was cold and sunny, in a twilighty sort of way. This is probably the last snowless day for a long, long time. -1C.
Addendum to this post: we got about 25cm of snow between Saturday, November 7 to Monday, November the 9th. It’s full winter now. It happens just like that in this part of the world.
And now a word about Groat Road.
It’s carved into the river valley. The views as a driver and as a pedestrian are beautiful. It can be dangerous because it’s voluptuous and curvy. It’s also fun to drive.
When I’m walking to Tom’s I have to cross it at some point. Because it curves, it’s closest to me when I take the 102 Avenue route, crossing over the bridge at about 126th Street. If I walk over to 107th, there’s another bridge on about 131st. The 102 route is much nicer, and once I cross the bridge, I’m at the museum, one of my favourite walks these days.
When I started out on my walk, I was only planning on taking one photo, but it’s just impossible. Everywhere you look it’s gorgeous. I thought I was going to get rained on, but literally only one drop, and a distant, too faint for a photo rainbow.
20C, windy. 10,613 steps.
A smoky, hazy day. You could tell that it would have been a blue sky day, and possibly warmer, if not for the smoke. It’s been like that for a few days. No blue makes me blue.
Still, very nice and very autumnal. Also…a quartet in Alexander Circle (near the Glenora fountain)! And….after 10 years I JUST realized I can upload a video in this blog platform. Who knew?
18C, 11,492 steps.
Welp, it really autumn’d this week. Still mostly green, but the uptick in red and yellow just in one week is astonishing. Also it was chilly, about 10C. Also it was cloudy, which gets a big boo from me. But still a nice late after-work walk in the usual places (Oliver, Museum, Glenora…).
[Addendum: I’ve uploaded better photos from a June 29 walk.]
Very often, after my work day is over, I walk over to Glenora to ‘pick up’ Tom and then we walk back to my place. It’s a relatively short walk, about 25 minutes, but I can make it longer by walking via Mackinnon Ravine, or finding different ways to get to where I’m going.
Today, I wandered around the old provincial museum grounds, which I haven’t been to in many years, and I’m not sure I ever walked around the perimeter, at least not unless I had aged relatives with me.
It’s such a beautiful piece of land, right above the river valley. I really like the new museum downtown but this location is unbeatable, and full of childhood memories. It’s possible the old museum will be torn down, and the grounds will no longer be accessible to the public. Who knows?
Walk while you can, and if you have a moment, sign the petition to save this beautiful piece of Edmonton’s history.
From the petition site, a little more about the museum (by June Acorn):
Built in 1965, the Alberta Provincial Museum Building on 102 Avenue and 129th Street in Edmonton stands as a true gem of modernist yet historic Alberta architecture. This beautiful structure is adorned by fossil-rich Tyndall Limestone from the Red River Formation, extensive marble interiors and exquisite brass fittings. The South face of the build has reproductions of the First Nations hieroglyphs of Writing-On-Stone Provincial park carved into the walls. The building is a cherished place for generations of Albertans and the site of many wonderful memories of learning and discovery. The grounds of the building are already a beautiful green space and the new building stands in elegant relation to the also historic Government House.
