A lunchtime walk in the river valley along River Road, MacKinnon Ravine, and Glenora. Once again, micro-spikes were a must. I did not eat lunch at the same time. I’m incapable of to doing two things at once. I would hyperventilate.
A view of our unfrozen river
It was spectacularly nice. Not super warm (about -2C) but blue sky and sunshine. I’m glad I went when I did because it was starting to cloud over by the time I was finished, about 90 minutes later. I need my blue canopy.
The river itself is not quite as frozen as it should be this time of year. One open area below the Groat Bridge sounded like it was deep in mid-spring melt.
Looking up from MacKinnon Ravine at the people (I think) standing on the grounds of the museum
So here we are. A new year. 2021. It’s nice out. That’s enough for now.
There are still parts of the river that aren’t frozen over.
I walked for just under two hours. Into the river valley via the golf course through Victoria park, River road, MacKinnon Ravine, Glenora, museum and home. Funny, when I got to the museum, the sky was already dusking with that wintry pink/orange horizon. It was only about 2:30 pm. The sun is setting around 4:24 but when the sun is that low, sunset is always close.
In MacKinnon Ravine. One of those days that was blue sky or cloudy, depending on the direction. Take care of your a Buddha and your Buddha will take care of you.Sunset at 2:30?Killer view (neighbourhood adjacent to the museum)
We’ve had pretty nice weather and virtually no snow for most of December. The grass is really starting to show on the south side of things, including the museum grounds.
From the museum grounds…not lots of snowA pagoda in snow
Much needed lunchtime walk through MacKinnon Ravine, up to Glenora and then home. Not surprisingly, I ran into Tom taking his walk, but he was just starting, and I was near the end. Sometimes we coordinate. Sometimes I just go when I go.
Acetylene sun
The day looked darker than it actually was, with bits of blue sky peaking out here and there. It can be challenging under those conditions to take good photos, when the ‘acetylene light’ of the harsh winter sun (thanks Sting), is glaring from behind the clouds, reflecting on the snow. The important thing was that I got a walk, not great photos.
View of the river from the lower path in MacKinnon Ravine. Looks colder than it was.
However, I ran across a decorated tree in the ravine, guarded by a magpie! Maybe it was his handiwork? They do like shiny things.
Stairs up to Ravine Drive (Glenora)View from MacKinnon Bridge, heading into Glenora
Definitely needed the micro-spikes for the uphill’s (and downhills and pretty much every path in the ravine). The trouble with our now regular freeze/thaw winters is that there is always plenty of ice, but also lots of bare pavement. Hard to know what footwear makes the most sense, although I err on the side of staying upright…
I give you, the creeping bell flower. I thought it was a bluebell.
Holy boob sweat! A gorgeous but very humid walk just after a brief rain storm this morning and before the next, apparently bigger storm this afternoon.
Victoria Park Road trail
Still can’t bring myself to leave as early as Tom (5:30 am). Just after 11 am, the temperature was about 22C but with the mugginess it seemed warmer, with the exception of an occasional ‘delicious’ breeze, to quote Marilyn Monroe.
Victoria Park Road trail IIHills of colour
Spotted several spotted Ladybug pupae (apparently) on the creeping bellflowers, which are (apparently) and invasive (but very pretty) wildflower species.
More pretty invasive species…
Overall just under two hours, 12,200 steps. Down the Victoria Park Road to River Road and then (eventually) up the super humid hill in MacKinnon Ravine. I walked over to 107 Ave so that I could take a longer, shadier route to the grocery store (City Market in Oliver Square), where once again I was disappointed by their produce.
Not a ladybug but a ladybug pupae (according to Sharon)
In spite of the humidity, I’m glad that the heat wave has broken, at least for today.
Another hot day, so I went for a walk around the university at noon. I underestimated a: the heat, and b: the amount of time it would take to walk a circuit from Tory, to the Groat Bridge, down River Road, across the LRT Bridge, and back up to Tory. Just a little over an hour, but I left at 12:15, so I was late getting back. And sweating buckets. It started out pleasant enough, but by about half way through, I was getting pretty toasty.
The entire walk, I was surrounded by butterflies. I don’t know what I did to deserve this honour guard, but I was grateful, and told them so. Come to think of it, maybe it was just one butterfly with a lot of determination.
On the Groat Bridge, I spoke to three cyclists about dismounting from their bikes (as they sped by me). A woman turned around and said, laughingly, they were “too lazy” to dismount, as the signage demands. It’s not an option! That makeshift pathway is extremely narrow, very loud, & cannot accommodate their laziness (as I said on Twitter later). Walking across Groat bridge is not pleasant, and I worry about getting schmucked by a bike. Where possible, I try to find an alternate route across the river. I also walked from the train to home after work, so in total about 13,627 steps. But then I bought some chocolate almonds so yeah.
