Spring is Around the Corner

Today I dropped the dog off at the groomers and decided to go for a walk. I decided not to listen to my nano this morning and opted for the sounds of the great outdoors. It was quite distractingly wonderful. My first lap took me almost 30 minutes to walk - a path that usually takes me around 15 minutes when I'm on a mission. All of the birds were singing - cardinals, robins, blue jays, and a few that I couldn't identify. I was going to snap a photo of a beautiful red cardinal singing in a tree, but I realized he was too far away and would have looked like a red dot on a beautiful blue sky.

Click, click, click...I could hear the clicking in my left knee as I hoofed it up and down the trail. Occasionally I could hear a train in the distance. Squirrels and chipmunks could be heard rustling through the leaves on the ground, left over from fall. 

All of my deer friends were out. I snapped a few pics, but will spare you them since I have already posted in the past. But they might show up again another day.

I did run into a few people on the path this morning. Annoyingly enough, I passed a couple walking toward me who were together, but looked annoyed with each other. The man walking several paces ahead with a camera in hand. His wife walking behind, dressed in her matching nylon sweat suit, make up on, and enough perfume to last until nightfall. And this was baaaad perfume. I could smell it trailing behind her as I passed by, ruining the smell of the woods with spring emerging from the ground.

Even the squirrels were cute. I hate them when they are in my garden eating the veggies, but in their own backyard, they were fun to watch. 

The last two laps, I walked with a mission. Not noticing the sights around me, but focused on getting a good workout at the end. Attacking the hills, all I could hear were my keys jingling in my pocket and my shoes hitting the ground. The clicking of my knee was heard only on occasion, as my stride had shortened and quickened, decreasing the range of motion of my knee. 

I closed the morning out by going to a different path and finding a bench to sit and read. Yes, to read. Actually, it was quite nice. I don't really remember what I read, but I remember the calm feeling of being out there. What a lovely morning.

"Like a small grey coffee pot sits the squirrel." - Humbert Wolfe