Walk and In The Yard

I have taken a few short walks in the past few days, but nothing over a mile or so. I hope to get back into walking next week. My lack of long walks means no pictures of my journey's. Instead I have pictures of what is growing in my yard. In the "Soft Fruit" category, I have strawberries and a raspberry bush coming up. I also have rhubarb, but I am not sure I can call that a fruit. A surprise in the yard is that my mint, catnip and tarragon have all returned from last year without the need to be replanted. I knew that the mint and catnip were perennials, but I have never actually had them come back. The tarragon was a total surprise. I don't have a picture of it, but my chives are doing well too. The purple flowers are a weed that my neighbor would love to kill, but I think they are pretty this time of year. I am a bit concerned about that orange bush, I don't think it is supposed to be that color!

Walk: April 9, 2010

I walked 1.6 miles today. I am not sure if that is good or bad. I have a head cold and I am not sure I should have been out. It was so sunny, however, I just had to take a small walk.

I tried to take a different route in hopes of finding interesting pictures. I really did not find anything interesting to take a picture of. Though, it could be that I am just not feeling well and nothing seemed interesting. I did walk on a road that I have never taken before and I did see something that surprised me. I found several houses with large lots of land. They must have been 5 acres each! The houses were not any bigger than our house, even though their neighboring houses across the street were at least 1.5 to 2 times bigger than our house. Those houses must have been built at the same time ours were, but why do they have such big lots? I suppose it could be that they were built by individuals, where our house is part of a 1950's development. So strange. I quite envy those lots though. I could plant apple trees and other fruit trees there. Oh and I bet I could plant a huge rhubarb patch too!

Walk & To Do List: April 8, 2010

It was a cool-ish day today. I decided that because of that and the fact that I have the start of a cold, I would take a very short walk. I needed some groceries so I walked to the grocery store near by. On the way I picked up a lovely decaf breve at my local coffee shop. I feel that a breve makes everything better.

I worked a bit on number two of my To Do List. I picked up some potting soil and I planted some pansies. I know that I should dead head them, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe tomorrow...

In the pictures you can see the cute little bunch of clovers I found on the way to the store, a quick shot of my beloved breve and the pansies I planted this afternoon. 

Walk: April 7, 2010

Just a short walk today due to knee pain. I walked maybe two miles, it couldn't have been much further. I have started to do some exercises which I hope with strengthen my hip muscles and in turn help with my knee pain. 

I did not bring my camera with today, so today's pics are from my cell phone. I was quite excited to see the violets! They are very early, but I love them so. I am excited to see dandelions too. I am planning on making dandelion jelly as soon as I can find enough. The hard part with that is finding ones that I know have not been sprayed. I shall think happy thoughts about it. 

Walk: April 5, 2010

Today was a short walk day. I maybe walked two miles. I could have taken many more photos than this, but my battery died on my camera. So I will have to show you the pretty flowers later in the week. It is a very cute birdhouse though. I actually could not see the details on it until I looked at the photo. 

Walk: April 2, 2010

Today I walked 4.2 miles. That was a bit too far. I did find some interesting things to take pictures of though. Do you see those dandelions up there? Dandelions on the second of April! Crazy! I loved the drawing of the Easter Bunny. I found it drawn in chalk on a driveway along my route. I loved, loved, loved the bird's nest in the lower left corner. It was just laying on the ground.  The Dora flag in the tree I just found a bit creepy and the McDonald bag was just sad. 

Walk: April 1, 2010

Today I walked for about 2 miles. I walked down a different street to the church above. I thought the two tree formations where interesting. I also liked the buds on the trees. I hope it does not get cold again, because it would be very bad for those trees that have already started to bud. 

Walk: March 30 and March 31, 2010

My walks for the last couple of days have been very short. I have been having knee pain. I don't want to hurt myself, so I have been taking it slow. I maybe walked 1.5 miles yesterday and maybe one mile today. Because I did not walk that far I have not taken many pictures. I liked the picture of my neighbor's tree (lower right), with the woodpecker holes, very interesting. (At least I think they are woodpecker holes.) How do you think the leaves under the oak, in the lower left, ended up cleared away in a circle like that? The bluebird was a mailbox ornament and the last photo shows the buds on a lilac bush. Buds on a lilac bush, in March! The weather is very strange this year. Very, very strange. 

Walk: March 29, 2010

Today I walked to the Post Office as my daily walk. It ended up being a 3.76 mile (6.05k) walk. I am beginning to think that I might have to change from 5k per day to 5 miles per day. Though, I have to admit my walk today really tired me out.

I truly hate crossing the intersection I show above. It is not at all pedestrian friendly. It is at an odd angle and drivers seem extra annoyed that you might try to walk across. Actually my entire walk was not very pedestrian friendly. What I find truly annoying is the lack of sidewalks (sadly I can say this about all of my walks). I did have sidewalks while walking down Foley Boulevard to the Post Office, but not always on both sides of the road. So I have to cross from the right side and back again to get to the Post Office. Then on the way home I took some back streets and I don't believe I had any sidewalks from that point forward.

About the other pictures: I was very excited to find the lion statue! There were actually two of them on either side of a driveway. This one was in better light. I thought the bear was cute. I don't know that I would have it in my yard, but it is cute. Mind you, I do often tell Rodney that I want to get a big statue of a bull (or possibly a dinosaur) to put in the front yard. Just think how easy it would be to get a pizza delivered! As always there are pictures of birds, nests and plants. I like birds, nests and plants, so expect to see a lot of them!

Walk: March 28, 2010

My walk today was 3.62 miles which translates to 5.82582 kilometers, so I walked a bit past my 5k today. The problem I am having is finding a route that is 5k long. I have been using a GPS unit to help set the route. That has been helpful. What is not helpful is that all of the trails around my house are not mapped, or at least I can't find them. I never know where a trail will go and how I am going to get home.


BTW, that is a kite in the middle of the collage, not a huge butterfly! If we start seeing butterflies in March in Minnesota we are all in trouble! (Not to mention if they are that big!)

Walk: March 26, 2010

I did not see much new on my walk today, but I did record this video of a cardinal. I know it is not the best video, but the sound is very good. I actually saw quite a few cardinals today, maybe three or four.

My new walking goal is to walk a 5k per day. That might sound ambitious, but it is really only three miles and 188 yards. I can do that. Okay, today I only walked 2.77 miles, but it was freaking cold out today. Besides I only need to add about half a mile to my route to reach my goal. My plan is to walk 5k five days per week, I am going to refer to it as 5k/5d.

Walk: March 25, 2010

Today's walk was very cold. It was only 28 degrees when I started walking and the wind was cooold. The green shoot in the middle is an iris growing in my back yard. 

Walk: March 24, 2010

I walked in a new area today. It was cleaner than yesterday's walk, but really quite boring. Those bike-cart things look interesting though.

Walk: March 23, 2010

It was a walk full of birds and more garbage than need be.