Monthly Archives: May 2011

Spring: Nature’s amazing style show

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We’ve had beautiful weather for walking lately, and today was no exception, as the green keeps filling in and standing out more and more against an awesome blue sky.

Vibrant blues and greens are pretty much my favorite color combination, especially involving water, and I love both blue-green and green-blue and assorted similar hues. Last year, I wrote a vague Christmas list that went something like this: “I collect giraffes. Socks. Always socks. I like green, blue, green-blue and blue-green.”

So as these colors take over the season more and more, I keep finding these breathtaking, indescribable moments of passion for my surroundings — not unlike the thrill of biting into a delicious fudgy brownie or sinking into a nice warm bath. It’s just so beautiful outside, everywhere I look. It’s amazing. I wish I could feel like this all year round.

Of course, there are other beautiful colors that make me feel like that besides blue and green. Another joy of spring is watching the flowers come out at different rates in different yards. I think the pink flowers above are alyssum. I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, which is very possible. But I think I’m safe in referring to the flowers below as tulips.

And, of course, the lovely dandelion sticks around for both spring and summer!

No idea what the little blue thing is.

I love how the gazing ball in the photo below acts as a mirror. I didn’t notice that until I saw the photo at full size on my computer.

Random photo  caught Bethany and a group of children out for a walk or field trip:

These Topsy Turvy (or whatever brand they are) planters made me feel guilty. I have one of the upside-down strawberry planters and two of the tomato planters but have not planted them yet or even bought any plants for them. But look how these are already growing! I’m wondering if the red ones are strawberry planters, because I know the green ones are tomato planters.

I think a clothesline is a great place to hang these things. I am planning to hang a tomato plant and a strawberry plant from either side of the bottom of the fire escape outside my apartment building. By the looks of this, I should really get going!

I got a kick out of this stair rail. I don’t think the two sides could be much different. I kind of like them both. I like to think of them as his and hers, with hers the slim, pretty-patterned metal railing and his the burly. handsome wooden one. :)

I hope you all have fun plans for the Memorial Day weekend and that the blue skies and comfortable temps continue.

Walking for Wellness

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Laurie doesn’t know this yet, but we’re taking today off from walking. I have a story that I need to get done yet today and my parents are coming into town tonight so I should really try to sneak out of work a wee bit early so I can run the vacuum a few times.

Still, there are two things we/I wanted to share with readers.

First is an announcement about a summer-long walking program.

Sanford Bemidji is introducing a Walking for Wellness community program.  One-hour-long walks will begin at 5:30 p.m. every Tuesdays from June 7 to July 26
at different locations throughout town.

Trail Mix is seriously thinking about joining. The problem, of course, is that I’m not really sure I can commit due to pregnancy/baby/etc. So we’re thinking about it – it would be a great way, though, to meet some other walkers and try walking in different areas in town, an idea Laurie and I always talk about but never do.

Here is the schedule for the Sanford program:

- June 7 Kick-Off: Sanford Bemidji Clinic, 1233 34th St. N.W.

- June 14 Diamond Point Park

- June 21 Beltrami Humane Society

- June 28 Trail entrance by Lincoln Elementary

- July 5 Waterfront by Paul Bunyan & Babe

- July 12 Trail entrance by Industrial Park

- July 19 Sanford Peak Performance north parking lot

- July 26 5K Walk/Run and Final Party at the Sanford Center

There also will be guest speakers each week. Registration costs $10, which includes a T-shirt, but that would need to be done by May 31. If interested, call 333-5047 or visit bemidji.sanfordhealth.org

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Also, if you are a walker, check out this link. It talks about ways to get the most of your walking routine. Interesting read anyway.

Happy (almost) weekend!

Sunshine and lakeviews – a nice combination

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I don’t think we could ask for better walking weather than what we have had this week. We have had two ideal walking days (three, even, if you count Monday, when we didn’t actually walk).

I must say, though, after yesterday‘s long-ish venture around town, I was really wiped. So we followed that up with a shorter, 30-minute walk through the southern part of town.

And, still, I was exhausted by the time we returned to Laurie’s.

Of course, it did not help, probably that we started our walk off here:

About halfway up the bridge, I could not think of any reason as to why I would have thought starting our walk there would have been a good idea. I was winded just three minutes in…

But we did get to see some great views of Lake Irvine.

Views like that have me anxiously awaiting Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer, and, typically, my family’s first “cabin” weekend of the season at my dad’s lake home in Nevis.

We also passed by a creek…

And walked along a dirt road…

And, eventually, we made it back downtown.

All in all, a pleasant – albeit exhausting (for me, probably not so for Laurie) – trek around town.

A beautiful day for a walk around Bemidji …

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We had a beautiful day for walking today. In fact, we were all over the place. We started out downtown and wandered over to 15th Street and then in the Bemidji State University area, finally coming back around the waterfront.

When we were in the BSU area, we both saw what looked like a cat in the back window of a sealed car, which would have been animal abuse on a warm day like today, but it turned out to be a cat of the fake-fur variety.

The sky was blue, the temperature was wonderful and the view was gorgeous. We saw lots of other people walking around town as well.

Even though some trees are still nearly bar, there’s still lots of green out now, and the spring flowers are coming up beautifully. I wish it was like this all year round.

It was just, overall, a nice spring day for a walk.

What more could we ask for? :)

Oh yeah, maybe … instructions on how to make these cute things:

They look like cement and pretty rocks formed in maybe a meat pie tin?

In any case, they’re very cute and it was fun to run across them!

A beautiful day to be outside!

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It was a gorgeous springtime day for a walk. Pretty much perfect. Nice sunshine, nice breeze, nice 63-degree day.

Too bad we had to spend it running “errands” around town — but at least we got outside to enjoy the weather.

So, come along with us for our rather mundane walk on a pretty afternoon.

It started, as always at Laurie’s place, where we spent about 5-7 minutes digging around in her car trying to find her cell phone. Once I found that, we took off for some returns.

First off, we went here:

Laurie had to return a Netflix movie (“Memento” – Laurie’s review: “It was interesting but I thought the end was stupid.”).

Our second stop was here:

Where I got the daily fire reports, as usual.

Then, we crossed the street:

I had to return my library book (“Two Kisses for Maddy” – a memoir “about loss and love.” Good book, especially if you like tearjerkers and are OK with frequent swearing.)

Our last formal errand stop was here:

I just had to pick up the police reports.

Then, with the errands complete, we were free to wander the streets of downtown.

It was nice to see all of the people out walking, cycling and, really, just enjoying the day.

Even the not-human creatures were out and about.

(That’s a real bird at the top, in case you can’t tell.)

I tried getting a better bird shot…

… but it turned out a little darker than I’d hoped.

I also tried to take some pictures of bright-hued flowers:

It is just so nice to see spring finally arriving.

Back on the trail again — it must be spring!

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After months of winter, followed by a season that has been more winter than spring, we finally got back to “our” dirt trail along Lake Bemidji today for our noon-hour walk, which was not the pleasant outing we’d envisioned.

The birds were very welcome. Seeing the seagulls, ducks and geese along the shore is one of the nicest things about walking through the waterfront park en route to the trail. But we ran across another form of wildlife we didn’t like so much: Tiny bugs — gnats, maybe — that swarmed around our faces sort of like in “The Birds,” only not so deadly. They surrounded our heads in little black bug-clouds and drove us crazy. It was quite a bit better once we got on the trail, but we still had to sweep them away all the time. I got a few in my nose but managed to avoid any in my mouth. I was glad we had sunglasses on.

Bethany has posted about being pregnant (she’s due in mid-to Late June), but with winter coats and bulky hoodies, it really hasn’t shown. Today was our first short-sleeved day — I actually had a sweatshirt on when she drove in my driveway and I decided to switch to short sleeves as soon as I saw what she was wearing, and I’m glad I did, because the temperature was lovely.

So here’s the first real Trail Mix look at The Belly:

Other than the bugs, it was nice to be back on the trail, looking at the open waters of the lake as we walked. It’s nice to live so close to such beauty.

The ground looks pretty brown from a distance, but as you get closer, there’s lots of green popping up, which is a welcome sight, especially after the white we had just this past weekend.

Today’s walk was more tiring than normal. It always takes us some time to get in shape for the trail, which offers a more rigorous walk than the sidewalks and streets do. I love the trail walk. It feels refreshing and makes me feel energized and physical. But it takes some getting used to every spring.

I was curious what this is:

It looks like it may have room for a post in the center. A buoy, maybe?

The stairs by 10th Street were as far as we were going to get today. I don’t think Bethany will be up for springing over that wall anytime soon!

On this pretty spring day, I noticed a bunch of cute things in people’s yard as we walked back to my house. I thought this birdhouse — or perhaps a bird condo — was really cute.

We also saw a grill that looks like it’s been getting plenty of use and a pretty hummingbird garden decoration whose red color glows brightly when the sun hits it. The U.S. flag that we saw yesterday on the ground was back up, waving in the slight breeze. It was just a pleasant hour all around — a nice time to relax, chit-chat and catch up, while also covering some work topics. Our work hours overlap so little that we don’t always get a chance to talk much when we’re not walking.

I’ll leave you with this image, which I think speaks volumes. It’s a peaceful reminder that even in times of trouble, there is still so much beauty in the world and so much appreciation for it.

 

We’re still a pair of downtown walkers

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I keep telling myself that “next time” Laurie and I get out for one of our walks, we’re going to hit the dirt lakeside trail again. Of course, then it snows. Or rains. (But when it comes to this spring, usually, it has been snow.)

So we stuck to downtown, again, today, just to be sure the trail wasn’t too wet.

I don’t know why this view struck me, but it did. It just reminded me of a typical small town-ish scene. Bright blue sky, green grass, cute house, etc.

The American flag, too, helped make the scene a little picturesque.

OK, I’m going on a tangent now, be forewarned. I have a “thing” about American flags. (I credit/blame this on too many years of Girl Scouts, personally.) My husband has wanted a flag outside our house, off an on, for a number of years. I resisted it – not because I don’t want one but because I tend to think that if you do display the flag, you have to do it “right” (i.e. lighting it at nighttime and not letting the thing get all tattered and torn up).

Thus, when Laurie and I saw this today …

… I really, really, really wanted to go pick it up.

And in fact, we almost did. But just as we crossed the street and got near to it, I remembered a few phone calls I got last year (I think) about people who were removing their American flags or displaying them upside down in protest or something.

So, in short, we did not address the downed flag. But I did want to.

Anyhow, back to more traditional Trail Mix topics…

It was cold today. OK, about 42 degrees I think. But the wind was pretty brutal.

It looked nice out.

We even saw lots of buds on trees.

But we were never really all that comfortable. Except when we made our pit stops into a few buildings for work-related visits.

Two other notable sights we saw…

A squirrel:

(OK, so that one was probably not too “notable,” but s/he was kinda’ cute.)

And car that really seems to have gotten some stitches:

That’s about it from today.

Happy Monday.