A Walk in the Woods

With the warmer weather, I've finally started a program that I expected to start last fall. (You have to know, by now, that anything that involves "exercise" or "movement" is going to take me a long time to buy into!)

I bought a new camera to take to China. The excuse I gave was that it would get me out doing some walking as I learned how to use the camera.

That didn't happen. Weather was cooperative and it was either rainy or very cold and by the time it warmed up, I conveniently "forgot" about my plans.

But it did last week. It was the first warmish day in a long time and I decided it was a good day to start the program. That was the day when I forgot the SD card for the camera, which won't work without one, and then turned into Inspector Clouseau when I came home to get a replacement.

The plan is that I will walk 3 days a week, when the weather is favorable (realizing that technically there is still another month and a half of winter) and put in a bit of time on the treadmill the other days. Maybe. :)

Today I went for a walk at the UCD Arboretum and got a chance to start bonding with my camera. There are a lot of mom and pop mallards roaming around the place. In another month, they will probably be trailing little guys behind them.

I walked through the Australia section and over the arched bridge and down the other side to the redwood grove.

It's nice and cool there, though as redwood trees go (and grow), these guys are only little babies.

I went down to Spafford lake, which we used to call "the duck pond." Lots of fowl around there.

(do you suppose this is what they call a ducks bed?)

I sat and watched the ducks and cormorants at the edge of Putah Creek, perhaps drying their wings...or maybe just catching a cool breeze.

I walked up through campus and past several of the Robert Arneson egghead statues.

By the time I got back to the car, I had been walking for an hour, with a couple of stops (less than 5 minutes each) to check out the photos I'd been taking. By the time I got home, everything ached, but that's to be expected when for so long my longest walk has been to the refrigerator. Aches and pains aside, I enjoyed myself.

It was really a nice day and I hope to do it again later this week.