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An evening stroll

Unwilling to let my doctor's appointment today keep me from walking, I fed the kids an early supper and went for a walk around the neighborhood. There is a 2-mile path following the main streets that we used to use for school "family fitness walks" two or three nights a year, back when Coach Across the Street was lead P.E. teacher at Great Place Elementary. The holiday walk was especially interesting because we would collect enough gallon milk jugs to line the entire walk with luminaria, and Coach would lead the walk bellowing carols through a bullhorn. (Coach is a "she," incidentally.)



It was glorious out this evening, just below 80° F, light breeze, about 45 minutes before sunset when I started. Lawn mowers were going all over as people frantically tried to get their too-eagerly-growing grass cut between last Saturday night's rain and the thunderstorms promised tomorrow. Dogs and their people were out for their after-supper constitutionals. Cul-de-sacs and yards were occupied by games of catch (yesterday was the Cardinals' home opener!) or gangs of kids on bikes or skateboards. The smell of the occasional supper prepared on outdoor grill hit me as I walked past.

Everything is in bloom, or just finished. The bulbs, the trees, the bushes -- oh, the lilacs! Their scent is incredible this year. We finally had some real snow this winter for the first time in years, and all the vegetation seems to have appreciated it. Air conditioners were humming at nearly every house, for our metro area is notorious as Pollen Central and only the hardiest, least-pollen-affected souls open their windows, even on the few balmy days of the year.

All the birds were calling, even the little guys like the sparrows and juncos, who I don't usually hear sing in my back yard when they come to the feeder. And at the top of the subdivision (the pointy corner opposite the one with the arrow) a lone red-winged blackbird sat at the very tippy-top of a newly-leafed-out maple, singing his heart out.

This will have been the last night to enjoy this. Tomorrow's thunderstorms bring with them a return to "normal" temperatures. We're not supposed to make 50° F the rest of the week, and warmer temps after Easter will be nowhere near so nice and accompanied by more rain. This will cause my children much grief, because even though we had nearly half an inch of snow last month, they've been wearing shorts for about two weeks now.

Posted: Mon - April 2, 2007 at 09:11 PM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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