I was walking with my feet ten feet off of [the Greenway]
Walking in [Westport]
But do I really feel the way I feel?
[Sorry to Marc Cohn, I like your song about Memphis but once I wrote the title of today's blog, I kind of had to rewrite your lyrics. I've also enjoyed walking in Memphis, for different reasons than the ones described below]
Last spring there were three ways into town: the town way, the Greenway (a great treed walking trail) and the park way. One of my happiest memories from our time here last spring was running through the park and I couldn't wait to do that run. I was excited to head out this AM and was moving along the road at a good clip when I discovered a fence has been put up blocking the best part of the park. It now costs 5 euro to get in. It's all sort of understandable but I'm pretty disappointed. Ah well. Tomorrow I will run on the Greenway.
One of the things Dale and I loved about being in Westport was how much we walked. We walked, in part, because we didn't have a car while we were here. But we also walked because it was such a walkable place and walking makes you think about the space you're in in different ways. I know I don't walk as much as I should in Windsor and I have been bad on last year's resolve to walk more.
Last spring, we walked into town just about every day, and often more than once a day. It's about 5k round trip. Sometimes we walked or ran alone, but mostly together. When we walked, sometimes we talked through our morning's writing or reading, sometimes we talked about other things, other times we didn't say anything. Walking is as good for the mind and soul as it is for the body.
We don't have a lot planned for our time here: mostly just reconnecting with people and places. Today we walked the Greenway and remembered why we loved it. One of the things I loved about walking in Westport last spring was that i got to see all sorts of new spring things coming to life. I saw baby lambs and new birds (like the thoroughly adorable Stonechat http://youtu.be/nEOQ2JfznAk) Every day there was some new green thing or something that was getting bigger or changing. Unlike spring in Canada, where suddenly trees have leaves and grass becomes green. spring here seemed thoughtful, methodical and incremental. I remember tulips and daffodils blooming for weeks, maybe because the climate is gentler in a range of ways, and things that looked like they'd bloom tomorrow holding off for weeks. On this trip, there are lots of summer plants blooming on the Greenway In many ways it's the same Greenway but it's also very different because there are new flowers and plants.
Here are some of the new flowers I've seen. I have fantastic intentions to research and label them but we shall see:
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