After walking the same six streets over and over again in our south Texas park for the past six months, I’m loving being back to our walking/biking/hiking trails here at home in Sask, Canada.
There’s just something about the trees getting ready to leaf out, the fresh air, the river, the variety of trails, and the familiarity of home that makes my morning walks here at home so peaceful, meaningful, enjoyable, and special.
Do you have a place that’s your happiest?
Yesterday morning, I looked out my balcony door and saw that the snowfall from the previous day was completely gone. I donned my winter coat and enjoyed my first outdoor walk since we arrived back home.
At just above freezing, it was a chilly morning. In spite of that, the air was clean and fresh, and after a couple of city blocks to get to the river boardwalk, I realized that I had bundled up a bit too warm. Now I know what to wear when I head out for my walk today.
After walking up and down the same streets of a south Texas RV Park all winter, the riverside walk was most welcome, and even though the water will be muddy for a while yet, the ice is completely gone.
On my way to the boardwalk, I ran into two gals from my hometown who I’ve known all of my life. Yes, it slowed my average power walk pace, but our 30+ minute visit catching up was fun and enjoyable.
Each and every negative had a positive side that was stronger. Don’t you love it when that happens?
I said to hubs the other day, that although I love the winter weather in South Texas, pretty much everything else is better here at home.
We got a little skiff of snow yesterday (feature photo), but temps are going to be above freezing from now until the end of the month, so it’ll all be melted in a couple of days.
Things are easier here.
I can walk across the street and through a parking lot to get to a familiar, large and newly renovated supermarket. It’s a Co-op store that I’ve shopped at since I was old enough to drive here from our home town (18 miles/28 km away).
It’s a 2-block walk from our condo building to the downtown area, and I can be guaranteed that on any walk to the grocery store or the downtown area, I’ll run into someone I’ve known all of my life.
Family is here. My mom lives less than two blocks away. I have two sisters who also live here, and another sister and my brother live in our home town (20 minute drive away). My dad’s youngest sister is more like a big sister than an aunt to me. She and her husband live across the street from us.
Our walking trails are beckoning already. In Texas, my walking route is around our RV park … over and over again for 6 months.
Here, I can walk on a different path every day for weeks on end and always see something new. In addition, many of the groomed trails are on the city outskirts (which I also walk to) and are beautiful nature trails among wildlife habitats.
I like our Canadian bread, beef, eggs, flour, and poultry better. It’s all in what you get used to.
We have many restaurants in walking distance and there’s a new movie theatre nearing completion two blocks from here.
The ice hockey rink is nearby and the junior team hubs played with many years ago is in playoffs now. We’ll definitely be attending some games and he’ll no doubt touch base with friends from “back in the day”.
There’s so much more, but I think by now, that you get the picture.
As Dorothy Gale’s famous final line says, “There’s no place like home”.
Our hotel in Bismarck, ND was near the state Capitol. Once again, we’ve been to and through Bismarck many times and have never stopped by the Capitol building.
It was a cold and windy day, but the stop was worthwhile.
I was quite surprised to see that the building is modern.
As we drove farther north, the snow dissipated until it was completely gone! This was a new, unexpected, and most welcome experience for us.
It was a good road trip home. I hope you enjoyed traveling with us via these posts.
Now, a lot of this for a few days …
This mural, on the side of a roadside service station in Saskatchewan, Canada – although weathered, depicts some history of the pioneers and farming in our province.
Sticking with my Monday Murals theme, I decided to feature a few from where we live.
This mural was completed in panels by the community. The artist who created it, made it a paint by number, so that anyone who wanted to, could paint a part of it.
That artist/designer won a $1,000 award for her idea and for including community involvement.
Each hand is holding something that defines our community, and the tiger lilies scattered throughout the painting are our provincial flower.
The sunset in the background gives a shoutout to our province’s motto “The Land of Living Skies” (our sunrises and sunsets are nothing short of spectacular).
The Cathedral Area in our province’s capital city is an artsy-fartsy district that a person could spend an entire day exploring.
From little clothing boutiques to sidewalk cafes, to a variety of bookstores, and to art installations on the walls of both businesses and homes, the Cathedral Area holds an “old meets new” sort of charm.
In a previous post, I featured a photo of a mural that I was disappointed in because I was too close, so cut off the end of it.
I returned last week and used the 0.5 lens on my camera and voila!
I’d often heard about the excellent meat offerings at the Ukrainian Co-op in our capital city, Regina, Saskatchewan.
When I Googled the address, the images that came up were all the incentive I needed to convince hubs to take me there to get some photos.
All sides of this building are covered with colourful and historical murals.
My feature photo shows where we parked our truck on arrival. We soon discovered that this was an exit, so we had to walk around to the opposite side to locate the entrance.
The walk was worth it.
If you’ve ever seen a hand painted Ukrainian easter egg, you’ll know how I chose the title for this post.
In the mid to late 1980’s, artistic murals on building walls here in my province, were a new concept.
In 1989, the town administration of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan had heard of another Canadian town – Chemainus, British Columbia (where a murals project had become quite famous) so a delegation traveled to B.C. to explore the feasibility.
The resulting Duck Lake historical murals definitely boosted tourism.
Now, these massive art displays are found on building walls in cities and towns across our entire province.
I snapped my feature photo in our capital city – Regina, Sask. Sadly, I was too close to catch the ladybug that was on the far right of this colourful mural. I always forget to switch to the .5 (extra wide) lens on my phone in such situations.
Hopefully, lesson learned this time.
Late yesterday afternoon, a call was interrupted by the loud honking on my cell phone of an Environment Canada tornado warning for our area.
Within an hour, the eerie calm set in and the sky darkened.
My feature photo is looking east from our balcony. Soon, the wind picked up, and the nimbus clouds moving in from the west started attacking the fluffy white cumulus clouds, threatening the formation of the dreaded combination: cumulonimbus. The cloud formations I learned in science class so many years ago have stuck with me. That’s a testament to a good teacher.
Thankfully, our only outcome from the ominous warning, was a ten minute episode of heavy rain, wind, thunder, and lightning; then it just carried on moving east.
I’ll admit I was more than a bit anxious for a while.
Radically Retired 