Two Walks

Hello, dear ol' blogging friends. How have you been? It seems an age since last we met - though really it's only been two weeks. An Aged Parent to visit and tend, and five (woo hoo!) crochet magazine commissions all due this week, have combined to keep me on the road, at my hook, and off the computer.

But the projects are done at last, at last, with only the patterns left to write. The Aged P is back in his apartment, still very tired from his surgery, needing a wheelchair to get around, but slowly getting stronger.

In the rare intervals of work and P-visiting and crochet, I took two sunset walks: one on the last Sunday of winter, and the next on the first Sunday of spring.

Here is the marshy lake-around-the-corner under a pale and rosy end-of-winter sky:

At the entrance to one of the snowmobile trails, the earth is slowly kicking off its white blankets, preparatory to waking up:

Oak trees against a sunset sky:

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A week later, I follow the same route. Though now officially spring, it's even colder than the previous Sunday, but the snow is nearly gone, and blackbirds have returned to sit high in the trees and sing over the still-frozen marsh.

Their sweet notes fall from the air and carry thoughts of summer and green trees, warmth and wildflowers to come.

On to the prairie restoration project, where most of the trails are denuded of snow:

Shadow of a waving blogger:

Favourite delicate grasses backlit by the sun:

Heading west again, I see that the trees in the next field look delightfully frothy on top:

And the badger's front door is once more visible.

Despite the cold and the bitter wind, these are encouraging signs of spring, with the promise of better things to come. (Never mind that it's snowing heavily as I finish writing these words....)

:)

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