Today's walk report: 012014

Walks with a purpose.

Generally speaking if I turn a walk from home into a walk that has a purpose, in other words an errand, it shouldn't be a lot different than an ordinary walk but they are. They always seems longer than they really are and typically they're kind of boring. What I'm referring to is different than a walk which is really only an errand, like this one was. If it's over 5 km, then it's not just an errand it's a walk with a purpose. Today I needed to get one of these, a 5/8" male hose mender. This because the Gilmour, "last hose you'll ever buy," exploded (really, I wish I had video) on me the other day and I had to cut off about 7' from a 100' hose. What it is is it's the last Gilmour hose I'll ever buy. Which brings me to what I did today, long before the walk.

I went to one of the city, free mulch sites and filled up the back of my 1992 Jeep Cherokee with mulch. Filled it, by that I mean I go until I can't tolerate shoveling the stuff in any long and/or I figure it's going to be quite a mess if I need to stop suddenly. I think on this occasion my back took the decision.

Back home with the mulch. See the hose, off to the left? P.O.S. that hose is.

The reason for the mulch was because I also put down a lb. of wildflower seed today and the mulch seems to be a nice compromise between doing nothing but scattering and buying compost which is ridiculously expensive for a project like this. I covered close to 3,000 sq. ft. today. While city mulch is described as "yard trimmings" it's also a lot of yard dirt. Plus it gives the seed some protection from birds. I put the seed down after the mulch and it filters down some with the 1st watering. That also gives me a color guide for where to throw the seed since the mulch is always darker than the rest of the yard. This is the 2nd seeding I've done for spring. The 1st was put down late October, guided by my experience from last year. That was 1.5 lb. of seed. Unfortunately a few days of frost mid-December took it's toll and I lost maybe a 1/3 of my seedlings.

Onto the walk...

So why this one was boring, at least the "to" Home Depot portion. I walked along the bike path/walkway which runs parallel to the Metro Busway. It's long and straight, no diversions along the way and it also parallels traffic off to the left which smells and is noisy, despite volume adjustments on my iPod. See the red circle I added? That's the traffic light I'm heading to. I'm about 1.5 km into the walk at this point, with more of the same behind me. It's sort of like driving Interstate 5 in CA., you get there quicker but it's oh so very dull a journey.

See all the yellow on the bike path? That's pollen from one type of tree along the path. Not a good route for allergy sufferers I suppose.

About 3.45 km later, my destination.

Kind of good walking here too because I can't be tempted to buy anything else. The $3.78 male hose mender goes in my pocket and I head back home. Except I decided no more Busway and traffic and detoured about a block so I could cut through the college campus instead.

See, can't put these in my pocket.

This was a regular photo spot when I used to go for a walk in these parts while my mom was getting her hair done several blocks away. Sniff, just 1 year ago. This is the property which was home to Panavision for years but alas times have changed and they are going to change even more. I read the other day that Paramount Pictures has announced no more releases on film. It's only a matter of a short while before the other studios follow. Panvision is now in a much smaller location a couple of blocks from here.

Apartments, lots of them and I don't get a very good vibe about the developer of this property but I'm not going into it.

Here's a couple of shots from 0912 when they were just starting and ripping a couple dozen beautiful trees out.

Onto the campus there was a couple just in front of me across the street. I noticed their interest in one of the local hawks and since I know all of these birds I ID'ed one Cooper's hawk. This one here and here. Just after that there was a red-tailed taking flight and toward the end of out little "birding" discussion I believe I saw an American Kestrel once again. I haven't seen one for weeks. In fact I had made a note to read up on any migratory habits they might have. Anyway, no bird pics. I was with just an 18-55mm lens and there was no point.

That's it. Long day, lots of bending and lifting, music almost all day, still playing in the living room and I'm going to retire in front of the tube with a movie now. Total walk: 7.51 km.