49 degrees in the courtyard yesterday and 57 degrees this morning! I’m used to walking when it’s dark out, but since I’ve been expanding my territory, I like to wait until daylight so I can see the new sights. I don’t think I’ll be walking the Camino anytime soon but it’s fun to trek around my neighborhood pretending I’m crossing the Pyrenees. There’s not much traffic on the blocks I walk, unless I choose to wander out onto Eldron or Emerson. It is an equal mix of residential homes and wooded lots. Walking the new route at daybreak, I get to observe the wildlife at the edge of the woods out at the road. Bunnies, armadillos, opossum, raccoons, turtles, squirrels, birds, bats, snakes, lizards, butterflies, dragonflies. When I’m walking in new territory, I notice I can walk longer. Maybe that’s because I’m allowing myself to be invigorated by my own excitement of the new sights. The new sights and sounds set up new thoughts in my mind, and those new thoughts replace whatever self-talk I had going on. When I began, my left ankle had a twinge and my right knee as well. By the time I’d walked a few minutes, both stopped. I walked farther than previous, so I was aware of my shins getting a workout. I wore my ultrapadded Timberline hiking boots, which are more comfortable than my Asics for walking. The walking is like a moving meditation and is becoming part of my daily spiritual practice.  

Yesterday, I cut back the grapevine I’ve let overtake the giant oaks over the firepit area the past ten years. Most of the strands I cut were about as big around as my thumb, but some were as big as a garden hose, some twice that thick. When it gets close to the ground, such as the thicket I was in, it sends strands out into the earth, which all have to be cut with the big pruners. Think of a 100 foot long garden hose that has been dropped all tangled up onto the ground where it began taking root while the bushes and trees grew over it, dropping dried leaves and dead branches over it for ten years. What I’m doing is, a section at a time, clearing the dried leaves and dead branches to expose the tangled ropes of grapevine on the floor. Then I’m taking my giant pruners and cutting the grapevine into sections I can lift out and sweep the forest floor kind of clean. The cats like to come out while I’m working outside. YinYang stood off to the side looking like an owl, and Benny was showing off, galloping around and climbing trees, looking back to make sure we’d seen him.

After this final part of the land has been cleared, I will begin making the official trail to walk all around the property in a wooded setting. Sometimes I need to stick close to home, and this way I can go for a long, fun, wooded walk in my own yard.