The good weather has finally hit the Great White North, and I was able to take advantage of it by doing my first ‘hike’ of the year yesterday, walking home from work. I hadn’t taken the bus for a long time, and I was pleasantly surprised by how peaceful I found not having to drive in that morning, even if the trip took almost twice as long. The walk home, of course, took much, much longer – it is 10 kilometres after all – and though my pace at the outset was the usual 6 kilometres per hour, about half-way there I’d slowed down considerably. Surprisingly, I’m not stiff or sore this morning, which is good news when you’re no longer in your forties. I do look forward to hitting the trails with my photo gear in a few weeks. I miss being out in the woods, where the biggest noises are the wind in the trees and the woodpeckers doing their thing.

A great thing about walking the route I usually drive twice a day is that I can see things I normally wouldn’t notice as I zip by in my car. It gives me a new appreciation of how nice this city is, and allows me to connect stories I hear on the radio with actual places. There was a controversial place that opened last week on one of the streets I use to commute, and I didn’t locate it until I walked by yesterday, giving me a nice ‘aha’ moment. I intend to do this walking home thing at least once a week, on days where I don’t need my car to drive to meetings all over town, and the skies won’t open up to soak me. Of course, having a bus card, I can always hop on the next one if for some reason walking becomes not so nice. Hopefully, all this low impact walking will help me rid myself of the keg I seem to have developed in my midriff.

Progress on my books has been slow but steady. The first re-write of The Path of Duty is fifty percent done. I hope to have it fully done by the weekend after next, so that my editor can critique the story before we go into the rounds of proofing. I’ve also got almost a third of Cold Comfort written, but it’s been uneven progress. I think with the warmth and sunshine, I’m finding it harder to spend my spare time in front of the computer, and it’ll only get worse as we move into summer.