Walkin’ The Walk ... (Or Trying To Anyway).

When I left on my walk this morning, the wind was whipping about, threatening to snatch my woolen hat right off my head. I placed my hand over that hat to hold it in place and knocked it askew, causing tendrils of straw, er ... hair to escape, giving me a rather disheveled appearance. I’m sure the squirrels in the Park didn’t mind – they didn’t seem scared when they saw me! Hmm.

Yup, it was another blustery day, but not as bad as yesterday thankfully.

I knew I'd better get myself down to Council Point Park before the squirrels forgot who I was, or they started questioning me: "so what's with this new three days away, one day here routine?" A week ago I missed three days in a row due to all the rain, then went there Saturday before Elizabeth Park, and now another three days has passed before I returned to my favorite nature nook.

It could just be my overactive imagination in play, but I like to think that when my contingent of furry peanut pals see me entering the Park via the parking lot, there are whispers, then squeals, the likes of Alvin and the Chipmunks, that proclaim "Linda's here!"

I arrived at the Park and almost immediately found myself making apologies to Parker by the parking curb. I told him it had been too rainy to come visit and he likely didn't come down from his nest anyway. He appeared to be listening attentively, so I bent down closer and gave him more peanuts. I turned around to leave and found a woman bus driver who had come out of the Park's restrooms standing there smiling. She said "I was watching how that squirrel came over to you and now is sitting there next to you eating peanuts." I whispered "he's my favorite, but don't tell the other squirrels that."

At the beginning of the trail I was welcomed by a passel of squirrels running toward me and following behind me along the trail. While I was scattering peanuts on the perimeter path, I told them the tale of the squirrel at Elizabeth Park with a colossal attitude because I was too close to his tree, and so I just told that squirrel that “I'm kind of a big deal at Council Point Park and all those squirrels like me!”

I doled out peanuts and everyone went into munch-down mode. I had brought extra peanuts as I know they are still intent on hunting and gathering nuts for the Winter. They'd better hustle hiding those nuts because here in Southeast Michigan we’ll get our first taste of the white stuff this Friday, just a dusting for our part of town, maybe a slushy inch in the northern and western 'burbs. Well, say it isn't snow! A mere month ago I’m sure we were in shirt sleeves. I’m still waiting for the real Autumn to stand up and take a bow – if it wasn’t for the beautiful colored leaves, I would not know what season we were in. It was hot and rainy – now it’s colder than normal and snow is lurking nearby. So many of those bright-colored leaves are now carpeting the ground thanks to yesterday’s very high wind gusts.

I got my five miles walked on this dismal-looking morning. A pale sun peeked between the clouds for about five minutes, but the rest of my journey was gloomy and gray, just as it's been all Fall.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net