Walking Journal and Walking Stories

I put in a smoke tree year before last and its starting to grow nicely. I hope it can get half as neat as yours. That is some awesome looking herb there dys. Do you mess with it , like pruning and sucH?

Walked yesterday: work to home.
No new photographs for the day as I was trying to avoid the possible rain from the overcast sky.

Shaved a couple of minutes off of the first leg: W17th St. to the 59th St. Bridge;
Shaved 3 minutes of the second leg: crossing the 59th St. Bridge;
Forgot to check the time when I got home but I assume I was a shade under the 2 hour total time.

Anyone else still on the walking spree?

FM I do prune the smoke tree, very lightly, the trick seems to be not over-watering. Mine gets a good soaking about 3 x yearly, it's planted in sand and a shredded wood mulch. full sun.

My sons and I substituted a two-hour canoe outing on the Charles for our
Sunday walk. I ache in places I forgot I had.

You have my condolences on the body aches George.

I walked my typical route work to home route today. Same amount of time and I only expect to improve the overall trip time by a couple of minutes as one can only walk so fast as well as avoid so many red lights/no walking traffic street lights.

Still, over time I can make an improvement in how I hit the first half of the 59th Street Bridge as its all up hill that half.

My heart is definitely in it, tsar, but I haven't had much of an opportunity this (working) week.

But soon ... soon, I hope!

You're becoming Mr Speedy!

Walked about a mile in total to pick up some fabric through freecycle.com. A really fun selection!

Left the house at 9:15 and walked through town to the other house. Back in half an hour but the day is already too hot for more walking.

Too hot to do the afternoon hike today. I'll plan one for this weekend.

It's on the edge of 90 degrees here and mostly sunny.

Walked home from work. I may have taken off almost 5 minutes during the bridge section but gained it back on the final leg from Queensboro Plaza to home. I need to get back in shape.

2 weeks of almost relentless rain has put a bit of a dampener on walking. The rain yesterday was like tropical downpours - and this is autumn.

Sun is out just now (not much use to me - I'm at work) but it's already pelted down thismorning, and more is expected - and a wet weekend approaches.

I think I feel some cooking coming on - and perhaps a spot of drinking!

Margo, take a sip of something strong for me!

It was 99 in my driveway when I got into the car to pick up my son and 3:30!

Meet our official a2k Walking Society mascots:


We'll name them Abbot and Costello or Lewis and Clark or ... any suggestions?

Frick & Frack?

We were in Montreal for my son's graduation (alleluia!). I got up early
on a cool, overcast morning to take a walk around Old Montreal.

Outside our hotel was a rack of BIXIs, short-term rental bicycles. I enjoy
using them, but today I walk.


I crossed Rue St-Paul, a narrow street with lots of shops and restaurants.


I walked down to the Old Port and past the blue-and-yellow tents of the
Cirque du Soleil.


I walked along the waterfront to the Tour de l'Horloge (Clock Tower).


Looking back toward the city, I saw the domed Bonsecours Marketplace.


From there I walked back into Old Montreal, back to Rue St-Paul.


I walked along St-Paul to Place Jacques Cartier. In the summer, this
place is filled with street entertainers and artists. That is the
emphatically non-French Lord Nelson atop the column.


I walked up to Rue Notre-Dame and past the ornate Basilica of the
same name.


Further down Notre-Dame, there are some cool-looking old buildings.



I love the old "PHOTO SERVICE LTEE" sign here.


I walked by this museum, which was preparing and Easter Island
exhibit and then back to my hotel.

Merci Sir George for the wonderful walking tour fo Old Montreal!

Thanks for the Montreal walk, George. I enjoyed that!

The sun has just peeped through for the first time today (after a very rainy day yesterday & overnight) so (fingers crossed!) I may be able to indulge in a good, long walk after all! Under-cover, to be on the safe side!
(Chafing at the bit here.)

Thanks for the tour of Old Montreal! It's lovely there.

brendalee and I walked our feet off today. We were at the CBC studios for a live-to-air Go! program. After it was over, we walked from Front and John over to King and Spadina. A good half-hour march. Spent about half an hour poring over the treasures at the Winners there. I found great dance footie things there. We wandered up and across Spadina/Queen West for the next two and a half/three hours. Had a lot of fun in the textile/bead shops along Queen West there. It's a funny mix of old-school tough neighbourhood, with a few trendy restos tucked in.

We walked up into Chinatown 3 - went to the Pink Pearl for dim sum/yum cha - then walked through Kensington Market. Kensington's an interesting community. It's in the middle of its latest switcheroo - becoming very south/central American in terms of the tiny cafes that are popping up. Lots of great sources of empanadas, humitas - that sort of thing. Jumbo Empanada has the best salad I've ever had. Ever. We're going there or to one of the Ethiopian restos on our next Kensington Market adventure.

We walked from about 11 a.m. til after 5 p.m. with a one hour break at the Pink Pearl. We covered a lot of territory.

My feel are still feeling a bit mmmmm worn.

Now that's what I call combining a jolly good walk with fascinating "distractions", Beth!

There should be more walks like that!

Finally, some sun, after 3 weeks of rain...

So, headed off for a walk around the bay near home.

The cafe on the corner of my street is doing it's usual booming business, but - no stopping - yet!


The tide's out but the clouds are scudding in - and it's a tad chilly by the water.

There's quite a few people out, dog walkers (always) families on bikes, some people just ambling (me), serious walkers pelting along at pace, or runners thumping by.

There's been a lot of rain lately, so the water is quite murky. Everywhere you can see where mud and rubbish have washed down the slopes to the water's edge.

Here's the old Bushells Tea factory, across the bay. It now processes coffee, and occasionally you get this very strong smell of roasting coffee.

This is also where my mate Len launches his boat, when we go out on the harbour.
Here you can see across the bay to some seriously ugly apartments on the other side of the river, the Parramatta River, the extension of Sydney Harbour.


I walked as far as possible along the walking path, and then headed up the hill (past my longer-for house, which just sold for $2.075 million. - should have saved harder!)

I trundle back along the road, slowly, as there's been almost no exercise for the past couple of weeks, due to the filthy weather, and I can feel myself stiffen. I get to the other cafe, the one with the great cakes, and there's a fire engine out the front. A little bit of angst, until I see 4 firies standing around chatting and drinking coffee. At least they didn't have the lights and sirens going. I'm longing for a cup of tea - but experience has shown me that Italian cafes are not good places to get a decent tea. Their cakes, however, are really good, so I sneak in and collect a couple of my favourite coffee eclairs, and head home for a cuppa.

Walk - about 4 kilometres.