For several years now, a popular topic has been pondering “what brings you joy?”
And I don’t mean socks neatly rolled and arranged in drawers in color-coded series .
The answer for me is simple — being outdoors in nature.
Increasingly arthritic knees and hips be damned (I have good days and not so good ones in that department), within a minute of being out the front door and on my way down a Byrne Creek trail in SE Burnaby, BC, my spirits soar.
Rain or shine.
Let me see a salmon spawning, an eagle soaring, an owl silently staring, and my aches melt away.
It’s that endorphin surge of excercise and the primal heightening of the senses.
We are blessed here in Burnaby, with many salmon-bearing streams and a variety of parks with varied ecosystems.
Today’s ramble was in Mundy Park in Coquitlam, BC. Looks like there’s an invasive American Bullfrog problem. . . Then again, where aren’t they in the lower mainland now?
I had a four-hour photography ramble around and up and down Deer Lake Park in #Burnaby.
In over 20 years of walking the trails there, I have never seen as many people as I have since Covid.
On the one hand, it’s great that people are getting out into this beautiful park, but on the other hand, Covid fatigue has definitely set in, and people are being less mindful than they ought to be.
There were several large groups of over ten people doing the circuit. Unfortunately they were oblivious to other park users. Faster walkers and joggers had to stop and plead with people to give some space. In many stretches the boardwalk and trails are just a bit over a meter wide.
I’d guess that about two-thirds of the “One Direction Only” and “Maintain 2-Meter Spacing” signs had been torn down, with many tossed into the bush, and four or five tossed into the lake.
Too many people are not being Kind or Safe, leading to it becoming more difficult for others to be Calm, eh?
We love this short hike to Nairn Falls at Nairn Falls Provincial Park near Pemberton, BC. We’ve done it many times over the years and it never fails to impress.
Yumi and I have been fortunate to have the week off and be able to enjoy walks in the woods in different lower mainland locations nearly every day. Today the sun broke through at Buntzen Lake near Anmore, BC.
.
