Some select photos and stories from our daily walks

Our daily morning walks take us around our village. We are fortunate that there are many parts that have little development (and residents). These are our favorites for our typical routes. These days when you have to have some physical or social distance from others, you need to find the places where you can get some exercise. Of course, it doesn't hurt that these are outdoors. There is a short story for each of the photos and I relate them in each caption.

We've found long stretches of road like this where there are no houses and it is rare for vehicles to pass by. This affords us to take off our masks and enjoy the morning breeze unimpeded. Recently, it has been more colorful as many plants and trees have been flowering; indicating that this is basically springtime. There are many Narra trees around and their yellow flowers blanket the roads like the one in the photo.

One time we were walking, a large bird flew across the road in front of us. It settled upon a branch on a tree that grew near the edge of a steep slope from the roadside. From the branch, it had a most wonderfulview of the metropolis. Friends say it's likely a hawk. They are most welcome in our area where there are also crows terrorizing the smaller birds. I am not sure if the hawks contribute to curbing the growing population of squirrels (who also terrorize the small birds) but maybe they along with the owls are keeping the balance somehow.

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Here is one my favorite photos taken while I was walking by myself. It is what I call an opportunistic shot because you have to be at the right place at the right moment during sunrise to get this photo. It seems like the sun peeking through an opening in the trees.

I will be posting more photos in future posts about our village and our walks. One thing good that came out of this pandemic is our getting to walk around more mainly for exercise but also to be in touch with our neighborhood. When we started walking regularly again last year, we notices a lot of new houses (and new residents) in our subdivision. We also got to rediscover some paths that were less trodden. We hope to continue our regular walks even after the threat of Covid-19 has waned.

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