This morning when I woke up and climbed out of bed, I opened the blinds to gaze out our sliding window to the back yard. It’s a habit I’ve had ever since this summer when I saw Mr. Bear (Mord) out there. This morning was another animal, black in color, but much smaller. It was a squirrel that had decided to hop around our redwood table and my outdoor plants. When I got to the window he (or she, who knows?) looked up at me and hopped toward me, curious, and I began to make the little patter I do with my cats, like some people do with babies–though I never did that with my own children for they felt more like people to me and so I talked with them like they were humans. How do you talk to squirrels? To cats? The poor squirrel had a scar on the topside of its neck, which had turned white. We figured maybe a raptor had tried to scoop it up at some point and then obviously dropped it. It seemed to be digging in my thyme plant, and eating something I could not see–definitely not as big as nuts. So maybe it was clearing my plant of grubs in the soil, to which I said, “Thanks, little guy.” He seemed interested in me, and he was cute alright.
Not long afterward, Morgan and I hit the trail at Mundy Park. Our idea was just to hike the Perimeter Trail, but instead we decided to go to the lake and then up the old logger’s trail (which is mostly just steep steps) and then from there we navigated the Interlaken Trail, a little more on the Perimeter Trail, and then some on the Nitinat Trail. All in all it was only three kilometers. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t more (or maybe my Google Fit was off). At least it was something. And it was so beautiful there, a misty oasis with not too many others out, even though it was not pouring down rain as it has been for days.
It felt really good to get out to Mundy Park again. I thought about running a little but had worn my hiking boots instead, so maybe next time.
Later we had a nice day, and I had a lovely talk with my sister and my Aunt Judy (Dad’s sister), which was great, since we don’t get to see each other too often. Tonight it is getting late, but I have tomorrow off from work, so I get to stay up late! I have been listening to music, working on a new project (I’ll talk more on later), writing, and trying to figure out some guitar chords. I’m really appreciating this peaceful time of night and the hiking from this morning. The featured image is of Mundy Lake–it looks exactly like other photos I’ve taken of it. It’s so good to be planning out some regular hiking again.