Wednesday, August 13, 2014. So far, so good!

After two days of freakish rain, today was one of those absolutely stunning, crisp mornings that warm into the perfect temperature by the afternoon.   Yesterday, I did not repeat the same mistake by waiting to go for my walk in the afternoon.  So I, along with my fearless walking companion, ventured out before the rain started.

Duke has always been a very high-strung dog and is fiercly loyal in protecting his humans as well as his house and yards.  So, when a dog barks at us from a backyard, or worse, a front window, Duke goes into hyper-drive.  He starts whining, and doing this high-pitch "yip yip yip."  (sigh)  He's much easier to control than he used to be when he was younger and all in all, I enjoy sharing my walk with him.

I take him around the first loop, which, I learned today is about .65 of a mile.  As we do this more and more, I'll work him up to walking more.  He's just starting to pant when I get him back to the house.  He made it further today, so it won't be long before he's walking two loops.

This past week, I've started to notice pain in my knees when I walk, which is not surprising since I spent a good deal of my adulthood carrying around extra weight--at one point weighing just over 300 pounds.  Thankfully it's not debilitating at all, and serves as a constant reminder of one of the important reasons WHY I'm doing this.  

Here are a couple of things I enjoy seeing when I walk in the neighborhood.  The sunflowers were planted around an ugly telephone pole that is right on Ann Arbor Trail.  I think they're the coolest flower!

The next photo is one of a house just down the street.  It's difficult to see  the details of the front yard because most of the "good stuff" is in the shadow of the tree.  But,this house always has the most interesting flower beds.  They are an eclectic collection of wild flowers of varied color.  What I love about it most is they incorporate giant sunflowers into the landscape every year.  One a side note, what I referred to as a giant sunflower has altered somewhat since Tom decided to grow a patch of his own that are now reffered to as "Magic Sunflowers."  That story, however, is a story deserving of it's own post.   

This was today's walk---it was nearly two miles!  Since a healthy diet it also an important, nay vital, component, I wanted to share a "what's for dinner" photo with you.  This afternoon, I stopped at a small Middle-Eastern meat and veg shop in Eastern Dearborn to buy some of the most amazing Bulgarian feta cheese I've ever eaten.  So, tonight I made fluffy scrambled eggs (made with organic eggs) with feta cheese, garnished with fresh green scallions and organic roma tomatoes.  Fresh and simple.   And with that, I leave you until next time.  Bon appetit!