Scenes From A Walk Along the New Part of the Schuylkill River Trail

Hello! I hope you are doing well this week, and that if you are someplace where the heat is showing up, that you can find a well to keep cool. I know I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, when it is supposed to be 91 degrees (Fahrenheit) here. Ugh. 

But sadly I can do nothing about it. Sigh.

In the middle of May, a new portion of the Schuylkill River Trail near our house opened. It's been under construction for a while, and had gotten to the point where you just kept thinking, "Come on, that looks finished, let me see!" 

A lot of my walking takes place on the trail, for either part of a walk or all of a walk, so I was really excited to see what it was. It's lovely, interesting, and at certain times, you can't really believe you're smack dab in the middle of the city! My Merlin app on my phone identified American Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Ospreys, and Baltimore Orioles on my first walk as being the birds providing me with background music. I saw the robins, and an osprey, but not the others. I would especially love to see an actual Baltimore Oriole - it was one of the first "special" birds I learned about as a kid, and it also fascinated me that there was a baseball team with the same name (my childhood brain didn't make the connection that the team was named after the bird ...)

Anyway, this past Monday, I made myself stop and take some photos along the way so I could share them here and on social media, so you may have already seen some of them. But in any case, here are some scenes from along the new part of the trail. I hope you'll enjoy them.

   

We've had lots of rain lately, so you can see that the river is pretty muddy!

See the Center City Philadelphia skyline in this one?

This tunnel means you can walk under Interstate 76 aka the Schuylkill Expressway.

I love the way the bridges look! And they added lights to them, so at night they twinkle and look so fabulous!

Of course, once you get off the trail, and back into the neighborhood on the way home, you remember that you're in the city. But fortunately, our neighborhood is actually pretty quiet - I mean, it's not like you don't hear anything, but for living where we live, it's kind of surprising it's not a lot noisier. The loudest noises are sirens (no surprise there), and one big-mouthed guy who lives on the street and talks at a volume that would lead you to think everyone here is hard of hearing.

So I hope you have enjoyed the new parts of the trail. As you might imagine, it's been getting a ton of use with our nice weather over the past few weeks. Right now, if you started at the southern end of this trail and headed north, you could walk/bicycle/whatever all the way to Valley Forge. (I will not be doing that ...). And there are plans for extending it even more, but like all things related to infrastructure, money has to be found. But in the meantime, none of us are complaining!

*****

The fact that I am writing this post today is a salve to my heart and brain. I had a laptop incident a couple of days ago that made me certain that I had killed my laptop. But so far, so good. 🤞

Seen On Today's Walk

My respiratory infection set me back a bit with my efforts to get some kind of exercise at least every other day, if not more often. But today I managed to start again with a 1.45 mile walk, made better by spying the BEST FLAG EVER!

The only way this could be better would be if it were on our house.

New York, Day One

I had hoped to post this yesterday, but my plans were foiled. We had electricians in the house all day into the evening (a whole 'nother story), and no electricity and therefore no WiFi. I could have used the data on my phone to post, but I have a hard time formatting posts, etc. on my phone, so I decided to just wait.

DISCLAIMER: For anyone who follows me on Instagram or Facebook, you've already seen/heard all of this, so feel free to skip reading and carry on with your life.

Onward.

Anyway our overnight trip to New York last Friday and Saturday was absolutely perfect. No glitches, and ridiculously nice weather, so the travel gods were clearly smiling on us.

We got off the train, and immediately took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History. Neither of us had visited before, so we spent most of the day trying to see as much as we could.

Of all the stuff we saw, this one is the one I photographed. A mammoth model of a mosquito. Because - just NO. Mosquitoes are a major nemesis of mine, and of course *that's* the thing they create as a major part of an exhibit. 

We had a great time and spent the majority of the day there. Then we left and sat outside for a while in the nice weather, people-watching and petting dogs.

Modern entrance to the museum

Original entrance to the museum

As it was just so lovely, we decided to just walk back down to our hotel in Times Square. We had the best, prettiest walk through Central Park.

John Lennon Memorial in Strawberry Fields

The Dakota - where so many famous people, including John Lennon and Leonard Bernstein, lived (not together, hahaha!).

So many of the trees and flowers were budding - daffodils and crocuses were already in full bloom, along with forsythia. But it was just so nice to walk around and take different paths. 

We checked into our hotel, and relaxed for a bit, and then it was ready to find some dinner and go to the show we'd come to see. We were disappointed to find that one of our fave places to eat had closed, so instead we found one of the bazillion Chinese restaurants in New York, and had dinner there. It was actually kind of a treat for us, since our go-to place in our own neighborhood in Philadelphia closed last year, and we're still trying to find a replacement for it that isn't too far from us. Anyhow we ate a yummy dinner and then headed to the theater.

The ceiling of the Hudson Theater lobby - so elegant!

And there we were, waiting for the show to begin. The seating area of the Hudson Theater had been redone (I'm not sure exactly when) and the seats were actually very comfortable and you didn't feel squished in to the person next to you, which was really nice.

And the show - OMG. So much better than we could have even hoped for, seriously. If you enjoy musicals at all, find a way to see "Merrily We Roll Along" on Broadway - even if you have to take out a second mortgage on your house! It's just that good. We were both blown away. Every person, including the ensemble players, was incredible.

Then we headed back to our hotel, and decided we would get a cup of tea before going to our room. Well, we lucked out with that because the hotel lounge was hosting a jazz group with a singer. 

So we enjoyed our cups of tea while listening for about half an hour. Once they packed up, we figured that was a sign to head to our room and get ready to wind down. It wasn't incredibly late, but for the two of us, it was REALLY late! 😂 Plus we had been going since early Friday morning, so releaxing and going to sleep sounded pretty good. 

So the primary reason we had made this trip - to see the show - was well worthwhile, but we also had such a wonderful day all the way around. Needless to say, we both slept very well on Friday night ... 

Tomorrow I shall regale you with our Saturday shenanigans, before it was time to take the train back to Philadelphia. Spoiler alert: a yarn shop was involved!

A Week of Walks

Along with my friend Lisa and my niece Amanda, we created a challenge for the month of September that we would all try to walk/move at least 30 minutes each day. We started on September 1 (duh), and I'm proud to say that so far, I've kept going! We text each other every day once we have completed our activity, to keep ourselves accountable. To be honest, it's made it a lot more fun, and we also share photos and things that we noticed during our outside time.

So I thought I'd share some things with all of you from my walks this past week.

The dog park early in the morning on a weekday:

The old Naval Hospital, from Civil War days. Now it's apartments and condos, but at least they didn't tear it all down:

There are tons of murals in Philadelphia. I came across this one in my neighborhood the other day. I had never seen it before, but it's now one of my very favorites:

Some of the wildflowers along the river trail:

A railroad trestle with some kind of machine on top of it. I'm not a big fan of graffiti, but I liked getting this photo, especially against the sky:

Not pictured here are Eleanor the Golden Retriever, and Norm the greyhound, who I met on separate days and who both wanted to give me many, many kisses! I love getting to see and pet so many pups every day.

I'm glad I decided to do this, not just for my health and to accept the challenge, but because I really enjoy walking, and there is so much to see even just in my neighborhood.

I hope you'll get a chance to explore this weekend, and that even if you don't, that you have good weather and time to yourself. I'll see you next week. 😊

A Walk With Hamlet

When you read this, The Tim, Hamlet, and I will already be on our way to WV for the Memorial Day weekend.  But I wanted to share this walk around a small part of our neighborhood with you, and this seemed like a good time to do that. 

A week ago today, it was a lovely day, weather-wise, and so for our morning walk, Hamlet and I decided to do a bit of a photographic ramble.  

Once we turned off our our street, and walked less than two blocks, we spotted this crochet in the wild:

I just love how the tree hugger is wearing nail polish!  And being the size they are, I'm really glad those insects are not real ... 

Walking a bit more I took a photo of this little street, known as St. James Place - it's like a tiny English village, just below one of the busiest streets in the city.  In all of the years we have lived here, I've never once seen someone out in their little front yard, or going into the houses.  For all I know, it's merely an architectural art installation, but that's highly unlikely given where it is located.

This next photo is of something that is one of my faves.  Not the gas station, where you see the car exiting, but the wall behind it.  If you look closely, it looks like there are a lot of windows, and they are reflecting a church building.  Well, in a way, you would be correct.  The Mural Arts Program here in Philadelphia commissioned someone to paint all of this on the side of a building.  The windows and the reflected church are painted on!  It depicts the side of a building that was office space (there are no windows actually on the side of the building), and looked out onto the church in the reflection.  There was a small amount of grass, and the church was off to the side where the gas station now is located.  Cool, huh?

Another block later, we came across a small cafe that was sadly a victim of the pandemic, and had to close.  But someone did what they could to make the boarded-up front look more appealing.  More crochet in the wild!

When I stopped to take a photo, a guy walked past and said, "I hope you don't have an egg allergy, hahaha."  Everyone's a comedian.

Another small street in the neighborhood that we passed on the way home.

And finally, back to our street, which, though it looks very narrow (and it is narrow - a lot of cars have trouble getting through), is not as narrow as some of the streets in Old Town Philadelphia!  Our street is a hidden gem, as it exists for only this block in all of the city.  Most people around here know about it, but even those who have been city dwellers all of their lives are surprised when you mention it as they had no idea about it at all.  Our house is on the right side, and actually is right next to where I was standing to take this photo.  I would have included it, but the next door neighbors had not collected their trash and recycling bins yet, and they were right in front of our house, so I'll show you that another time when it looks better.

I hope you enjoyed this little stroll with us.  This is all in about a six-block square area, and it's enjoyable to be able to take your time and just walk around.  You notice all kinds of things, no matter how many times you may have already passed by on other days.  

Have a lovely Memorial Day weekend if you are here in the U.S., and if not, enjoy your weekend however you can!  I'll be back next week to fill you in on our first trip since before the pandemic started.  Take care, everyone. 

Well I Didn't Mean to Do That!

"That" being not write a post for a week.  But last week was a bit much, with A LOT of unexpected dental work, a long time to recover, then getting ready for company this coming weekend.

The lowlights:

I had gone for my 6-month checkup and cleaning at the dentist, which is usually no big deal,* but the dentist said a crown needed to be replaced.  So I went back and when she took the old crown off, it turned out I needed a root canal.  So I went back the next day for that.  During the root canal, part of the tool broke off in my tooth root(!).  The endodontist assured me that it would not cause any problems,** and finished up with the temporary crown.  Then today, I had to go for the tooth to be prepped for the permanent crown.  Oy.

*Even so, of all the medical-type things I ever have to do, or have done, going to the dentist and getting my blood pressure taken are the two things that freak me out the most.

**When I told this to The Tim, he said, "Isn't that how superheroes happen?"

The highlights:

On Friday, my sister Mary Ellen and brother-in-law Pat, along with my niece Amanda and her husband Pat came for Bloomsday weekend.  We had a great weekend with them, laughing, catching up, going out to dinner, and exploring Philadelphia.  Fortunately, Saturday - which was the only entire day they were here - was humid but not oppressively hot (like it's been since then), so our walking-around-tour was not messed up until the very end when we started home/back to their hotels, and there was a torrential shower.  Mary Ellen and Pat have visited a few times, but have never had much time to see a lot of the city, and Amanda and Pat are always up for anything.  So we walked over to see the new plaza and the building of city hall (everyone is a history and architecture fan), then to the Reading Terminal Market, where we all had a local beer, and the two guys bought locally-made spirits ("From Farm to Glass" was the name of the place, which I thought was great).  Then we wended our way to Jeweler's Row, Independence Hall Park, and our final destination, the National Constitution Center.  With three out of the four of the group being lawyers, we thought it was a good stop.  It was wonderful (we'd never been there yet, either), and they had a special exhibit about Prohibition which was both interesting and fun.  So we covered quite a bit of ground!

The knitting:

After everyone left on Sunday, I sat down and [finally] cast-on for the second of my Orange Tabby socks.  I'd finished the first one last week, and then became slightly obsessed with knitting on my Sonora Shawl.  But I want to get the pair finished, and decided casting-on would be the best way to actually get that accomplished ...

Of course, I have no pictures to show you, at least not at the moment, from this past week.  Instead, I hope you enjoy this picture from our trip to Acadia National Park and Forest last September.  Looking at it, I can remember not only how great that trip was, but also how the weather was neither hot nor humid.  Win-win for me.  :-)

The Quiet of Early

I never used to be a morning person.  Granted, I was not a person who slept late until noon or after, but 9:30-10:00 a.m. on a weekend or a day off was not that unusual.

But 12 years ago yesterday, I had the first major surgery of my life.  And the next morning, at 5:00 a.m., there were suddenly about 8 people around my bed, and a HUGE BRIGHT light above me was turned on - time for rounds, which is what happens when you are at a teaching hospital.

That continued for the 5 days I remained in the hospital, and I got used to it pretty quickly.  But it never occurred to me that it would change my mornings so drastically.  Ever since then, I have become someone who loves/craves morning time to myself.  Now on a weekend, if I sleep past 6:30 a.m., I feel like I've missed out on a good part of the day.  (I know.)

During the work week, I get up at 4:45 a.m. (which even I think is early).  I feed the cats first thing because, you know it's been HOURS since they last ate and they are of course so near to death from starvation.  I used to do my exercises next, but then Dug joined the family.  So now I put on my dog-walking clothes, and Dug and I head outside for our morning walk.

And you know what?  It's the best.  Most of the year, it's still dark.  Granted, sometimes it's raining or snowing, and both of us would rather be inside, but otherwise, it's a whole different universe out there that early.  It's quiet.  You can hear the trains coming and going across the river, taking people to and from exotic or ordinary places.  Buses pass by, with sleepy-looking passengers who are either starting their day, or ending their night shifts.  There are always at least a couple of birds already up and singing.  We often run into the neighborhood opossum, who needless to say, is not interested in hanging with us (though Dug really wants to be his friend!).

We pass people delivering things to the market around the corner.  They always say hello, and give Dug a pat on the head.  We exchange good morning wishes with the lady who delivers the newspaper to houses in the neighborhood.

But we mostly just walk, and Dug has a good sniff at everything ("checking his pee mail," as a neighbor says), while I look at any stars or the moon, occasionally see planes flying overhead, and sing to myself.  Occasionally, we will have a brief "conversation" (which consists of me saying something, and Dug looking at me because he loves it when people talk).  We're usually only out for 20 minutes or so, but it's so lovely, and so quiet, and it feels like you own it.

Weekends are different, in that we go walking later, it's almost always light out, and more is going on in general.  It's nice for different reasons.

But the early morning quiet of the weekday gives you a whole other way of being in the world.  And now I'm glad that I have become a morning person, because it makes me feel like the day is all mine.