I Walk in Beauty

 

A rhododendron tree of unusual colour - in the old cemetery.

 

"Now I walk in beauty. Beauty is before me. Beauty is behind me. Above me and below me. Around me and within me."
- Traditional Navajo. 

 

Some of the purple rhododendrons that were first in bloom are already fading and dropping a lot of petals to the ground; after a rather windy and rainy week. Others are still in their prime, though:

 

Because of frequent downpours, I haven't been straying far from home this week. Yesterday I had the laundry room booked in the afternoon and did not go out. Today was delivery day (from the supermarket), but they came an hour earlier than usual, and after lunch I braved a half hour walk around the cemetery and managed to get back dry...  

 

I'm still using my walking stick when I go out, but in the cemetery I sometimes practice keeping it "off ground" for a while now and then, when walking on smooth paths without too much debris. In certain situations, like on uneven ground, walking downhill, or crossing streets, I still feel need of it, though. - And when crossing streets etc, I also kind of feel that it serves to tell drivers and other pedestrians not to expect me to be able to hurry! 

 

A couple of months ago, a friend whom I haven't seen in person since last summer, ended a text message with hoping that I have "a good physiotherapist"... I didn't find the mental energy just then to explain that I don't "have" a PT in the sense of meeting one at my health care center. However, that's not the same as lacking advice about useful exercises. These days, you really only have to google "knee problems" or "knee bandages" once, and if you're also using Facebook, they will immediately start feeding you not only daily commercials for knee sleeves etc (how many do they think one person needs?!), but also physiotherapist videos. Some of those just annoy me, but some have actually proved helpful. Besides the exercises as such, I find that it's very much a question of the PT's "attitude"... My favourite so far is one British guy whom I'm actually following now (while others still just keep turning up anyway). If anyone is curious, you can also find this guy on YouTube: his name is Josh Trevorrow. (I might try to share some video here another day, but just now I'm too tired for the technicalities.)   

A Spring Walk in the Cemetery

 A lovely spring afternoon yesterday (Saturday), and I took my new walking stick for a 'test walk' around the old cemetery nearby. I was out for about an hour, just walking slowly up and down randomly chosen paths, stopping here and there to look at the greenery and flowers, listen to birds singing, and snap a few photos. 

Huge horse chestnut tree

 

Maples are developing leaves now, while dropping green flower petals to the ground.

Google image search identifies these trees/bushes as Amelanchier  ('häggmispel' in Swedish). Lots of these in bloom around the cemetery just now. 

... And Spiraea shrubs ...

Flowerbeds with purple pansies by the chapel. 

Also pansies planted on many graves in spring, including that of my great grandparents. (Photo from another day, when the light was right for that particular spot.) Cared for by cemetery gardening staff, paid for my aunt, but I'm "keeping an eye" on it for her... 

Flower bed of 'Narcissus poeticus' in the memorial grove.

PS. The new walking stick served me well enough as light and comfortable support on a walk of that kind. (You can see a photo of the stick here if you missed that earlier post.) 

Dental Visit + a Walk in the Park

 

The huge tree to the right is a horse chestnut tree

A bit cooler in the air this week compared to the weekend, but the sunny weather continues, and each day just now is "greener" than the previous one. I walked into town for my dental appointment, and had time for a little detour through one corner of the park. The sky was incredibly blue - most of the photos in this post are straight from my phone without any editing. 

Much as I expected - knowing the broken tooth had a very old crown attached - it turned out that I was in for a major dental job. As soon as the nurse started poking at it (very gently), it all came apart and the old crown came loose. As I noticed already on Friday that "something" had happened, it's almost a miracle that I managed to keep it in place for nearly five days! (I avoided to chew on that side, and was also very gentle with the toothbrush.)

I was also lucky in that the dentist + a specialist nurse had time straight away to do the scanning + other preparations for having a new crown made. With various holidays coming up in May it will probably be 3 weeks before I get it put in place; but in the meantime I've have a temporary plastic filling to cover the remnants of the tooth. I'm advised to abstain from hard and "chewy" food, though - but I've already been practising that for a few days by now! (I'm foreseeing using my "mixer" more than usual...) 

After an hour in the dentist's chair, when I finally got up I was feeling kind of dizzy, so sat for a while in the waiting room sipping a glass of water afterwards, before going out. 

I walked home through another part of the park, and along the river.

Close-up of the flowerbed by the river...

The "later" kind of cherry blossom trees are now also in bloom...

Before continuing towards home, I crossed that bridge in the photo above, and on the other side made a little detour to a shop which I hadn't visited in years, but where once upon a time I had bought an item which I was wondering if maybe they might still be selling. Actually I didn't even know if the shop would still be there. (I had not been able to check, as I had also forgotten its name!). But it was still there, and when I asked, they even had what I was after, which was this: A (foldable) walking stick. 

I have a similar, all black one since before (bought over a decade ago when I had some temporary trouble) but this one seems to have both a better rubber tip at the bottom, and a sturdier handle. So I bought it.

All winter since my fall back in October I've consistently been using at least one (sometimes both) of my taller "walking poles" outdoors. But with summer and warmer weather, too warm to wear gloves, and mostly feeling need of support in "certain situations" now, I'm thinking that a stick like this may sometimes be enough. So I was glad to find that shop still selling them. (Sometimes I do still prefer to be able to "see and touch" before buying!) 

Frozen

 

 

 

Today was another of those rare winter days with the sun shining from a clear blue sky, making me want to get out there, in spite of the cold...

 

Having no urgent errands today, I did not feel tempted to walk all the way into town again; but decided to just go for a walk down to the river and make photograpny my focus this time - so also brought my Sony compact camera, rather than just the phone. 

 

In the first photo above, it's my own shadow you see, standing on the bridge, looking north. On the south side of the bridge is one of the dams where they regulate the flow of water through the city. And when it's as cold as it has been for a good while now, there are sometmes interesting ice formations to be seen.

 

 

 

I then followed the path on the other side of the bridge for a while, before going back up to walk across the cemetery back home.

 

Funeral chapel

For a change, I enjoyed following the tracks made by maintenace vehicles on some snowy paths that had not been ploughed. (I did have the right footwear for it.) 

 

It's been good to be able to collect a few sunny and enjoyable outdoors moments towards the end of this long winter, which for the most part has just been - well, "difficult"... 

 

Winter is not over yet, though. It's snowing again as I'm about to finish this post, and here's the forecast for the next nine days:

 

 

 

 

A Winter Walk

There's a lot of Olympics on TV at the moment (and not much else!). Personally, I have to confess I've never taken much interest in sports of any kind. The only winter sports that can sometimes keep me entranced in front of the TV for as long as an hour or two is usually figure skating, and especially ice dance. (I did watch the whole ice dance final the other night.) That has nothing whatsoever to do with any skating skills of my own, though - I never even learned to stand on them, and even less to move about...!

Friday the 13th* was another cold, grey winter day here - of the kind with a flurry of snow in the air all day, even if not actually adding very much to the amount already on the ground. I decided to defy *superstition though, so manged my usual weekly "recycling walk" (about 20 minutes). But I did not feel tempted to extend it any further. (Cold winds blowing...)

Yesterday, I expected to wake up to much the same kind of weather, but was pleasantly surprised to instead find the sun shining from a clear blue sky - inspiring me to actually try a walk into town. Winter seems to be planning to keep us in its grip next week as well (possilby including throwing even more snow at us), and I did need some stuff from the pharmacy again. Besides a refill of some prescription medicines, my recent cold "caught from nowhere" had also more or less emptied my basic stock of various over-the-counter stuff...!

Ever since my unfortunate fall and knee injury back in October, with the long, cold and snowy winter following, it still feels like a long way to walk to the city centre, though. So when I set out, I was thinking that I'd probably better choose the same way into town that I did last time - allowing me to catch a bus part of the way, if I should feel the need for it... 

However - once I got out, it seemed that my legs must have been conferring separately with some braver part of my brain. Because as soon as I had crossed the first street, instead of continuing towards the travel center, I found myself turning down to the river, and my favourite path into town that I have not walked since early October - as it does not include any "escape options" along the way...

It all turned out for the best, though. With the cold dry weather we've been having for weeks now, the gravel path along the river, even with a bit of snow and ice on it, was probably actually a better choice for walking than the pavements along the streets.

I also had the pleasure of seeing the river all frozen, which doesn't always happen - but as I've already pointed out, we've had an unusually long period of temperatures staying well below freezing point both day and night lately.

 

 

 After my visit to the pharmacy, I also paid a visit to my favourite little tea shop by the square (pretty much "just around the corner" from the pharmacy), as I had also again run out of my favourite black tea blends from there. I actually can't recall when (before this winter) I last had to "resort to" buying prepackaged loose leaf tea from the supermarket! ;)  I've been buying nearly all my teas from that shop by the square for 40 years - i.e. for as long as I've lived in this town...

After that, no room in my backpack for any more purchases. But as my knee still wasn't signalling any serious protests, I decided I was likely to be able to walk back home the same way as I had come - through the park and along the river. 

When I reached the cemetery hill (up to the right from the view above) I decided to take the "shortcut" across there. (When walking in the other direction, I had taken a bit of a detour to avoid having to walk down a rather steep hill. But uphill is somewhat less challenging.) 

 

 

Not all paths on the cemetery have been ploughed, but the major ones have. 

 

 

I parked my poles and my backpack on a bench for a photo stop. (Didn't sit down myself, though - too cold for that!) (All photos in this post taken with my phone, btw.)

 

All in all, I was out and "on my feet" for two hours (including the time spent in the two shops). My knee injury back in the autumn happened on October 10th. Four months later, this is the first time since then that I walked all the way both to and from the city centre. With the kind of winter we've been having, I had really given up hope of even trying this until spring. But my knee does not seem to have got any worse from it. I'm still wearing a compression knee sleeve whenever I go out (and a softer bamboo one all night), and use at least one walking pole outdoors (just now both!) And I may have to continue to do that. But being able to walk into town and back has been my primary goal, and having achieved that "already" feels like an unexpected victory! Kind of like my own personal "olympic" achievement - even if it doesn't come with a medal... :)

 

Step By Step

 

Today the clouds seemed less "compact" than they've been lately, and before lunch I decided to go for a short walk over to the old cemetery. Almost a week since last time, but the weather and snow conditions are still pretty much the same. The temperature has steadily kept below zero even in the daytime, and the nearby streets and the major cemetery paths are for the most part dry and clear of snow and ice.

In the cemetery, I practiced a bit of walking without actively using my walking pole with every step. (I.e. from time to time I just held it hovering a few cm above ground for a while, without setting it down - but ready to do so if needed.) I also made mental note that my knee still does not like the slightest downhill tilt - while slightly uphill doesn't seem to bother it as much. (Worth remembering when choosing where to walk...) 

 "Mirror, mirror on the wall..."
Mirror portrait from the lift back home 
- me dressed in full winter gear...

Walking in Snow

 

The snow warnings issued yesterday for around here today were cancelled towards noon. Whoever is in charge of where to drop the snow evidently decided to dump most of today's snow ration somewhere else. And as even just walking the few meters to the bins by the corner of the building just now demands donning full winter gear anyway, I decided to prolong that walk a little to snap a few photos. 

Our street had probably been ploughed yesterday, with only a thin extra layer of snow added since then - and no grit added so far. And when the weather is not too difficult, there's always a special feeling about getting out in freshly fallen dry snow - still pristine and white, rather than dirty or slushy or icy...

The photo at the top shows the bridge over the railway, leading to the old cemetery. That bridge is often a tricky and slippery spot in winter, but it looked ok just now, so I decided to cross it and have a look on the other side.

Looking down on the railway tracks below.

 

The pedestrian crossing over to the cemetery looked more treacherous, though. So I decided not to go over there, but just snap a couple of photos in that direction from where I was...

... and then turn back to walk a bit more on the paths in among the apartment buildings.

 

I think I get it now, why they had summer holiday maintenance teams paint the large stones lining the walk paths in bright colours. A bit easier now for snow plough drivers to see them in winter!  

The snow gathered on top of benches gives an idea of how much has fallen so far...

 

I was out for about half an hour, but walking very slowly (still having to "think" about my left knee with every step in this kind of weather), and using two poles. Each photo means full stop, removing my right glove, taking out my phone from my small shoulder bag, somehow manouvering both phone and poles while taking the photo, then putting the phone back in the bag, putting my right glove back on, and getting the right grip of both poles again to continue walking... It was quite nice winter weather to be out in today, though - no wind, with good winter boots on not really slippery, and I was dressed warm enough. :)