Daily Walk

I live in a small hamlet of a few dozen houses and for exercise (of the body & soul) I often walk the country roads that are to the East of town. Today the wind was blowing with gusts to 55 mph and thunderstorms were forecast. I decided to take my walk before the storms arrived and set out on a 4 mile route past the beaver pond on Old Market Rd.

As I walked toward the pond with the wind at my back I had no need to swing my walking stick forward. Each time I lifted it from the ground, the wind took care of that for me. I passed the pond and headed to my turn-around point. As I approached the last hill a clap of thunder sounded off to my right... downwind. No need to worry. That cloud bank is being blown away from me.

On my return past the pond I stopped to admire the sky. The cloud bank was now to my left, curving across the sky, bright white on the top and Southern side shading to dark blue grey beneath. The right half of the sky was a brilliant blue. If the leaves of the trees on the far shore had been wearing their autumn hues the scene would have made a great photo but so far this year the colors have been very muted.

I was startled from my thoughts by a large flock of geese which took wing to resume their journey South. In the strong gusting winds they had difficulty assembling into flying formation, repeatedly breaking up into smaller groups headed obliquely to the Southwest wind they were trying to fly into. One goose, unable to reach any of the groups, struggled directly into the wind only to find itself moving backward in spite of flying as hard as it could. Finally it started tacking into the wind like a sailor and managed to join one of the groups which ended up going only about a quarter mile to another wetland across the road before surrendering to the wind.

Another dark cloud approaching convinced me to continue on my way but about a mile from home it began to rain. I was glad I had brought my raincoat. A bit farther on a neighbor offered a ride but I was out for exercise so I declined and thanked her for the offer. It was a beautiful day for a walk.