Wet and Wonderful Walk

We are still in a holding pattern with rain.

 

I am glad that the ground and plants are receiving some fabulous moisture, but it does put a damper (pun intended) on taking my daily walks. I have missed several days.

 

This morning I woke at 4:00.  I did my routine computer work, I baked cookies that I had mixed-up from the day before and refrigerated overnight as suggested  (pinwheels - my first and last time ever making this recipe - those pesky layers fall apart before baking), and  I quietly finished up my dishes (Glenn was still sleeping).  It was now 6:00 AM.

 

I needed to get out and take a walk.  I checked the Intellicast weather website and discovered a window of opportunity of 0% rainfall from 7 - 9.  The cloud cover was 100% for the entire day and the temperature was in the fifties. I was going for my walk.

 

As I left the house, I gathered the dogs.  Actually, they gathered me.  The dogs always anxiously wait for my appearance and OUR walk every day.  Even Snowball has learned to secretly escape his confine guarding the sheep to accompany us. Glenn and I are still trying to discover how he manages to get out of a completely fence-in pasture.

 

I knew my feet would get wet because of the previous days of rain, but more than my feet got wet.

 

There was no real window of 'no rain'.  Within minutes, the heavy mist gathered on my hooded sweatshirt.  Water streamed down my bangs onto my glasses.  I could have easily turned back, but I had committed.  The dogs were happy.  I stayed my pace and continued to walk down to the pond. 
 

even the earthworms had to leave their homes and 'get out' for a bit

 

the pasture grasses bent over under the weight of all the collected moisture on their blades

 
 

 

difficult to see, but jeans are totally saturated

The tall grass of the pasture bent over my narrow tire track of a path.  My pants were drenched in seconds. Even though I had rolled up the bottoms of the legs three times, the weight of the water just pulled them to the ground. And, the water wicked up each leg to just about my waist.  They were not just wet, they were saturated and dripping wet.  My shoes were now soaked and squeaky. My feet felt like ice cubes in minutes. I was still trying to protect my camera inside my sweatshirt.

My thoughts wandered. I am sure glad that we do not hay anymore especially when the weather is uncooperative during peak first cutting.  Glenn and I were always stressed.  I do feel sorry for those farmers who are trying to hay now and I hope that they do not have cut grass down that is rotting instead of drying.

 

I continued my trek.  The dogs all looked like the proverbial drenched rats.  They did not seem to care.  They ran and played as usual, always checking back to make sure I was still advancing.

 

As I neared the pond, as if on cue, a heron flew over my head.  I had not seen my heron for weeks.  The heron did not stop at the pond as three dogs typically deter such action, but just the quick flight over head was justification for this morning’s walk. That short presence of the heron was my bonus for the day.

 

Immediately as I returned home, my shoes and socks, my sweatshirt and my jeans came off.  I was COLD.  I wrapped myself in a blanket, stretched out on the couch and smiled.

 

That was a GOOD walk!