Bit Of A New Look and A Walk In The Woods

      Okay, if you hadn't noticed, the blog looks a little different today! Did a little work on the header (the part where the title of the blog is) in an attempt to spruce things up a touch. You can still see me standing on the same rocky outcrop but I've added a couple of extra images. The red "B" is a letter which was carved onto that same outcrop some time in the late thirties by my Grandfather, Ernest Baker. His cottage stood at the top of the hill overlooking the beach and he carved that "B" into the rock to mark his boundary line. A few years ago, when we at that beach to scatter my Dad's ashes we actually managed to find it, and marked with red, just to see it better. I imagine it's back to its natural colour by now. The second image is of that same beach and was taken from a postcard back in the forties. The rocky outcrop can be seen at the far end of the beach. My grandparents lived in Gibsons, B.C. back in those days and this was where I spent my summer vacations. It was a magical place for any and all who visited!
   On top of the new look, "Neanderings" passed 25,000 page views today! Not a huge number in the blogging world but it was kind of a nice round one so I thought I'd mention it! I've also added a couple of extra countries to the list of where my page views come from and I'm now up to 104---kinda cool.

Kind of a random pic but our plan is
to go back to this same spot every week
and take another pic, just to show the
change in foliage as Spring progresses.
We'll see if that actually happens......

   Okay, it's Easter weekend and the weather's been gorgeous so Doralyn and I decided to head out for a walk through nearby Warbler Woods. We kind of overdressed for the weather and were already quite warm by the time we got there.
   With no leaves on the trees you can see quite deep into the forest and it's actually pretty cool---you get a much better sense of the topography. What we hadn't counted on was all the mud! There were quite a few spots where we had to go around instead of through and it made the many hills just that much more treacherous. Ran into quite a few other people but for the most part it seemed to be single guys, occasionally with dogs.

A pretty dead tree, but still good for the wildlife!

   A couple of the iffier-looking trees had special signage on them, indicating they were wildlife habitats, so not to cut them down or disturb them. We did neither!
   The farther we walked the muddier it got, it seemed, so I think we were actually happy to eventually make it out the other side of the woods and head for home. It's not an easy stroll through them, to say the least and we were both pretty winded, what with all the hills we traversed. As part of my extremely irregular running routine, I use the hills when I think it's time for hill repeats. What I do is run up them and then walk down the other side. Then I walk to the next one and run up it. Yesterday I was exhausted after walking up them so I guess there's more work to do!

Did I say it was muddy? Thank
goodness for the occasional
wooden walkway!