Goslings

Saturday
My day started earlier than I’d wanted, as I woke about 4.15, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so ended up getting up about 5.15 and reading a book. We had to be at church for 9.30 for a rehearsal for the final concert in our “Saint Paul presents” series tomorrow afternoon, featuring musicians from Saint Paul. It will be quite a varied concert, starting with Julie on the organ, then a Bolling jazz suite for piano, percussion and flute, then the handbell choir does two pieces, followed by two quartets by our choral scholars, and finally the choir’s cantata, Amazing Grace, accompanied by a small orchestra. The rehearsal went pretty well, and was followed by a very good lunch. We got home around 1.30, had a coffee, called Roger’s Dad, then got out for a late afternoon walk at Rowe Woods. The temperature was much cooler than yesterday, only making it into the mid fifties F. There were sunny intervals, but a lot of cloud cover too. The first shots I took were of this Canada Geese family on the boardwalk by the lake - the adults were being very defensive, chasing away any geese who came too close on the water! We decided to play it safe, and gave them a wide berth too! We later saw many cardinals and red-winged blackbirds, turtles and frogs as well as many wildflowers. As we were nearing the end of the trail, we were following a young couple, and the guy pointed out a skunk off to the right of the trail. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera out, he was scurrying further away, and I certainly wasn’t going to follow him - I didn’t want to risk getting sprayed! That was the first live skunk I’ve seen - I’ve smelled plenty (!) and seen several dead ones on the road, usually at night, but this was the first live and active one I’d seen! A good walk, with a couple of decent climbs to get the heart pumping! 11,000+ steps today!
It’s almost 10 pm now, and I think I’ll be ready for bed soon!