Just add water

It’s been really hot the past few days. I live on the third floor, so there’s no escaping the heat. I’m not complaining, partly because I know this is just a taste of what’s to come!

Yesterday, I was supposed to spend the day with a friend, but she drank too much wine at a wedding the night before, tsk, tsk! It was such a beautiful day that I couldn’t just stay in. It might have been a good idea, since the end of the school year is close and that means lots of papers to grade and report cards to fill in. Yuck. I decided to go running along the canal instead.

It’s very pretty but it can also be quite smelly. The water’s not stagnant, but it doesn’t move much either. I saw a guy doing stand up paddling. I really want to try that. Maybe not on the canal thought. I’m pretty sure I would fall in the water several times and canal water is yucky.

I hope he didn’t think I was a stalker.

Going running along the canal was also number 23 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I put it on the list because it’s one of those things I always said I would do, but never actually did.

Today was another hot day. Since it was Monday, I had to work, but Julie and I decided to go have lunch at the marina. It was much cooler there and we had a nice breeze. Lots of ducks, too.

I forgot my camera (I know, strange!) so Julie took some pictures with her phone. She took one of me eating my lunch. My skirt is kind of blowing up, but I’m still decent.

After work, I wanted to test something out. If it’s 40 degrees outside and 40 degrees inside the yoga studio, is is still hot yoga? Or is it just yoga? I wondered if I was crazy going to hot yoga on a day like today, but I was going to be hot no matter what I did, I figured it might as well be something fun.

Turns out, hot yoga is hot yoga, no matter what the temperature is outside. It was a great class. It wasn’t as hot as usual (31 degrees) and the fans were on, but I still got plenty sweaty. It was a fearless flow class, where the ultimate goal is an inversion. We worked on handstands. That stuff is hard! My hands and arms were so sore! I can still only lift one leg at a time, but I kind of hop around and pretend I’m a cirque du soleil performer. It helps with the motivation.

When I got home, it was still pretty hot, so I decided to have dinner at the beach. I grabbed a few things and put on my swimsuit. Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, the first time I put on a bathing suit in the summer is a slightly traumatic experience. I didn’t think I would go swimming, but I wanted to be prepared in case I got the urge to fling myself into the lake.

I ate, I read a little and dipped my toes in the water. It was windy and perfect.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be getting more water!

Running with my camera

Today was a gorgeous day! The nicest we’ve had this spring since that freakishly hot week in March. I decided to go for a run. If I want to be a real runner, I have to run.

I drive across a bridge every time I go to yoga, and there are always people running along the water. I wanted to do that too. I discovered that my camera fits perfectly in one of the little elastic pocket things for the mini water-bottles on my fuel belt, so I swapped out one water bottle for my camera. That still left me 3 bottles. That’s 24 ounces of water and let’s face it, I wasn’t going to run a marathon here.

I didn’t time myself, or even check to see how far I was going. I ran, I walked, I took pictures. I kept wandering off the path to get closer to the water. I made friends with a blue-eyed husky. I heard bits of conversations as I ran past people. My favourite was the girl telling her running partner how much she really wanted sweet potato fries.

I encountered quite a bit of wildlife for a run in the city. The first was a groundhog. I named him Juan. At first, I thought he might be dead, but he was just sleeping. He woke up and smiled at me. Actually, I think it was more of a go away and leave me alone look, but whatever. He was cute.

I ran a little more, then I met Dolly and Daniel. They’re ducks. For some reason, they were swimming against the current. Dolly was doing ok, but Daniel kept getting swept away. It was pretty funny and I laughed at him untill I realized it might be bad karma, so I encouraged him instead. He finally caught up with Dolly.

I started running again, only to stop and look at a tree. He didn’t have a name, that’s just silly. But it was a really nice tree. Also, I wanted another little break, so I took a picture.

After my tree break, I ran until I saw some pretty purple flowers. Obviously, I needed a picutre. I’m pretty proud of this picture, because the backround is out of focus. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that. I’m actually not sure how I did it though.

I was looking for a photogenic bird, because that was the word for my photo a day challenge today. I saw this flighty little thing on a branch. Her name is Raven, even though she’s not a raven. Kind of like when people call their child Apple or Dallas. She kept moving around, but finally she stopped to pose.

I ran some more, then decided I wanted a picture of myself. Let’s hear it for self-timers. I had a scary few seconds where I thought my camera was going to fall off the rock and into the water, but it all turned out ok.

All in all, it was a great day. There was more walking than running, I think. But since I haven’t really been running lately, I feel pretty good about running at all. I had a good time taking pictures and I think my new friends liked having their photo taken. Well, except for Juan, but that’s just the way he is.