Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts

Saturday, July 08, 2023

Just Me, Myself and I...

 That's who reads this blog...or if anyone reads it, they don't leave comments. :( It's my own fault of course, since I am so irregular with my posts, but after this many years I will just keep on posting when the spirit hits me! I have invited members of my pages to come here, but I'm still cautious...don't know why I don't want certain people to read it.


So! Here we are in July and my last post was March!! I actually have to go back to my photos on the computer to remember what I was doing in the months since then! I keep all my photos in folders named by year and month...then I make folders for individual people or topics. I can get lost for hours once I start looking through my photos!

Here's something that made me smile just now when I realized I hadn't changed my wall calendar to July. Last Christmas I made calendars of some of my best photos to give as gifts and of course kept one for myself. I didn't realize that July's image was my ALL TIME favorite, as you can see here. :) I took that in 2012 on a nature trail that I walked every day and have a framed copy on my desk.

I really miss being able to walk on that trail, but I'm so fortunate that 11 yrs later I have a lovely place to walk just out the back door of my apartment building. I am not able to walk every day (depends on my arthritis), but when I do I am still able to enjoy nature. There's a creek, trees, ducks and geese (babies too) and a wooden bridge to cross over. This is where I get beautiful photos like this: 

It's also nice because I meet other nice people who are walking their dogs or their babies. 

Actually, it is the anticipation of what kind of photos I might get that keeps me heading out for a walk, which is so important at my age! Great motivation!

I've got two new paintings to do and just finished this one of a pet that has crossed over the bridge and have been commissioned to do another dog and a people portrait! I'm very comfortable now doing pets, but still quite anxious about humans!

So I will try once again to entice some viewers to my blog and hope to see some comments this month! :)


Monday, May 02, 2011

The rewards of Spring and Walking!

I've mentioned several times that last year when I started walking (to lose weight), the main thing that kept me going out there every morning was the chance that I might see deer or rabbits or other kinds of wildlife, as well as the beautiful sunrises and sunsets (when I walked in the evening also). 


When I started taking my camera on my walk, it became more like an obsession! I was afraid I would miss something so I kept walking until the snow got so deep that I couldn't make it for a mile and then the ice made it dangerous. I took some wonderful photos and I've posted some of them previously on the blog for you to enjoy.


Now it's Spring again and I'm out there every morning looking for signs of Spring and renewal. It's been a long, cold winter in Michigan and the smallest thing can either make or break my day! The first thing I noticed this morning was that things are starting to fill in...the buds are spreading out and filling the spaces between the twigs that have been bare all winter.

I decided to look more closely for bird nests since in another week they'll be totally hidden. I can't believe how lucky I was today! The first thing I saw was this tiny little nest. I swear I looked inside and didn't see anything, but when you look at the photo, it looks like a little beak at the bottom of the opening, doesn't it?


I may go back later on today just to make sure! It's hard to tell how big (or small) it is so I took a few more to show the comparison with my hand.

I just have to figure out whether this is a new nest and eggs have not been laid yet or an old nest from last year. I've never seen an actual hummingbird nest before (in person). Since I've found live web cams on the internet, I've seen every kind of nest and eggs and new baby birds from  hummers to eagles!

A few more feet down the trail and I saw a bigger nest perfectly encased in a pretty thick overgrown area. It was very difficult to get to, but I finally got my camera up high enough to take a picture. At first I thought it was empty so I continued on my walk, but then on the way back, I saw a robin come out of that thicket so I decided to try again.


The robin stayed close by and was making a single chirping noise instead of the regular beautiful song, so I thought this must be a newly constructed nest and I wanted to get a picture of it. 


This picture shows how thick those branches were and I'm really surprised I even noticed the nest. Of course, to get my camera up high enough to get a shot inside the nest I couldn't see what I was shooting so it took quite a few shots before I got this one. Obviously, it was empty so I don't know what made me keep trying for a new angle! I was standing on a muddy, almost verticle hill and must have looked crazy the way I was trying to get close enough without getting stabbed in the eye with those branches!


Well....I was rewarded for all my efforts! For my eagerness to get out there and walk every day, for making it through a rough winter and not giving up, for slowing down and paying closer attention...AND for remembering to have my camera battery charged!! :) I would be amazed if I'm still able to see the nest once the babies are hatched once the leaves have wrapped the nest in privacy, but for now I am just grateful for today's adventure!





Monday, May 10, 2010

Turn back the middle-age clock!


MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN WHO EXERCISE TURN BACK CLOCK BY 16 YEARS
By Richard Alleyne
The Telegraph
September 22, 2009


Exercising for one hour a day for 12 weeks is enough to turn the clock back
nearly two decades for middle-aged women, scientists have found.

Research shows that over-50s who make regular visits to the gym, go for a
long bike ride or enjoy a swim can regain the fitness they had in their
thirties.

Tests on older women revealed that 12 weeks of exercise was enough to
produce the rejuvenation.

Two studies by scientists at the University of California found that
postmenopausal women can achieve the same health benefits from regular,
vigorous exercise as younger women².

Professor George Brooks, an exercise physiologist, said: There is some good
news here for older women in the population, in that they respond much like
younger women do to training.

The women in our study had the cardiovascular and metabolic capabilities of
women sixteen years younger.

The results are very encouraging for exercise without weight loss as an
effective means for increasing vigour and controlling risk factors for
chronic diseases in older women.

The findings could explain why some high profile exercise fanatics appear
continue to look so healthy as they get older.

Madonna still works out at 51, television presenter Anne Robinson runs
regularly and does weight training at the age of 64, while Arlene Philips
has become a dance tsar at 66.

Dr Zinta Zarins, who carried out the experiments on women with an average
age of 55, found that the physical and hormonal changes which came with age
did not slow down their capacity to get fit.

She said: There have been very few studies looking at postmenopausal women,
who are different because of decreased oestrogen, decreased lean body mass
and decreased aerobic capacity.

Yet, despite changes in hormones and changes in body composition, they can
make significant changes in their cardiovascular fitness without going on
extreme diets.

Although the tests involved endurance training by cycling on an exercise
bike for an hour, five days a week, the researchers believed ³that even less
strenuous aerobic exercise was likely to produce some benefit².

The findings were published in the journal Metabolism and the Journal of
Applied Physiology.