New Post, New Normal!

If you had told me a month ago that I would be walking at 6 a.m. around the neighborhood, wearing a mask, I would have thought you were crazy!

I once had the ease of working out at a 24 Hour Fitness. On a treadmill.

These days, my treadmill is the hills around where we live. The benefits are lovely birds, clouds and the Moon!!

 If you've been reading my blog for very long, you know I love clouds.! In all their shapes, and colors and sizes. I'm still amazed at how creative God is. I couldn't think all these lovelies up!

 We had a "pink" moon recently. I guess my timing was wrong, as I never saw it pink, but I did see it full. And mostly, when it was daylight. As much as I like the planets, and stars, etc., it is very hard to get this tired body up in the middle of the night.

 And me, the female half of the duo: we had a first date during the Comet Hyakutake! (And I guess I've been retired long enough to lose some of my spelling jam: I had to look that spelling up.)

 And my main man finally figured out what I was up to, when we were in the dark. Heh, heh. (I had designs on his frame.)

 And the nice policeman who stopped by our car, wondering what we were doing, didn't arrest us. But he did tell us to move along! Which we did. 

That was over 22 years ago, so I guess comets, planets and the moon will always be near and dear to my heart.

I like the photos above. Something round and white can look quite different, depending on the surroundings. I think the bird in the one just above was a Common Mynah bird. Like anything that can fly should be called Common!

 I think it's a brand of daisy and until I got the photo home, didn't know about all the cool little round balls in the middle. Seeds perhaps?

 And one of my favorite birds, the Kolea. AKA Golden Plover. They are quite flighty (no pun intended) and zoom off if one approaches. So I was happy to get these shots.

 This one is in its breeding colors, so I assume it's a male. Perhaps on my next walk, I'll be able to get video of one walking. Quick strides and then it flies off.

 I have been using my time indoors wisely, with adult coloring books. I was at first afraid of this concept, thinking "adult" might mean something else! But while there probably are those types of coloring books, I'm happy with the ones I found. After all, if I can't get into the water to see the octopuses in real life, at least I can think about 'em.

 And then we have the one with Psalms. Sometimes the spaces to color are too tiny and do not help me relax at all. But I do rejoice.

 And of course, there was the waterlife one. I have been mostly applying myself to this book. And just today started on the octopus! Trying to work out in my mind how to make a basically brown animal seem thrilling as in real life. I'll post my progress when there is some.

 I have never see the Blue Discus fish in real life, so after searching online, I took a little artistic license with the colors.

 And of course, I dug out my operculum for more photos. This one is actually stuck to this rocky substance. No idea what it is. I have over 11800 of these babies.

 Some are shiny and some not. The largest one in my collection was 2 mm! and the tiniest, much smaller than that.

 Plumeria on the ground with clover. Pretty.

 This is a Saffron Finch. I think it's quite a lovely bird. Usually, in pairs. One will see me and fly off, swiftly followed by the 2nd one. Today, I was able to snap a few pix before this one too departed. I do wonder what it was looking at. Perhaps a bug?

So my longest trek so far was 4 miles. Which wiped me out being as it was at least half hills going up. But I have noted that while most of my walks are 2 miles or so, the legs are getting stronger. And wearing my contacts helps stop the mask fogging up my glasses. I have been told that putting a Kleenex inside the mask, just below the glasses, helps stop that. I had limited success with that.

I have also noticed that the walking is good prayer/thinking time. 

I never got that at 24 Hour Fitness!

Stay home. Stay safe. Wear a mask.