Trying something new...

For a few years now, I've been making it a regular practice to take morning walks on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, in Maryland.  The canal has been a favorite place for me, ever since I was young, but it became even more important when, after many years away, I returned to the DC area in winter of 2002.  At that time I was fresh off a divorce, starting a new job, and trying to re-start my life.  I found bike rides and walks along the canal to be good for both my body and soul.

Beginning in late 2020, when my mother's health took a turn for the worse, I found myself driving back and forth between her home in Maryland and mine in Virginia, six days a week.  Since my drive took me right past an access point to the canal, I soon started stopping there on my way home in the morning.  I found even a short walk of fifteen to twenty minutes helped me start my day on a good foot, in a good frame of mind.  It helped a lot with dealing with both my mom's health issues and the broader issue of the COVID pandemic.

It's now four years later, and I still maintain a practice of walking there most mornings on weekdays.  On work days it's an hour, but on days the shop is closed (Monday and Tuesday), I'm often out there for hours.  Typically, I have at least one camera with me, a pair of binoculars, and a small pocket notebook.  I've been jotting down the things I've seen, what the weather was like, and any other things that strike me.  My original thought was to transcribe them using my typewriters, just so I'd find them easier to read later (you would be amazed at how sloppy even my printed words are), but I've also wondered about perhaps sharing them.  So here goes.  Starting soon, I'll be sitting down once a week or so to share my notes here on my blog.  I figure it would be fun to share my walks with others, and it would also be a way to inject some more life into this blog and get me back into writing more.  It might be a bit of a work in progress as I get started, but I'm looking forward to it.  Stay tuned!

Some of the pocket notebooks I've used for my walks.