It's a Walk in the Park

Cable has been off for what, a week now? Two? I haven't missed it. Once or twice, in the evenings I forget and wonder what's on, but I'm not upset when I realize we don't have anything to watch on tv. Admittedly, it is possible for us to watch stuff online, and we have hooked the laptop up to the television to watch a movie or two (Wolverine last week, Night in the Museum this week). Other than the possibility of us going over our download limit, it's not a bad deal.

One upside of us turning our cable off has been the inordinate amount of time I have on my hands. Who knew? TV was eating my day! Ack! These days, I get a hell of a lot more housework done, and Delilah, Harley and I go on daily walks that average an hour in duration. That's a lot more calories burned than sitting on your duff watching the boob tube.

Today we walked to the Civic Gardens entrance at Wonderland and Springbank (right on the corner) and cut thru the park to the paths. Then we walked all the way along the river past Storybook Gardens and kept going until we reached Byron Baseline by the bridge. The road loops back around and goes back through Springbank Park past a splash pad/wading pool and playground for the kiddies. That will be awesome when Delilah is older! Then we came out exactly where we went in and came home. All told it took us just about 2 hours, with a few water breaks.

I haven't been able to find an actual map of the paths with scale distance that is clear enough to understand-the London City one is terrible. I'd like to know how far we went today. It feels like about 6 km but what do I know?

The paths are great. There are some that are paved and some are crushed stone. There are trees all along the way-willow trees, evergreens, maple trees, and oaks. I am sure there are many more different types as well. There are flowers and plants, ivy and ground cover, wild raspberries, daisies, and more with which I am unfamiliar. There are cyclists and joggers, in-line skaters, people with regular strollers and running strollers. There are people with dogs and babies and older kids.

We have had a couple run-ins with the local wildlife, too. Monday we walked up to the backside of Storybook where the little duck pond is. There was a family of geese on the pedestrian side of the fence - the mom and dad plus 3 goslings. The dad didn't take too kindly to Harley and started hissing and chased us. We ran away. Then, today, there was a big swan by the banks of the river by the dam and it wasn't too friendly either. We avoid the big birds, now.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the paths, in all directions. Apparently you can get from Springbank Park to downtown London using the path system!