A week ago, I took a long stroll on a balmy-like
Christmas Day. Today the weather was almost equally sunny but a bit colder (I think the high temperature today was 34F at 3 p.m.). I wanted to take advantage of the sun and take another long walk. I had several choices, including guided hikes at six (6) different state parks. But I decided it was silly to drive 45 minutes or more to walk when I could stay home and walk.
Since there was no snow, I decided to explore the golf course up the street from me (not quite a mile). It's a full, 18-hole course. I took all the paths, to get the full tour. I had a Google map that showed what I thought were all the paths but they missed about a third (1/3).
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| On the fairway. |
I'm not sure how far I walked (I need to get a pedometer) but I was gone for nearly three (3) hours. This time, I wasn't lolling.
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| View near the start of my hike, |
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| Note the thin layer of ice (clue: the rocks are on top of the "water"). |
There were other people enjoying the golf course today: several people walking their dogs; a family with several children; a three-some (illegally) playing golf; a stray dog; and several other people meandering about.
The sky was fantastic: blue with wispy clouds. The sun was sunny. There was a bit of a biting cold breeze. I was blown away by the amazing variety of trees.
The solitude was quite spiritual. Several times, I stopped and looked up at the sky and watched a cloud sail by or a distant plane spew its contrails behind it. Our world is so BIG and we are so
small. I imagine that the Divine is so much more awesome than we can possible conceive.
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| Charlie Brown's Xmas tree? |
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| The ducks found an open spot to swim. |
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| This brook/creek bisects the course. |
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| Not knotty pine trees but not bad either. |
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| Here comes the moon. |
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From the street I couldn't tell why sledding was prohibited but close up
I could see the terraced tees. They would really mess up a sledder. |
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Written today 1 January 2015 (Thursday).
