What a great morning. My friend Suzanne and I hit the River Parks trail this morning for a three-mile jog. Neither of us had run in a while, so we went at an easy pace and walked a couple of times to keep from wearing ourselves out. I wasn’t as out of shape as I’d feared, although I’m glad we were only doing three miles.
The weather was just about perfect — a little chilly at the start, but with long sleeves and gloves, we were plenty warm enough by the time we got moving. The Arkansas River was beautiful, with the sun sparkling on the ripples in the water, and we saw umpteen Canada geese out there, gliding along in the water in graceful formations and flying above our heads and gathering on the river bank to talk about whatever it is geese talk about. Lovely creatures.
A Bonaparte’s gull drifted along on the breeze as we were crossing the river on Southwest Boulevard, and an Eastern fox squirrel went scurrying along a branch above us on Riverside. We saw bright red berries all over the ground at one point, although for the life of me, I couldn’t find their source. The pansies were blooming at Suzanne’s, and there were a couple of bushes — a holly and something else — putting out little red berries.
My Southern Illinois Natural Events Calendar, which I bought in Makanda over Christmas, says to listen for spring peepers and Western chorus frogs on warmer evenings beginning Jan. 11. That’s about a month earlier than the date the WHTC lists for chorus frogs, but I’ll start paying attention anyway. Tulsa is just slightly south of Makanda — we’re basically in the same planting zone — so the timing of our natural events should be the same or perhaps a few days ahead of Makanda’s. Of course, as Ron correctly points out, if we don’t get some rain, we’re not going to hear any frogs singing.
While I wait for the rain and the frogs, I’ll just keep enjoying the birds and the squirrels and the lovely temperatures.
Beautiful weather, living things all around, and a good friend running beside me … is there a better way to spend a Saturday morning?
Emily