I was ready to get going just as soon as it was light out. After all, today is the American Heart Association’s 10^th annual “National Walking Day”.

However, before setting out to pound the pavement, I did a quick inspection:

Camera? – Check.

Pedometer? – Check.

Peanuts? – Check.

Okay, good to go.

I left earlier than usual to give the car a run, then parked at Council Point Park, thus giving myself enough time for two complete loops at my favorite go-to spot for walking and enjoying nature … for me, it is the best of both worlds.

Even though it was brisk, at least today’s weather was better than Tuesday morning . If you like alliteration … yesterday’s walking weather was warm, wet, windy and wormy.

I wasn’t the only walker celebrating the day devoted to walkers old and young. Before I ambled too far along the twists and turns of the perimeter path, I unzipped my jacket so I had handy access to the camera should I need it.

I tossed out peanuts here and there to the usual peanut pals that ran over to greet me. I saw a squirrel high up in a tree and rattled my Ziploc bag to get his (or her) attention and entice that furry critter to come down to ground level.  But, he didn’t budge, so perhaps he liked the view up there, and, probably knew I was foolish enough to leave a little pile of peanuts for him anyway, whether he was lazy and took his time, or he scrambled right down the tree.  Perhaps he knew it was a workday and I didn’t have time to linger?

So, I left three peanuts at the side of the path, and, just as I tossed them onto the asphalt, a beautiful Red-Winged Blackbird swooped down from the same tree – no slacker was he! That beautiful bird then sauntered over and pecked at a peanut, grabbed it in his beak and flew back up to the tree.  Well, that took me aback, and I figured he just did that to spite the silly, sloth-like squirrel who still lazed around on that tree branch.  In all the time I’ve spent at Council Point Park, I’ve never seen a Red-Winged Blackbird go after peanuts.  (Of course, I Googled when I got online, and sure enough – this species enjoys peanuts.)  Who knew that a marsh-living bird would favor peanuts over grubs and berries … any port in a storm I guess.  There are no grubs out yet, and no berry bushes in the Park that I’ve ever seen.

Time to move on, so “ya snooze, ya lose” I called up to the squirrel before getting back to my walk. It didn’t faze him in the least.

Spring is loading slowly at the Park, and a few trees are beginning to bud and show tiny leaves and the grass is even beginning to green up.

All too soon, a pair of figure eight loops were walked and a blog post was bubbling around in my head – unbelievably this is my 900^th post on my “Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy” blog since I began blogging at WordPress on February 11, 2013!

Twitter was trending as to #NationalWalkingDay and I discovered a factoid that I must share. According to one study, walking can boost creative thinking by up to 60%.   Hmmmm.  More walking = more blog posts … well, aren’t  you all lucky!?

I headed home, thankful for the ambiance at the nature nook, and with an even bigger bounce in my step than I had left with.

[Image by Aurelia-ev from Pixabay]