A walk in the woods

 

One day during our visit to Washington, we went for a walk at a new park out near Woodinville. It was a gray and damp day, as usual at that time of year, the type of weather that makes all this moss and ferns possible.

 

When I was a child, I was always highly amused at visitors from other states who would express amazement at how green it was in Bellevue. Now I get it. After 6 years in Texas and 3 1/2 in Arkansas, I get it. Here, everything goes brown in the summer and winter.

Not in Washington. There was moss on every immovable surface on the walk, except the paths, but only because they were brand new.

Believe it or not, there was a stump under that carpet of moss. You know that old saying about how you can tell which direction you are going in the woods by finding which side of the tree the moss is growing on? Not in this forest.

In other news, I am still in recovery mode from last week's nasty cold. Still coughing, especially when watching something funny on TV (like George Carlin), and still blowing my nose too often. But I made it to the gym this morning for the first time in almost two weeks and managed a tennis class yesterday. Whew.

OK, this is getting old

Enjoying the sleeping bag I slept in for a while last night

You are getting Miikka pictures because I have spent four of the last five days on my couch, and he is the only bit of scenery I have had lately. Why would I do such a lazy sort of thing, you may well ask? Because I have a cold. A mean cold that was deceptively mild at first, then started to get nasty. I mean, after spending Wednesday afternoon and Thursday lolling around in a state of malaise, Friday morning I thought myself if not fully recovered, at least well enough to return to work. Wrong - by Friday evening I was worse than I had been, with an unpleasant cough to boot. That cough and its friend sinus pressure stuck around all day Saturday and Sunday, and are just now starting to recede (fingers crossed that they are indeed going away). The thing is, I can't tell if this cold is worse than any I have had in recent years, or if it is just that I can't take any of the most expedient cold remedies on account of the infant inconvenience (to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite novels) and thus just feel if more keenly. Either way, I hope the cold is on the way out, because my couch is starting to feel molded to my body. And as much as I enjoy being home during the day and having the dog sit on me all the time, I am ready to be up and about.

Giving me the stink-eye for disturbing his nap with paparazzi photos.

I actually won something!

Wahoo! The tennis tournament was a success! Benjamin and I both won our divisions for singles. I think this is the first time I have won anything athletic since I was in elementary school and swam on a neighborhood swim team. I mean, I have won matches, but never the three in a row needed to win a tournament. We both had one match that was fairly easy, one that was long and difficult, and one that was difficult, but not quite as long.

And now, because the world needs more cute pictures of Miikka, here is one of him in the magic sunbeam with his favorite toilet paper tube scrap.