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Sunday Trees – 207
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Tag Archives: Col. Sam Smith Park
Week One – Averaged Over 10,000 Steps a Day
….I’ve owned my Jawbone Up for almost a year
On August 29, 2014 I uploaded my new Jawbone Up to my iPhone and set a walking goal of 10 000 steps a day and 8 hours of sleep a night. I’ve struggled when trying to reach either of these goals throughout the year. I have reached both of them but never consistently and for some reason when I have a good walking day I don’t have a good sleep and visa versa. 
Last week when I started writing about my walking goals I started to achieve them. For five days I walked 10 000 steps or more and I averaged 10 500 steps a day. This is the best week I’ve had since getting my tracking device.
My husband came home from the hospital today. I got a phone call at 7:30 this morning from K asking me to pick him up because he was being released. I quickly got dressed and drove to the hospital only to find K still in his bed. He wasn’t even dressed. He was still waiting for the paperwork to be done so that he could be released.
I walked to the other end of the hospital to get myself a coffee and something to eat. When I returned K had decided to get dressed but we still had to wait for final instructions before we could go home.
By the time we left the hospital and picked up K’s pain medications from the drug store it was almost noon and the day had really started to heat up. The dog and I hadn’t been out for our walk but I knew that we wouldn’t get very far in this heat so I waited till this evening to go for our ‘long’ walk.
I’m glad I waited. I had managed to get in almost 5000 steps just watering the garden, doing laundry and going shopping. I knew that to reach 10 000 steps I would have to do the entire length of the park and back again. It was starting to get dark and I notice a sign warning about the coyotes that are in the park so I decided to stay on the walkways that were more frequently used by the public. It was nice changing up the route and seeing different parts of the park. When we finally got home I had added over 6000 more steps for a daily total of 11 100 steps.
Here are a few of the sights we saw on tonight’s walk.
Over 14 000 Steps Yesterday and Already Over My Goal Today
….the last two days have been good walking days
Yesterday I posted that walking 10 000 steps takes effort. By the end of the day I clocked in at 14 826. Most of those steps came from our morning walk where we covered about 5 miles or 8km.
This morning we did the walk again but went a little farther. By the time we got home I had walked 11 000 steps. Later this afternoon we’re visiting friends to see their new home and I’m hoping we’ll go for a walk to check out their new neighbourhood.
My fear is that tomorrow may not be a good walking day. It’s the day my husband goes to the hospital for his surgery but we’re hoping to get out early in the morning and get in some walking for the dog’s sake.
Here are a few more photos of things we saw on our walk today.
Walking 10 000 Steps Takes Effort
….but it’s very doable
When I’m at school I normally walk anywhere from 4000 to 6000 steps during the day, just walking from room to room, walking around the yard during recess and walking around the library putting away books. It’s those last few steps to reach my goal of 10 000 steps that takes effort.
Yesterday I found myself doing a lot of errands, using the car. There was a lot of waiting involved and by the end of the day I had barely clocked 4000 steps. In the evening I took a walk around the block with the dog and then I drove to the mall to do a bit of shopping. I parked farther away from the store than I needed to and I tried to walk around the mall after my shopping was done but I had left it too late and the mall was closing. In the end I only walked 5380 steps.
This morning, as soon as I woke up, I put on my running shoes and went for a long walk with my husband and Frances. It was a beautiful morning, even though the sky to the west of us looked pretty ominous. We walked to our favourite park and instead of going back the same way we came we took a slight detour to add some extra distance. When we got home I was surprised to see that we had already reached my goal of 10 000 steps and it was only 10:30. Ideally, now I should be able to add another 4000 to 5000 throughout the day as long as I don’t spend too much time on the computer or with my renewed hobby of knitting.
Here are a few images of what we saw on our walk this morning.
13 000 More Steps to a Healthier Me
….after work I treated myself and my good friend L to a manicure and pedicure
I’m going to a wedding tomorrow and I really needed to get my toes done. It was L’s birthday last month so I decide to treat her to a manicure and pedicure after work today. Of course it made no sense to sit and watch her being pampered so I had to treat myself as well. Besides I’ve been wearing sandals to work for a few weeks now and it was a little embarrassing when my kindergarten students pointed out that my nail polish on my toes was chipping.
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- Coca Cola Red on my toes
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- Gel Polish
After about an hour of soaking, filing and applying colour we headed over to Marshall’s to try on some clothes. I chose nine tops to try on and left with two. When I got home my husband had just pulled out one of his homemade pizzas from the oven. Yummy!
After supper Frances was eager to go for her evening walk. Even though I was tired I knew that once I got going I would really feel better for it and I do enjoy it. The rain had stopped and it looked like it would stay away for awhile. I brought along my iPhone to snap a few pictures. Before I left I checked my Jawbone Up to see how far I had walked up to this point. It registered at just over 6000 steps.
Tonight we headed towards Col. Samuel Smith Park. I’ve been letting Frances dictate how far we walk and the direction she wants to go. When we got to the park I thought for sure she’d want to turn back but no she proceeded to head towards the lake and the naturalized area of the park. I kept my eyes open for some interesting shots and I think I managed to catch a few good ones. Here are a few things we saw on our walk tonight.
When we finally got home I checked my Up bracelet and discovered that I had walked almost 13 000 steps. This is the third day in a row that I’ve walked over 10 000 steps. Last week I averaged over 11 000 steps a day. I’m hoping that this increase in movement and watching what I eat will help me lose the pounds that I put back on. Luckily I didn’t put it all back on but more than I should have. I need to learn to get right back on track as soon as the first five pounds return.
Installation Art Along the Shores of Lake Ontario
…..Inuksuit made with 21st century rubble
Colonel Sam Smith Park, on the shores of Lake Ontario, at the south end of Etobicoke was recently extended into the lake with landfill. It is one of Toronto’s newest and largest waterfront parks. Much of the park was created in front of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital and the RL Clark Filtration Plant. The waterfront lakefill area is mainly naturalized with grasses, shrubs and small trees. The shoreline is a combination of rocky headlands, cobble beaches and protected wetland. This blends further north into the mature trees and mowed lawns of the former hospital grounds and now the site for Humber College.
This is the park that Frances, my husband and I walked through every day (when I’m not at the cottage or away). This morning on our usual walk to the point I noticed that there were more pieces of installation art that someone has created, using the bricks and rubble from the landfill along the shoreline.
The sculptures were intended to look like inuksuit, a native stone landmark or cairn built and used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America.
An inuksuk was originally built as a travel marker for camps, hunting grounds, food caches and sometimes burial grounds. For more information about the inuksuk, check the Wikipedia site, here.
Walking, Waves, Water Foul and Wildflowers
…..I got up early enough to join my husband and Frances for our daily 5k walk
As you can see I’m not at the cottage. I decided to go see my doctor yesterday (yes, he was working on Canada Day) and get the results from my blood work. I’m happy to report that all the major things were in the good range (cholesterol, sugar levels, etc.). So why am I not on my way to cottage today, you may ask?
Last night my friend, D, called my from Christian Island and told me that she and her husband were coming home today and going back next weekend. I decided that there was no big hurry to get up to the cottage, seeing that I would be mostly alone, so instead I’m going into school today to clean up my library/art office. I was going to go in next week but I think I’m going to be too busy getting ready for our trip to Ireland.
After a quick cup of coffee, the three of us headed out on our walk. I almost always take my camera with me and today was no exception. I love the macro function on the camera and it came in handy today as I got down nice and close to the tiny wildflowers that we pass on our walk. Part of my walk turned in a run today because every time I stopped to take a picture I had to run to catch up to K and Frances.
The morning started out a bit overcast and there was a slight wind. If you saw the waves on the lake you might have thought there were gail force winds but not so. A few metres inland the pond was as still as ice.
This last shot is my favourite. As I zoomed into the these mini thistles I didn’t notice the blur of activity that was taking place on the stems of these plants.
I’d better get to school before the morning completely disappears. Till later!
Happy Canada Day!
…..what am I doing today?
I’ll probably start my day with a long walk with my husband and our dog. On Sunday we walked for 5.1k, and the day before 4.9 k. Here are a few photos from Saturday’s hike through Col. Sam Smith Park.
I’m not sure what else the day holds for me. I had thought of driving to the cottage but I might wait until Tuesday when I can stop and pick up a few groceries on the way. Everything is pretty much closed today. Anyway it’s one in the morning and if I want to get up early for that walk I’d better be off to bed. Till later. Good Night!
It’s morning now and my post didn’t publish. Don’t know why. This is another problem that I frequently encounter. I’ll try again. By the way I think my husband went for the walk without me. Sigh!!!!!
Mama Cormier 