8r4d Everyone has their own preference for mid-tier brewed #coffee from takeouts and cafes but for a long time I’m a fan of a simple McDs. As the rest of the country lines up for Tim’s I’m happier with my mccafe brew. Of course, when I’m feeling snooty and pretentious we can talk about pourovers and mokapots and grinding our own beans, but for a simple cup of joe… 1 Coffee Black is my go to…

8r4d We have about 40 #houseplants in our house in various states of size and health. I have a habit of rescuing sick #plants from greenhouses, so many are small and scraggly. This fern was one of those. I nursed it back to life s couple years ago and for a long time it was strong and healthy, but then I think it outgrew its old pot and in a matter of a couple months it nearly died in me. On one of those rare warm late winter days it was above freezing so I repotted it to find a malodorous root ball nearly rotting out in an overstuffed pot. I gave it fresh soil and…well it’s not back to its old self but it’s been vigorously growing even just this past week. One new frond came out s few weeks ago but until about a week ago that was it. Now? There are about a dozen fiddleheads and it’s looking quite spry.

8r4d Holiday Mondays are always meant for #running but I opted for a solo dash around the neighborhood to work on the ole gauntlet. I really need to drive somewhere and as some serious streets to the heatmap soon because it takes me a solid couple klicks just to reach fresh cul-de-sacs when running from home these days. There morning rain made for some chilly air this afternoon tho.

8r4d #games

8r4d The #rain came out for a chilly #running day nineteen. The crew cranked out various distances, and I found myself nearly in the middle of those distances with a solid 10k around the local neighbourhood.

8r4d Day one of #garden 2024. It’s May long weekend and that means one thing here in the Canadian Prairies in suburban backyards: planting your vegetable garden. Sue there’s not much to see today, and I’m not putting out the tomatoes and peppers for another week or so, but all my seeds are in the ground and the bird netting is up.

8r4d What’s a good #rivervalley walk without some good #bridge photos?

8r4d In lieu of day eighteen of my #running streak I substituted a 10k multi-terrain #hike #walk thru the #rivervalley with C&A. I’d call it a streak break but we logged 2.5 hours on feet and climbed some good hills, so I’m going to make up some more rules on the fly and say since I logged it and it’s pretty respectable, it’s more of a streak pause and the streak continues unabated. Later on this summer we’ve booked a long weekend of backpacking in the mountains carrying packs and food and tenting up in the wilderness. The city trails are a lot more civilized but also a lot closer to home to practice on.

8r4d On our morning practice #hike #walk with C&A we saw #downtown #yeg from a whole bunch of different perspectives. #cityscape

8r4d The temperature dropped and the wind picked up and so day 17 of my #running streak was a chilly affair of adding some more orange lines to my gauntlet challenge. I would have driven somewhere and done more than some overlapping patchwork pickups, but the city is cleaning streets around here this week and so there is a parking ban in place. Between that and all the construction it’s a wonder there’s anywhere to even run these days.

8r4d Our usual Thursday meetup for the #runcrew also marked day 16 of my #running streak. It had rained pretty hard all day but cleared up for a few hours and just long enough for the sidewalks and paths to dry... well mostly. I’m getting darn bagged doing this daily churn of kilometres tho and we had a good chat this evening on the value of a rest day to a proper training plan. Streaks are fun and all, and of course I’m gonna keep it going for a bit more, but anyone who runs daily every day and always has something in their mettle that keeps it going longer than most can.

8r4d So here’s the thing. I’ve been playing #violin now for almost 8 years. Why I picked up this instrument all those years ago is a winding tale that merits further documentation, perhaps to be elaborated as I go along, but not for today. Today, I am looking at some of the frustrations I’ve been having in #orchestra achieving the level of play that I felt I should have been at by now. Yeah, it’s been less than 8 years, but I squandered a couple back during the pandemic and so it goes, on and on with excuses. My bowing is jittery. My fingering is sloppy. My fourth finger never wants to cooperate. So what to do? Well. The #fourseasons is a renowned piece of violin music that is clearly stretching for my current ability. I own a full violin score that feels fairly advanced, slightly out of reach and something I could just barely muddle through now. But not if I worked at it. See, back when I was doing lessons my instructors would basically help me pick something I wanted to learn then walk me thru week by week learning it. A phrase at a time we would pick it apart and get it right. Those pieces were simpler but those lesson books were designed for beginners and children. It got me thinking. I could go back to lessons, or I could just pick something to learn—like learn really well—and just methodically practice it. Record myself. Tweak. Tune. Learn. And as such I think I could really hone the technique I know and work on fine tuning the fabric of my practice methodology around a focus. Yes there is very much a lot of positive about structured instruction, but for a few months, maybe a year, to do something self-focused that isn’t just noodling on easy music I think—I think—could be hugely beneficial and perhaps set me up to take some more structured learning down the road to hone and refine even more. So. I pulled out that Vivaldi score and downloaded a recording and… here goes nothing: day one.

8r4d Half May and I’m officially fifteen days down on my #running streak. This evening we clashed our #runcrew with #runclub and raced the threatening rain with a speedy right klicks. Somehow I managed yet another day even though my legs are feeling the daily pound of the asphalt. That said, we broke off and ran a bit of parallel trail for kicks.

8r4d I spent a lot of the winter driving to various #cafe in the neighbourhood looking for a distraction-lite place to write and work. Then as the #spring arrived I switched to walking, trudging along the paths to my local haunts to find the same gaming-console-free no-tv nothing-to-clean space to get some more writing done. This morning I realized that with the nice weather and warmer mornings a #bike ride would substitute. So maybe I’ll spend my summer #cycling to write? As long as I can find a place to lock up. Starbucks was acutely lacking in bike racks this morning so I’m at Waves instead. #coffee

8r4d Day fourteen of my streak and on the last day of my second week of #running I opted to tackle the hot-ish #spring temps with some more mileage on my summer gauntlet project. I really need to be more methodical about my routes to be honest because I seem to recall that last time I tried this I was cleaning up the neighbourhoods with a lot less overlapping of stuff I’d already run. Or maybe I’m just idealizing my memories.

8r4d With only about 10 days until our year end concert our #orchestra is in full gear for practice. The result is that it’s Tuesday morning and I’m on the north side of town to meet for a morning sectional practice having barely recovered from our practice last night which ended almost exactly 12 hours ago. And it’s such a beautiful sunny #spring day too.

8r4d Monday afternoon the smoke has cleared and JB and Sadie needed a run, so I clocked day 13 of my #running streak.

8r4d According to the sacred violinist’s lore one must change one’s strings with care and regularity. Prolific players may need to change their strings every six to nine months. Moderate players like me should change their strings every twelve to eighteen months. Occasional players may wish to only replace strings every couple years or as required, because it’s not cheap nor trivial either. I last replaced my strings about five years ago… or in a timeframe clearly in breach of the sacred advice of internet #violin experts. Probably should have got on that sooner, huh?

8r4d Another day, another sky full of #firesmoke but RM messaged mid-afternoon and figured we were sitting at about the clearest it was gonna be for a day or so and would I like to get my daily #running done? So I drove to the south side and we tried out a 9k from the starbucks in the smoky air with some thunder cracking off just outside the city. Some trails, some suburbs, some asphalt, some sun…all good.

8r4d I was kinda hopeful that I would need my #firesmoke hashtag for a few weeks yet, but yet again the pall of burning forests in the north squashed my relatively wee & insignificant #running plans. I was all set to crank out a 12-15k long run this morning (because of scheduling issues for tomorrow) but woke up to a haze and all sorts of cancelled races. I scaled back and just added to my gauntlet in north riverbend instead of a longer adventure.

8r4d Day 10 of my month of #running streak was pretty mundane compared to our adventure yesterday, with just a few more clicks of gauntlet running around the hood. Fortunately the sun was shining. Unfortunately the summer heat has come with it. Great for the flowers and sunbathers, bad news for long runs.

8r4d Fred was hanging out in a park near the river valley on the north side of town. #buggyland

8r4d Our regular Thursday #running meetup was quasi-hijacked because LG’s new house sits right near some fancy #rivervalley trails and he was itching for us to come check them out. My ninth run of May turning into a bit of an adventure run then. We crossed the river and back on two different bridges, found a spring, and meandered along some familiar trails we had run on racers or adventures past.

8r4d Day 8 of daily #running and we joined the running room #runclub again for some mixed training. A couple hills then a as bit of easy running and nothing too complex in the sunshine.