Fall in the city

It is September 14th, and fall is creeping up on us. The heat of summer has disappeared, and the days are sunny and cool. The leaves are beginning to change color. I have always loved the changing seasons, and fall brings with it feelings of anticipation... as if something great is just around the corner. Perhaps a feeling that comes from those years when I looked forward to another school year.

But it is also an ending. And there is an urgency to take full advantage of the days we have left before winter arrives. There is a need to spend the last days exploring whatever there is to explore. The instinct is to head to the mountains.

We left the Rockies behind, and Kananaskis is no longer a weekend option. So we must compensate. We must find the beauty that is here. Each place has a beauty of its own.

Our destination today was Kildonan Park, not far from where our kids live. Rachel & I picked up Haley and took her and Josiah out for fresh air. No mountains here, but the trees... ah, the trees! We meandered through the flower gardens. Everything grows in Manitoba is what my friends tell me. I'm not sure about 'everything', but I have had a much easier time with my flower gardens here than I ever did in Alberta.

And when we had seen the flowers, we stopped to watch the ducks, and to watch Haley watching the ducks. Everything is so much better when seen through the eyes of a child. Josiah slept peacefully in his snuggly, and Haley tried out the baby swings, and even without a vocabulary, I knew she was asking for more when I took her out of the swing. So, of course, she got more.

We found the river walk, and passed by the picnic tables and fire pits which we will have to try out very soon. A fall picnic is just been added to our schedule. And next year, it will be both Haley & Josiah wanting more of the swings, more of the ducks, and hopefully, many more picnics by the river. We've found a little bit of heaven right here in Winnipeg.