Week 29/2024: Walking in stormy weather
Week of 15 July 2024
This week reminded us it was still winter.
Stormy weather . . .
. . . is not going to stop me walking
The weather at the start of the week was cold, wet and windy. There were forecasts for 40 mm of rain, and it didn’t look like the type of weather anyone would want to go out in.
Well, except me. I’m determined that the weather is not going to derail my attempt to get at least 30 minutes of daylight (let’s not say sunlight) every morning before 10 am. This is a habit I started to put in place a couple of weeks ago.
![A grey day on the beach. There are rocks in the foreground and there is a light mist over the water](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240715-Hinsby-Beach-stormy-weather-1-scaled.jpg)
I managed to pick my moments and I went to the beach.
![A walking track near the beach on a grey day. There is a small tree branch lying across the track. The water in the background is rough](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240715-Fallen-tree-on-the-walking-track-Edit-scaled.jpg)
I didn’t have my camera with me so these are all phone photos.
![The beach with high tide. Foamy water fills the foreground of the picture. There are clouds and blue sky](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240718-Morning-walk-Hinsby-12-Edit-scaled.jpg)
. . . and blue skies
By the end of the week it was clearing up.
I liked how this side of town was blue.
![A street view with a 5-storey art deco building featuring prominently. It has a high clock tower.](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240719-Murray-Collins-St-150pm-Edit-scaled.jpg)
And this side was still grey.
![A streetscape with grey skies. There is a large glass building on the right hand side](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240719-Murray-Morrison-St-154pm-scaled.jpg)
Some weekend visitors
When I was out walking on Sunday morning, with no stormy weather in sight, I noticed a bunch of sulphur-crested cockatoos sitting in a tree.
![A blue sky with whispy clouds. There is a tree and power lines at the very bottom of the image](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240721-Cockatoos-in-the-tree-2-scaled.jpg)
They’re a common bird in this part of the world and they often hang out in my neighbourhood. (Very noisily.) They don’t usually come into my yard, which has been the domain of the local currawong population.
However, on Sunday the cockatoos got here first and they basically invaded.
![A large white bird sitting on the bare branch of a tree](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240721-Cockatoos-in-the-back-yard-09-Enhanced-NR-Edit-scaled.jpg)
They were quite comfortable with me getting close to them for photos too.
Week 29 summary
Habit tracker
- 9.30 shutdown: 5/7 days
- 8,000 steps: 6/7 days
What was the best thing about this week?
Chicken gumboots!
![A pair of yellow gumboots with pictures of chickens all over](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240718-Chicken-gumboots-scaled.jpg)
We paid a visit to Tassie Bird and Poultry Supplies to check out all the cool chicken stuff. I saw these boots and the lady said they were on sale because they were discontinued. Conveniently, they still had them in my size . . .
Wearing these has made going into the chickens’ muddy yard so much easier.
What did I notice this week?
Cherry blossoms.
![Pink cherry blossoms on a bare tree. There is green grass beneath the tree](https://steppingonthecracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240715-Cherry-blossoms-dont-care-if-theres-a-storm-scaled.jpg)
What did I learn this week?
My Duolingo Finnish lesson threw in the word ‘Sámi’, which I needed to go and look up because the translation was ‘Sámi’. Thanks to Britannica, I learned that Sámi are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, living in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia.
There are three Sámi languages, which are part of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family, so they’re related to Finnish but are nothing like it.
What am I reading?
- Hagitude by Sharon Blackie