walking in beautiful surroundings

Penny and I are fortunate in the variety of places we can walk together. Here's a recent location:

It's easy to take these wonderful places for granted, but I was reminded recently that such bushy surroundings occur only because of the work put in by local government,  indigenous people and groups of volunteers.

I thought this sign at the Willsmere billabong in Kew had an excellent explanation of why we dog-walkers need to respect the other users of our spaces, both human and non-human.

These plantings are newer than the one pictured at the top, but in time they will be just as lovely:

 

dogs make us take note of interesting things

Penny and I had a look at the new bicycle path that is soon to open between Kew and Ivanhoe. We've seen both ends of it now, from Willsmere in Kew, to Ivanhoe.

In writing this blog post, I've come across the startling fact that people in Alphington won't be a able to get onto the path. Amazing. How could so much money - 18 million dollars -  be spent on the path and then not allow one whole suburb to access  it?

However, I do see that there is a suggestion of an entry in the future from Alphington.

At any rate, Penny and I are fortunate to be coming in  from either the Kew end or the Ivanhoe end.

When we set off, from Ivanhoe, we passed under a tree that we've never taken any notice of before.

But what were these things on the ground that seemed to look like tennis balls? Penny, of course, wasn't fooled, because they sure didn't smell like tennis balls. 

But I had to have a second look. 

OMG! Osage orange. I once spent ages trying to source one of these trees, because I was keeping silkworms in my classroom and the students needed lots of leaves. We were running out of mulberry leaves and I knew osage orange could be used as well. And there was this tree, right near the school!

Oh, well...

Penny was more interested in meeting other park-goers. 

We headed off along the new path, but Penny wasn't too keen to walk. We're never quite sure whether this happens because of her arthritis, or because it's nearly dinner-time. 

When we turned for home, she led the way by a long shot. 

we explore new places when we have a dog

Feeling excited that Penny's paws are fine now, I decided she could cope with a longer walk today. We stayed mainly on grass, at one of our favorite places, Willsmere Park in Kew.

However, it seemed a good idea to test Penny out on a hard surface, so we went in a new direction, out of the park and along the shared path towards Fairfield. We had to stay on lead. I tried to get Penny to mostly walk on the edge, on the soft soil there, but she insisted on walking on the concrete surface itself.

Penny walks along the edge of the shared path near Willsmere

When she was on the actual path, we had to keep our ears cocked for the sound of a speeding cyclist coming from behind. As the sign suggested, some warned us with a ringing of their bells, like this courteous guy who passed us so quickly I could hardly get a picture of him.

Sign for cyclists on shared path near Willsmere

But this rude fellow raced up behind us with no warning.

Discourteous cyclist on shared path near Kew

It was great to get back onto the nice soft walking path into Willsmere...

and back into the park itself.

winter and spring in one day

Yesterday we thought spring had come to Melbourne, and I was eager to get a nice walk in the sun today with Penny. But winter came back!

After the icy rain and hail, Penny and I set off for Willsmere Park in Kew. I was all rugged up, but of course Penny jumped  into the Yarra for her usual swim.

She waited in vain for me to make my way down the slippery bank to throw sticks into the water.

We saw lots of other creatures also enjoying the park. (Please excuse the low quality of some of the pictures, but I want to show you the variety of park visitors today.)

The kookaburra kept an eye on us but wasn't too worried.

We walked past clouds of insects - maybe midges? They ignored Penny and she ignored them, because she was too busy cleaning her nether parts.

The grass parrots didn't care about us at all, unless we got very close, in which case they shot up into the nearest tree, waited for us to get a few metres away and landed once more nearby.

The ducks, however, were more wary of us, perhaps because they are slower to take flight. Or maybe dogs tend to chase them more often.

It's surprising to realise all this beauty and peace is right alongside a noisy, busy road. Thank goodness for the big wall that keeps most of the noise away.