Warming up for the Blossom Walk

It's looking more and more like Spring is finally coming to southern Vancouver Island. This morning we headed out with the Trailblazer gang on the Gowlland Tod trail, near Butchart Gardens. The brilliant green of new growth is everywhere. It's like that greenness is seeping into your pores by osmosis, waking up all your little cells with a raucous "Look! It's green out here! Spring has sprung! Shake off the winter blahs." The dogs had no problems warming up to the fine weather as we headed out on the trail. There were new smells to sniff, doggy friends to greet, and an inexhaustible supply of bushes and trees to pee on. Not to mention a lovely wide trail on which to put puppy paws into overdrive (see Zack in action, above). Doggy heaven on a sunny Friday morning.

Tomorrow is the annual Blossom Walk—part of the Victoria International Walking Festival. We'll be doing the 10 km route. This seems to be about the ideal distance for us. Our 'dogs are barking' by then (by that I mean our feet, not our pets). We'll then hie ourselves off for a post-ambulatory indulgence at Boston Pizza while the dogs snore loudly in the backs of our vehicles.

I suppose I should mention that last night was dragon boat practice. Endurance was the coach's focus for the evening. It's also slalom course time: the corporate rowing demolition derby is back in full swing for another year. It's the time when large numbers of virgin rowers gingerly lower their not-so-skinny backsides into the skinniest boats in creation, turn their backs to the direction they're heading in, and row aimlessly out onto the Gorge Waterway to wreak havoc with dragon boaters.

Ah yes, Spring has indeed sprung.