I had to go to the doctor this morning, which meant passing by my favorite park with the best walking trails. It’s right next to the Snake river (then again, everything is right next to the Snake river here!) and I just couldn’t resist even though I’m pretty sure all the nature walking last week is what had me laid up for a few days.

I promised myself I’d only park and walk a few steps to get some shots of the water and go right back to the truck and drive straight home but, well…

The bench was literally right there, so I decided to sit for awhile and enjoy the views. The trees are still changing and the leaves are falling and the sun was shining and there were squirrels everywhere, gathering nuts and twigs and things.

And playing peek-a-boo with me from around the tree trunks…

It was just sooo beautiful I couldn’t resist. I figured I’d just walk a little ways, just to the next bench which had an even better view of the river. You know, not too far, in order to keep my wonky immune system from overreacting.

Even though I can’t be sure that’s what triggered this last flare up to begin with. For all I know, it could be because of the war in Ukraine or the fact that the moon is suddenly and mysteriously out during the day after millions of years of only coming out at night. 🤨

I brought all of this up with my doctor who agreed that due to the nature of this disease we’ll never know for sure, so I took a chance and made my way to the next bench, promising myself that was as far as I would go.

Just in case.

But after a few minutes the sun was getting a bit too warm there, so I decided to go to the next one down since it was in the shade…

Sunlight can be a trigger, everyone with mast cell disease knows this. So into the shade I went.

But of course then after a few minutes I got too cold because I didn’t bring a sweater (silly me) and had to move down one more bench back into the sunlight to warm up again.

I did this four or five more times until I found myself half way around the park. Which meant I had no choice but to walk back the way I came or else finish the loop, which is farther than I was prepared to go.

All in all, it was a nice little morning stroll and now that I’m back home I think I’ll take a nap. 🙂