Between December 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025, I has lots of fun writing 71 posts (and drawing 31 stars!) for Fit is a Feminist Issue. Just to do something different, today, I have decided to write very few words and to let some photos do the heavy lifting.
My knee has been giving me a little trouble, and Khalee’s ear has been a bit sore, and the weather has extremely cold, so we haven’t been out for a walk for a few days
But on Monday, it was time to get out and amble a bit even though it was still awfully cold.
A photo of a single birch tree with a few evergreens and deciduous trees a little distance away. The ground is snow-covered and there is a little bit of snow on the branches of the surrounding trees.
I think we both needed that time outside, walking on the path, checking out the snow and the trees, and just letting our minds wander, too.
A photo of a mostly snow-covered river with patches of tall, yellowed grass poking through the snow. There is a path on the left side of the river and there are evergreen trees on both sides.
Ok, maybe my mind was the only one wandering, I am pretty sure Khalee was VERY focused on sniffing every single thing she encountered.
Ok, she’s not actually sniffing anything here, it was a brief pause in her sniffvestigations. Image description: Khalee, a light brown dog in a green hoodie stands on a snowy path facing away from the camera.
Either way, it was good to be outdoors.
A snowy photo of a narrow river. There’s a wooden fence and tall yellow grass sticking out of the snow all the way along. A leafless tree is in the foreground on the right and there are evergreens in the distance. Khalee was just finished shaking her head when I snapped this, hence the strange look on her face. Image description: a photo of Khalee, a light brown dog in a green hoodie, standing on a snowy path. She is looking towards the camera and looks like she is a bit fed up with the viewer.This photo is really just to show off my hat that my beloved Mother-in-law made for me this year. Image description: a slightly smirky selfie of me (a middle aged white woman with a round face and light brown hair) I’m standing in front of my fence with a large leafless tree visible behind me. I’m wearing an off-white knitted toque with some bits of grey and gold in the mix, a dark green scarf and a black coat that is sprinkled with snow. My hat is pulled right down to my eyebrows and I look more than a little goofy…which tracks.
I’ve noticed that a lot more people in my neighbourhood have their holiday lights up early this year and it made me think of that saying – ‘If you can’t make your own serotonin, store bought is fine.‘
Usually I like to wait until December to put my lights up because I like that month to feel extra special but after a full month of rainy days, I need all the light I can get.
An early evening photo of a string of colourful lights on the railing of my (very damp) patio. There are leafless trees, a fence, and a streetlight in the background.
And today I realized that I’ve actually been choosing the (literally) brighter option whenever I can for the last few weeks. (Subconscious self care! I can’t believe my ADHD let me away with that.)
I picked a new desk lamp that gives me a wide swath of light for my desk on gloomy days (ugh) and at night.
A photo of my white desk with my lamp on. The lamp rises from behind my monitor and extends out on both sides casting bright light on my books, my art supplies, and the sewing project I’m working on at the moment.
I chose a new light-up leash for Khalee because the old yellow one didn’t light up anymore. It’s cheery AND it’s useful for walking in the early evening.
A photo of Khalee, my dog, doing a sniff-investigation on some grass on an early evening walk. Her blue light up leash is in the foreground and there is a streetlight nearby. There’s also a 40 speed limit sign but don’t worry we weren’t walking that fast.
And, in general, I have been making sure not to spend any extra time in the dark. There’s no need for me to be sitting in a dimly-lit room unless I choose to.
I know there are a lot of things I need to do to reduce my chances of being fully captured by seasonal depression* but I feel like finding more light – literally and metaphorically – is a good foundation.
Days that include more exercise, good quality sleep, hanging out with friends, and doing activities I enjoy can all be built on top of seeking light and that’s what I intend to do.
How are you dealing with the darker days lately?
Any fun ideas?
*I always struggle a bit but last year was especially bad and I am determined to help myself every single way I can this year.
Image description: Khalee, a medium-sized, short-haired dog is standing on a sunny wooden patio looking intently toward the camera.
When I took this picture on Sunday, her question for me was ‘Are you gonna share that banana?’
But, now that I see the photo again, I think her look is actually more intense and her questions are even more important than I realized at the time.
I think the banana was just the surface thought, I think, deep down, she wants to know if you are making time to rest this summer?
She’s wondering if your plans include downtime?
She’s wondering if you make the same mistake I do – subconsciously trying to get all the ‘work’ done before I relax when what I need to do is include rest as part of the overall plan – and how you might start to switch that up a little?
She’s wondering if you are trying to do things ‘right’ when good enough is, well, good enough?
She’s wondering if you are taking time to lie down in the shade and just sniff the air?
And, of course, she’s wondering if you know that any and all patio snacks should be shared with your dog?
This message has been brought to you by Khalee, Encourager of Rest, Ambassadog for Mental Health, Sharer of Snacks and is fully endorsed by me, Christine Hennebury, Proponent of Self-Kindness and Fetcher of Snacks.
Over the past week, I have been choosing to do longer guided meditations in my Insight Timer app.
So, that means that instead of just opening the app and starting the timer, I’ve been searching for new meditations to try.
On Sunday, a typo led to the happy accident of discovering that there are a whole bunch of dog-related meditations mixed in there with the chakra stuff and the nature sounds.
At first I thought it was kind of silly (in a good way!) but then there was something strangely appealing about the idea of doing a dog-related meditation.
After all, dogs are pretty damn good at being in the moment, aren’t they?
And haven’t I often posted a calm picture of Khalee as a good example for myself.
You know, like this one:
Image description: a photo of sleepy Khalee on the quilt on my bed. The photo only shows her head, shoulders, and front paws. Her head is resting slightly sideways one her front paws with one paw sticking out from under it.
So, I figure it’s worth a try.
I can’t seem to link to the meditations in my app but here are a couple from YouTube:
This is a guided meditation to do while petting your dog, to help you both calm down.
‘5 Minute Guided Meditation With Your Dog’ from Marissa Walch. Still image shows the instructor sitting on the floor with her dog in front of her, the dog’s back is to the camera.
And this is a walking meditation to do while, you guessed it, walking your dog:
‘Walking Your Dog Meditation’ from Marie Wilkinson still image shows a stock cartoon image of a brown dog with white paws walking on a leash.
I’m going to give these, and the ones from my app, a try and report back.
Have you tried dog meditation?
What did you think?
PS – Speaking of things that seem silly but are actually kind of cool, maybe your dog will like this calming music as much as Khalee does? I played it for her once when she was agitated because the smoke alarm was beeping (the battery needed changing, there was no peril!) and it really helped.
I have reached the end of Phase II of my experiment and I am declaring it a success.
No. I didn’t manage to do a warm up before each walk.
And I didn’t manage to organize my days to make it easier to do a warm up.
Instead, I have successfully discovered that I don’t want to keep trying to make this work.
Yes, success on your own terms really does have a lot going for it.
ANYWAY!
Just like my efforts from the week before, last week’s attempts at trying to warm up before I walked the dog meant that I ended up delaying my walk and stressing the dog out.
This photo is not from this week but I thought it made a funny juxtaposition to me mentioning her being stressed out. Image description: a photo of Khalee, a light brown, medium-sized dog, lying on her belly by our patio doors. She is pointing her snout toward the camera and her tail is toward the door, she looks pretty chilled out.
As a bonus, I also ended up feeling annoyed about the whole thing.
And while it may come as a shock to hear this, annoyed is NOT the feeling I am going for when it comes to taking a walk.
When I had this idea two weeks ago, I was trying to make sure that I got ‘more’ out of my walk. It’s my most consistent form of exercise and I wanted to increase my efforts cardio-wise so I could ensure that I was challenging myself – especially on days when I didn’t have time for other exercises.
It definitely seemed like a good idea and when my first week didn’t work out because of general life chaos (and a few sick days), I reframed the experiment and tried to focus on picking a specific time for my walks so I could include time for my warm-up.
But when that didn’t work out either, I gave it a bit more thought and I realized that trying to intensify things was taking the fun out of my walk.
My walk is usually a relatively relaxing part of my day. I’m not always super keen on having to go out in bad weather and sometimes it’s a challenge to jam it into my day, but once I am actually out there, I never regret it.
I listen to a book or to a podcast or just to the sounds around me and I stroll along with Khalee, taking things in. I usually feel the tension drop out of my shoulders as I amuse myself by watching herself sniffing her way along.
Occasionally it’s a bit dull and it’s usually not much of a physical challenge but maybe that’s asking too much of my daily stroll.
Maybe instead of trying to make my walk more intense I could just decide to enjoy the experience of being outside with Khalee, observing the way things change from day to day and week to week and catching up on podcasts and books.
Last year, I discovered that a single flower grows behind this fence and I was delighted to discover this week that it is a perennial! Image description: a sunny spot behind a fence and between some trees where the ground is crowded with winter-browned grass and a single set of green shoots are growing upwards.
So, it took me two weeks to determine this but it turns out that my experiment wasn’t ‘Does a 5 minute warm-up help me have a more exercise-y walk?’ and it wasn’t ‘How can I make it easier to do a warm-up before I walk?’ it was ‘Will the effort of trying to do a 5 minute warm-up before my walk add something positive to my day?’
And the answer to that is a resounding NO.
Sure, you could look at this revised-revised experiment and say that I didn’t try hard enough or that I didn’t give it enough time or that I didn’t organize it well but all of those conclusions ignore the key finding from this single participant study:
I don’t *actually* want to work on adding a 5 minute warm-up.
What I wanted was to have my walk serve more than one purpose – a walk AND a specific type of exercise.
BUT since trying to add intensity was decreasing enjoyment, I feel totally comfortable in ditching my warm-up plan.
So, instead, I’m going to follow my usual non-plan impulse-related approach for my walks and I will get more cardio in other ways.
I’ll work on being more consistent with my other forms of exercise.
And if consistency gets too hard then I’m just going to keep starting over – I’ve got lots of practice at that.
As I am writing this on Monday morning, I had already spent about 20 minutes arguing with myself about whether it was safe to take Khalee for a walk today.
You see, last week, things were looking up snow-wise.
The sidewalks were clear.
I could the grass at the edges of my driveway.
My patio had only a few chunks of icy snow on it.
I was looking forward to walking in my sneakers for change.
I knew it wasn’t actually spring but I was hoping things would move in that direction, or that winter would pause for a while.
Readers, it did not.
Between Thursday night and Saturday morning we had around 75cm of snow.
It was not fun.
And I had taken Khalee for a walk on Thursday but it was too stormy on Friday to go out.
On Saturday and Sunday, the roads were only partially clear and there was heavy equipment here and there, and it felt too risky to have my poor pup and poor me try to navigate all of that.
Last night, I saw that a nearby sidewalk has been cleared so I decided that I would take Khalee out this morning no matter what.
But this morning is very windy and a bit rainy and part of my brain tried to put the brakes on.
It really did its best to keep me and Khalee inside, telling me that the wind would make it hard to walk (truth: it’s not *that* windy!) and that while that sidewalk might be clear the road to get there might be hazardous (truth: some parts of the roads are narrow and snow-filled, others are clear and it’s only three minutes from my front door) and…and…and…
However, I couldn’t keep Khalee from another day of sniffvestigations, that didn’t seem fair.
So I bundled up, got her into her hoodie (more for visibility than warmth!), and braved the walk.
Do I feel better for getting outside?
Well, I don’t feel any worse!
Do I feel better for getting Khalee outside?
Oh, definitely!
So at least there’s that.
Here are a few photos from our walk, feel free to gloat about your spring weather in the comments while I am being all self-congratulatory about getting out for a walk today.
PS – We are supposed to have a ridiculous amount of rain overnight. So by the time you read this, all of these streets will be likely filled with slushy water that’s trying to seek out a drain. Sigh.
A photo of my dog Khalee standing on clear pavement, she is facing a snowbank on the opposite side of the road. That snowbank is high enough to obscure a stop sign – there’s only a sliver of the top of the sign visible. Isn’t it weird that there is that much snow on the sides but the road is down to the pavement? Snow makes no sense!My dog, Khalee, in a green hoodie, standing on a snow-covered sidewalk next to a huge snowbank that has been sheared pretty smooth by a plow/snowblower. Not every snowbank is this high, this one is near a corner. Still sucks though.My dog, Khalee, in her green hoodie on her way back home. She’s standing on a snow-covered sidewalk next to a smaller snowbank that is only about 3ft high. The road, which is cleared to the pavement, can be seen on the right side of the photo.
I left my hatphones at home yesterday because I wanted to have a quiet walk instead of my usual podcast/book listening time.
And besides it just felt like a good day for noticing stuff so I decided to lean into that.
I’m not making this into a lesson in mindfulness or anything but as I was walking, I found it fun to make a list of seven things I noticed as I went along.
And maybe it’s related, maybe it’s a coincidence, but yesterday’s walk did feel more like ‘taking a breather’ than other recent walks have felt.
1) What are my feet doing?
Even though I have been consciously working on it, I realized that I was walking more on the inside edge of my foot today.
So, having noticed, I gave a little thought to walking on the ‘four corners’ of my feet like the YouTube yoga instructors say.
My legs enjoyed the change.
2) How am I breathing?
The ‘four corners’ prompt made me think about my breathing – I’m slowly working on breathing into the sides of my ribs as well as the front and back.
I think someone I follow on Instagram refers to that as ‘breathing on four sides’ but there’s a decent chance I extrapolated that description from something else they said. My brain likes making those kind of leaps.
So, having noticed my breathing, I kept checking in with myself throughout my walk. I wasn’t doing it continuously but it felt good to return to it over and over.
3) Do we have time to stop for a pat or two?
Usually, Khalee and I take the business of walking VERY seriously.
Khalee is deciding what to sniff next. Image description: Khalee, a medium-sized dog with light brown fur on top and white fur on her paws, belly, ruff and snout, is standing next to some gritty looking snow on a sidewalk. Her body is pointed away from the camera but she is facing a little to the right.
That doesn’t mean we take ourselves too seriously overall but it does mean that walks are about her getting to sniff everything. Walks are not about exercise, they are not about stopping to chat, they are about Khalee’s sniff opportunities and we only stop for her to, ahem, answer calls of nature.
Yesterday though, because I was really in a noticing frame of mind, and because it was warm enough that I didn’t need to wear gloves, I got Khalee to stop so I could pat her head and scratch behind her ears.
Shockingly, she is as soft and furry and great mid-walk as she is when she is curled up next to me at home. And she was very tolerant of my compliments even though she had to pause her sniff-mission in order to receive them.
4) No gloves and borrowed clothes
I love being able to go for a walk without having to put on gloves or snowpants. I did still wear a hat though…my husband’s hat, in fact. And this is his spare jacket, too. It was a borrow-stuff-from-Steve kind of day, apparently.
Guess who left her glasses on the counter? Yep, it was me! I brought my smirk though. Image description: a selfie I took on the sidewalk not too far from my house. It’s a grey day and there is snow behind me next to the sidewalk. I am wearing a blue winter hat that says ‘Fastsigns. More than fast. More than signs.’ on the folded edge, and I am wearing a dark orange jacket with a hood. I’m a middle-aged white woman with a round face, I’m smirking in the photo but it’s a friendly sort of smirk.
5) Decorations are cheery, even out of season
Lots of people still have Xmas decorations up in their trees, on their lawns, and on their railings and I’m happy about it even though they are technically out of season. I’m sure there are lots of reasons they have been left up but today I decided they were left up for me to enjoy and I felt grateful about it.
I also felt grateful for the few houses that have hearts decorating their windows and I decided that I’ll going to put some heart decorations up in my window too. Even though I live on a cul-de-sac and few people go walking past my house, maybe they will cheer someone up.
6) A lot of people in my neighbourhood have wood stoves or outdoor fire pits
My walk was regularly punctuated by the welcoming smell of wood fires.
Every time I smelled a new one, I sent the people a little wish for good company, good comfort, and good snacks around that fire.
Maybe that’s a weird thing to do but that’s exactly the kind of thing that I do all the time. Probably best to get used to it.
7) I delight in unexpected greenery
Apparently one of the houses on my route – a house I have passed almost daily since last June – has ivy on the side of it.
Okay, it may not be ivy, I’m not up on these things, but the the fact remains that there is a house on my walk that has greenery covering a side wall and I have never noticed before.
I could only snap a quick photo because of the aforementioned sniffing business (the sniffing needs to get done and I do NOT want that task to fall to me!) but look at that wall of greenery! Isn’t that marvellous?
You’ll probably have to zoom in to see clearly, this is a quick iPhone shot. Image description: a photo taken across the street shows a wall of a brick house that is covered in greenery (ivy maybe?) The house is only partially visible behind a snowbank and the photo was taken at an angle that minimizes the possibility for recognizing the location.
I don’t know why I haven’t noticed (or maybe I noticed and forgot?) There’s a dog near this spot that is sometimes off-leash and Khalee gets a little ansty about that. And there’s often someone out front in another house nearby and I often say hi to them. And I guess this spot is shaded by trees in the summer. Could be lots of reasons I haven’t noticed before but I was happy to notice today.
(Also, why is still so green? Is this a vine-based evergreen? Clearly, there is more to discover here!)
ANYWAY!
The long and the short of it was that Sunday’s walk was especially good and I enjoyed myself immensely.
Khalee says that the slightly warmer weather meant that she had some especially good sniffs.
We thought you’d want to know. 😉
For some reason that part of the snow required extra sniffing. Let’s not speculate as to why. Image description: a side view of Khalee’s shoulders, head, and front paws. She’s a medium-sized dog with light-brown and white fur and she is leaning her head forward so she can sniff the snow-covered ground intently.
2:00 AM: The mattress depresses and rises at my feet.
2:01 AM: I hear scratches against my MDF door.
2:02 AM: I reluctantly flop the flannel bedding away from my groggy body.
2:03 AM: I stare tiredly out of the backdoor window at the snow-filled yard, thankful to be inside. Between the window mullions, I watch Maple, our 4-month-old puppy, frolic in the snow before she finds a proper place to squat.
2:05 AM: Maple barges into the house, snowflakes floating on her fur. She sits and accepts the towel that I cup her paws into.
2:07 AM: I worm my way into the sliver of space left in the bed, Maple’s petit frame sprawled across a larger piece of the bed.
5:35 AM: Repeat.
On November 11, 2023, our family drove to a farm west of Edmonton, Alberta and signed the papers that rendered a little Australian Shepherd puppy ours. Thus ended my short-lived freedom from night wakings.
You may ask why I, finally over the baby and toddler phases of child-rearing, decided to thrust myself back into being a self-sacrificing caretaker. With the amount I vent my puppy frustrations to my family, I’m not surprised to hear the occasional, “Why did you get a puppy again?”
I had puppy fever. That’s the short answer.
The long answer rationale went as follows. It had been four years since I delivered my second-born, so with the prospect of future human babies behind us, my heart was ready for another furry dependent. Our older furry dependent, Lady, is well into her senior years. As an Australian Shepherd, she has happily spent years being my husband’s energetic hiking companion. As she continues to age, we want to ensure that her body stays healthy and whole. Therefore, the long and intense hiking trips cannot be a part of her future. It was time to start looking into the next generation of hiking companions.
Ten-year-old Lady and four-month-old Maple sit in front of the laundry machines.
Two black, white, and tan dogs sit in front of white laundry machines. The larger of the two bears an open-mouth smile. The smaller has her head tilted slightly.
With these things in mind, my husband and I began timelining when adding a puppy to the mix would make the most sense. We had settled for the spring of 2024.
But then my desired mama dog got pregnant. With puppies due in September, I insisted that we get our puppy in November instead. And so, Maple came home in November.
Introducing a puppy to our family has stretched our patience and joy. One moment I find myself grumbling whispers of frustration to myself while I disinfect the mess on the floor, and the next I’m taking out my phone to snap a picture of my four-year-old snuggling with the mess-maker on the couch.
Our four-year-old with Maple in a frequent position of theirs.
A four-year-old boy and a small black, white, and tan puppy lie on their backs on a couch. The boy’s fingers are nestled lightly in the puppy’s mouth. The puppy has her paws wrapped around the boy’s arm.
I am no stranger to the disadvantages of having a puppy around. The messes. The disrupted schedules. The yard cleanups.
However, there are many advantages too. Personally, being forced to depart from my habitual laziness has been a very advantageous side effect of having a puppy.
Throughout this past year, I’ve paid greater attention to where I’m being lazy and where I can easily exert more energy. I have acknowledged where and how I exercise in my natural day-to-day living. I can guarantee that getting this puppy has upped my daily fitness count.
I’m getting more steps in by going up and down the stairs multiple times a night. I’m activating my glutes by squatting to clean up messes on the floor. I’m engaging my core when I bend to scoop the dog food into empty dishes—and I do this twice each time since I keep our Lady’s food in a separate container. Walking has a few more backward movements as I try to train Maple to pay attention to me and resist pulling while on leash. Simply trying to restrain the pulling is a workout! I often follow fetch with a good stretch exercise because my throwing motion is sub-par, and my shoulders are quick to let me know they need relief.
I’m not suggesting that adopting a puppy is an assured way of meeting your fitness goals, but it seems to be working out well for me.
When I feel stuck in a cycle of frustration with Maple, I try to remind myself of all the benefits that having a puppy around brings. I ask myself, “How has my life changed for the better?”
Here’s how: My kids get to grow up with a dog. My husband gets to continue his love of hiking with a loyal companion. Lady gets to taste the flavour of youth again. And I get my steps in…plus a writing buddy to keep my company at my desk.
Maple is a great writing companion.
A black, white, and tan puppy lies under a wooden desk. She is looking up at the camera positioned above.
Stephanie Morris is a transcriptionist and writer based in Alberta, Canada. She is a wife, a mom of two, and a newcomer to the career-writing world. As a fancier of history and literature, she aspires to blend the two in fiction and nonfiction pieces. To follow Stephanie’s writing adventures, find her at @words.and.smores on Instagram.
I’ve been sick for awhile now. I worked from home October 16th, and went to the doctor’s for the first time October 20th. I wrote about emerging from the lurgy on the 23rd but clearly that was premature.
Since then I’ve been back to the doctor’s office twice. I’ve had two sets of chest x-rays.
It’s a bronchial thing, post-viral, and best as they can tell, not pneumonia, but I have antibiotics and inhalers. I’ve been working from home at about 60% of my usual pace to allow for naps.
The last time I was sick with the persistent cough thing was 2017. I even blogged about it. Before that it was 2012 in New Zealand where Mallory and I shared a nasty cough for a month.
I’m good at being sick-sick like I actually rest, and I don’t try to work, but it’s more challenging when you’re getting better but not there yet. I’ve been thinking about this in the context of physical activity. With two newish knees, I don’t have the option of just working and resting; I also need to keep moving. I can’t really miss physio.
I’ve been trying to move, but slowly and gently. I’ve got the support of a terrific physiotherapist and personal trainer, who understand that I need to keep moving but preferably in a way that doesn’t bring on coughing fits.
Here’s what my workouts for last week (as recorded in the 223 workouts in 2023 group look like:
➡Physio at clinic
➡Dog walk
➡Home from work still recovering from this post viral, bronchial infection, but forgot to cancel personal training. Went and we did a gentle hour of mobility work and lighter weights and lots of stretching. I will nap this afternoon but it did feel good to move.
➡At home physio
➡Dog walk
➡Zwift, gentle 20 km
I’m sleeping more than usual. And walking less. Here’s my Garmin report on the last seven days.
You might wonder what the stress level number means. Here’s the breakdown: 0–25: Resting state ; 26–50: Low stress ; 51–75: Medium stress ; 76–100: High stress.
So, an average of 26 is a pretty low stress. Thanks to the College’s two associate deans for helping with the stressful stuff.
Today I finally started to feel more like myself. I’m coughing less and the sun was shining.
