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Happy Sunday of the “Bloggers’ Healthy Heart Weekend”. BIG thanks to Lori of Finding Radiance for rallying us all to get active and participate this weekend.

I had to get a little creative because I was away at my parent’s place. I was VERY happy to see some sunshine this morning, so I put on my runners and went for a hilly walk. Along my walk, I saw a couple of very cute bunnies (there are two in the picture below, can you see the second one?)…

…a tree with bark that looked like an owl (well, I saw an owl anyway)….

An interesting wood carving propped against a tree (owned by an initially cranky man who saw me taking the picture and LOUDLY asked me why I wanted to take it. He then said he didn’t mind that I “shot” it though, in fact, he was quite flattered and softened very quickly….but he gruffed the following words to me as I took the shot “if you see any g$@d*!m deer, shoot ‘em with a gun not a camera”. Charming..)

The walk took me down to a beach not TOO far from my parent’s home.

Here’s where the cardio portion of the walk came in. I went up and down these flights of stairs from the path to the beach 6 times. As I said to Lori in my note to her, at trip #4 I felt winded, at trip #5 my legs felt like lead, and at trip #6 I realized I REALLY need to get some cardio workouts in more often.

Not a horrible view to look at on the “downward portions” though.

I had feathery cheerleaders at the bottom of the stairs.

Thanks for rounding us all up Lori!!! And for inspiring me to get a workout even though I was away from home.

When I got back, I had breakfast, a sandwich thin, peanut butter, a banana and coffee.

Today’s mascot is my Mom’s William Shakespeare He’s fantastic! My parents were married in the church in Stratford Upon Avon in England, where Shakespeare is buried, and my Mom worked at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre there when she was young, so he holds special meaning to her.

My Mom and I then went out to grab some groceries and produce so I don’t have to shop for a few days now that I’m home. One of the stops was at my favorite produce store EVER, the Root Cellar. I didn’t take many fruit and veggie shots today (though they are displayed beautifully) but took a few pictures in the newly expanded garden section. I realized when I saw these how much I’m looking forward to color in our gardens soon.

We also drove by a field and saw a bunch of swans. Swans??? LOTS of swans? In a farm field where I’ve never seen swans before?? HUH? We stopped to take a photo, found geese as well, and found this odd little castle and “inhabitants”. Creepy…

We came home for lunch before Dennis and I had to head home. I had one piece of bread, cold cuts, veggies, coleslaw and hard-boiled egg.

And we finished off with the healthy chocolate cake I made on Friday for the birthday. (the recipe is on the recipe page of the blog). It wasn’t just any cake, it was a cake with flaming polar bears too!

Here are a couple of shots from the ferry on our trip back to Vancouver. (the sun that was there this morning was gone by this afternoon)

Our friend Anna, who looked after Neva last night stayed with us for dinner when we got home. I just made a picky dinner with chicken, deviled eggs, nugget potatoes with tzatsiki, corn and a beet and orange salad with goat cheese.