Long Walks On Leafy Streets

3/4/2014 Glover Road, Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
The battle with the snow goes on here in DC. Yesterday we got another 6 inches of snow. Another day of school closure and another day of shoveling. Even the most ardent snow lovers are getting tired of it and cannot wait for spring to really start. Not only is it taking away work days it is also making me worried even more about climate change. I have been in DC for 20 years now, almost. It has never been so cold for so long with so much snow. I cannot say that I minded the extra day off or time to do research or another day of winter wonderland scenery but I am also aware of the costs of this harsh winter, in lost school days and the added carbon emissions due to the additional burning of fuel for heating and all the extra money spent on maintaining roads and other infrastructure.
So I am also ready for spring, whenever it arrives. During the past several years we have hardly had much winter.
By this time the trees would start sprouting leaves, flowers blooming and grass growing. It looks like the warmer weather would arrive later this week and I can spend the spring break holidays next week spreading the compost, taking out weeds and otherwise preparing the yards for planting.
In the bare trees I often see empty nests. I wonder where all those birds spend the winter. I also wonder how the animals survive this. Lately the rat population has been on the increase in Washington, DC due to the mild winters. Apparently that helps in the survival of the young ones. Perhaps this long and harsh winter would reduce that population? If you look in the pictures that I posted from our walk in the snow covered Rock Creek Park you will see a picture of a very emaciated white tailed deer. Apparently the deer population has been increasing because of the lack of natural predators, so lately they have been doing controlled cullings with the help of trained hunters. I wonder if this year the population would be smaller.
On Saturday I hiked again in Rock Creek Park. This time four others joined me from the nature lovers’ meetup group that I organize. Nicole couldn’t go because she had to go to a baby shower. It turned out to be a wonderful day for hiking. The people who showed up were all young and very friendly. We had great conversations and a good time. One of them turned out to be from Kerala, although I couldn’t tell at first. She was raised in Texas. Parts of the trail were icy and slushy but mostly it was pleasant. Towards the end I even deviated from the planned route and took them on a difficult rocky trail. This particular stretch between Pierce Mill and Porter Street always gets my heart beating faster. It is small and not too dangerous but enough to make it exciting. I discovered it when I used to run in this section of Rock Creek Park from my house in Columbia Heights. The hike began and ended in Cleveland Park. Everyone enjoyed the walk through Cleveland Park also. It is one of my favorite neighborhoods in DC. Peaceful enough to enjoy a nice outing but also lively enough to make it interesting. There are a lot of good restaurants of various kinds, shops and even a movie theater.
Last week also I walked to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As always I enjoy these walks very much although sometimes when you walk in rain or snow and you need to carry an umbrella and you are running late you don’t get to enjoy it as much.
But even in the middle of all that one cannot but marvel at the beauty of the snowflakes drifting about in the air. Unlike raindrops they move in all directions and are fun to watch. I also wondered at the amazing nature of life itself. How did all this develop from just some chemicals mixing about in the oceans? I wonder if the scientists know how a few chemicals joined together to form simple organic molecules and then evolved into more complex chains of molecules like the DNA. What directed it, if anything?

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