I Got a Medal!

 Okay, so it's not exactly an Olympics medal, but hey, I got this in the mail last week:

This is what the virtual walking challenge company sends folks when they finish, and it's pretty nifty.

I should be getting two more -- one for London and one for Paris, but shipping has been a bit on the slow side.  These have been fun to do, and last week I set a new one-day record of 6 miles (not done all at one stretch, though).  The walks motivate me to get outside early every morning to get my miles in before the heat rises above 75.

Here is a pic from the Chamna Natural Preserve, where I walked three miles before it got too hot:

There were burned trees from the fire earlier this year:

And here's a walk I did along the Columbia Riverfront Trail -- this was part of that 6-mile day:

This is one of my favorite places to take a stroll.

Truman likes to cool off now and then along the way.

There are plenty of benches for rest stops.

We encountered a rambunctious, bold squirrel who skittered over to the path and stood right in front of us, no doubt looking for a handout, until it noticed Truman in his stroller and freaked out:

I've been averaging a little over 3 miles per day, and when I make an effort to keep up a steady pace, I've been averaging a little over 3 mph.  I finished the Paris virtual walk challenge of 37.2 miles in 11 days.

After nonstop challenges for three weeks straight, I took a whole day off -- and then the next day signed up for another one -- England Coast to Coast for 91 miles along Hadrian's Wall.  Whee!

I got some good mileage in for that over this past weekend.  There was an art fair and a vintage/antique fair at local parks, and I hit up both of them on different days, and got extra steps in by parking a mile away from the venues.

At the art fair I picked up a few more decorative doodads for the yard and fence, including windchimes from this vendor:

At this vendor, I bought a dachshund garden stake.

I passed on the large Bigfoot, though.

Here is another item I found -- intended for hanging jewelry off of, but I found a better use for it:

Here's the garden stake:

I didn't take pics at the antique fair, though I did pick up another windchime there for the patio.

So that was my week -- walking, walking, and more walking.  

Well, and a little art, too, as usual.  The sketch group is still going strong, meeting twice a week via Zoom.  On Wednesday, we chose a photo of figs which was mostly out-of-focus, and I decided the easiest way to handle that was to draw and paint it using the Adobe Fresco program.  Turned out quite nicely:

On Friday we chose a photo of the Great Wall of China, which I painted in watercolor.  I ran out of time before finishing the foreground, but decided to just l leave it that way, at least for now.

In dog news, Pippin is feeling much better after two weeks of rest and meds.  

Finally, what I'm sure you've all been waiting for -- the progress on my Good Omens Series 2 promo photo needlepoint project.   For anyone who missed the earlier post about this, here is the photo that I used an online program to turn into a needlepoint chart:

And here is two weeks worth of work, around four hours a day on average:

I've made it to the top of the umbrella!  Whee!  Approximately 5,400 stitches completed, and around 29,000 stitches left to go.  Yay.

That's it for now.  See you next time!