Instead of going straight to my hike, it's a special morning, and we're both awake and eager for croissants and coffee and so we drive a short distance into town, to our favorite patisserie and sit with a view of the water in the sun, talking. Okay, so I'm the one talking. A happy start to Valentine's Day, being allowed to talk my heart out of a frenzy with a patient listener who lets me have all my little miseries for breakfast and assures me, also, I can choose to let them go and change.

It's late afternoon by the time I go out for a solitary ramble - today, I will try the neighborhood and so I pass the nature trail entrance and stay to the narrow road. Clouds cover the sky, rain splashes my bare arms, the wind picks up, I turn around, head toward home, and turn around again: it's a little water, it's fresh, cooling and will blow over quickly. My body wants its walk in any weather. The light is delicate before the rain, the pale green grass is a soft curtain over the view to sea and hills.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar unless otherwise attributed