Week 7 - Day 43. Wandering in the Berkeley Hills

Humans adapt to their surroundings and I’m no exception.  I have adapted to staying home.  In fact, there are several things that I’ve come to really enjoy about our new life.  First, I really like the lack of pressure the slow pace of life gives me.  Days are so peaceful and relaxed.  Second, I love the walks that Bob and I take each day.  They remind me of the hikes he and I took before we were married so many years ago.  How I used to love those hikes!  Now I love our wanderings in the Berkeley Hills.  In fact I’ve come to realize where we live is wonderful for walking.  It’s taken 40 years and a pandemic, but now we are loving our walks in the Berkeley Hills.  Today’s walk was one of our best.  We take turns setting the route and today was my turn.  I wanted to go by “the tippy house,” a house on nearby Fairlawn Street that has an addition that looks like it is set at 45 degrees from level.  (See the photo below).  We found it right away and delighted in the optical illusion the house has.  Then we walked straight down the paths until we reached La Loma St.  It was fun, we’d see a path and take it, not knowing where it went exactly.  As we started our hike, I spotted the beautiful display of blooming roses on our fence in the public path and said “this is the week for roses.”  Last week on our walks, the Rhododendrons were at their peak.  This week, I looked for roses.  I didn’t see very many,  probably because the paths and streets in the hills are so shady.  But as we dropped lower and lower in elevation, I decided I wanted to go to the Berkeley Rose Garden.  So we headed west to Euclid, then north a couple of blocks to the Rose Garden.  Amazingly, it was open and clearly at its peak.  Each rose blossom looked more beautiful than the one I’d just seen and photographed.  Yellow, gold, purple, red, pink, white, oh my goodness, their glory was astounding.  After becoming sated with their beauty and color, we headed out and up.  We had 750 feet of elevation to gain to get home and most of it was accomplished by walking up the steep paths that go straight up the hills.  We walked up from Euclid to Grizzly Peak just using the public paths.  It was hard work, but so much fun!  (The red line on the map shows today’s route.  The purple are our past walks.)