Walking blog.

February is the longest month in the Northern Hemisphere, no matter what the calendar says. We're at the cabin fever stage of things, even though we leave our houses, go to work and go to stores. It isn't quite as bad as being in your Yukon cabin, out of food and hallucinating that your mining partner is a tasty chicken, but still the late February atmosphere itself is oppressive, and by now we say, enough. Nature says nothing in return.

That said, it was above freezing during the daytime today -- the first such day in weeks and weeks. I took the opportunity to walk the mile to my train station in the morning and back in the evening, also for the first time in weeks. It was good to get out, but considering what happened last March, me vs. the ice, I was hyperconscious of the ground ice. It was there. Waiting. Quietly. Yesterday there had been some meltage, and it had re-frozen in spots overnight. But I navigated the paths without trouble.

The other walking news in our household is that Ann -- Annie, we usually call her -- is walking, at just short of 13 months old. It happened over the long weekend. She can cross the distance from one support prop to another; a table to a chair, or vice versa. Second and third children usually pass such events with less fanfare than their oldest brother or sister, so I thought I would at least mention it. I can only hope that these are the first of countless thousands of steps for her.