I was out early this morning, early enough that my breath still made clouds in the air, out with the earliest of moseying dog walkers. Lately I’ve been too busy to venture much farther than the loop walk in our neighborhood. But today I turned down West Ox.

It’s a road that was widened a few years ago — with a bonus for walkers, a paved path alongside it. You can walk this path for miles if you want — all the way to the shopping mall. Not that I’d want to.

Today I took it past several neighborhoods and a garden shop, a church and an old barn. As I strode, the sky pinked and the clouds fluffed and beams of light made it difficult to look up. (I had forgotten my sunglasses.) My eyes teared from the fresh air and the wind and the morning sun.

It didn’t look at all like this picture, but it was a good way to start the day.