I was back at the park this week, but this time the landscape felt completely different. It was early evening, and the park was filled with people just off of work and out of school. Laughter was coming from the playground, and the footpath was filled with joggers. Despite the increased human population, I was sharing my bench with a companion of the avian variety.

I was listening carefully to the bird calls coming from the shrubs behind me, trying to figure out what species was singing, when a friendly little Eurasian Magpie decided to identify himself. He hopped up onto the bench and was very patient while I photographed him. He was less patient when I tried to sketch him, but I suppose that is understandable. I sat on my bench, and he kept me company by hopping around the ground by my feet and flapping from one bench to another. We had a lovely time hanging out together.

But as I mentioned, we were not the only people in the park. This week, my focus was particularly drawn to the climate as we actually had some warm(ish) weather! We had no rain, multiple days of sun, and the temperature even hit 48°! I was just getting used to the constant cloud cover and perpetual wet (and even wrote a blog post about learning to love it last week) when we got this slight reprieve. I hold no illusions that it will last, but it provided an interesting glimpse into how the city transforms to mirror changes in the climate. More people were out and about enjoying the fair weather, and I saw at least a dozen people stop walking in a patch of sun and turn their face to the light for a minute. This was a timely reminder that we are all immutably and invariably tied to our landscape. We can try to avoid bad weather, or pretend we are immune to it, but at the end of the day, we are all connected and reliant on the environment around us.