Last night after dinner Annalie wanted to go for a walk. “Just a short walk around the neighborhood,” she assured me as she unwrapped her popsicle. “It’s a lovely evening! Don’t you want to enjoy the nice weather? Pleeeease?”

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

My mom said she didn’t think it was a good time for a for a walk, that she didn’t really feel like it just then. My initial reaction was similar. It was almost sunset, there was only a half-hour till bedtime, I was in the middle of doing something on my laptop. It wasn’t really the best time for a walk.

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

Then I thought of the post Brenda wrote the other day, about the epic walk that she and her daughter went on, about how they just sort of wandered and took their time exploring and turned their walk into an all-day adventure.

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

When I read that post I thought to myself that Annalie and I should take advantage of the great neighborhood we live in and go on more walks like that. Last night I started to say no, then shook my head and said, “Sure, I’ll go on a walk with you. Let me grab my camera.”

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

The look of happy surprise on Annalie’s face was fun to see. She danced and skipped around my mom, exclaiming “Gramaw, we’re going on a walk! Mom said yes!” I love it when my kid is expecting “no” and I can surprise her with “yes.” It’s one of the best parts of being a parent as far as I’m concerned.

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

Shoes on, phone in pocket, camera around my neck and popsicle in Annalie’s hand, we headed out the front gate. It’s kind of an event for us to use the gate to leave our house. The gate is almost always locked on the inside, since our driveway is in an alley behind our house and we normally enter the house either through the garage. Pretty much the only time we use the gate is when we’re taking a walk.

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

Once we were on the sidewalk, I asked Annalie which direction we should travel. She looked up and down the street, then pointed left. We set off.

photo taken by Annalie, age 5

Annalie had the first turn with the camera, after she finished her popsicle. She took pictures of some golden irises, one pink flower in a sea of green leaves, an interesting gate with a cactus, a tree, a laundromat sign, our elongated shadows in a deserted parking lot, and me.

I know my kid has been taking photos since she was two years old. I know, from all the fun drawings she’s been producing lately and some of the pottery she’s painted, that she’s developing a bit of an artistic flair. I know that my fancy-schmancy DSLR camera will make even mundane photos look special. Still, when I got home and uploaded the photos she had taken on our walk I was surprised at how good some of them were. Gone are the days when she took 20 blurry photos of the carpet. Last night she chose her subjects carefully and took her time framing each shot, zooming in and out till she had the picture she wanted. And did I mention that when she was done taking a photo, she turned the camera off every single time? I don’t even remember to do that every single time.

Annalie handed the camera over to me about halfway through our walk, saying her neck was tired. I was happy to take a few photos of my own. I’ve always liked this apartment sign.

We walked past a fence covered in bougainvillea just as the setting sun was hitting it, making the bright pink bracts glow. (Today’s botany lesson: a bract is a kind of specialized leaf that usually surrounds a flower, often brightly-colored to attracts insects who will pollinate the plants. The poinsettia and bougainvillea are both examples of plants that have small flowers surrounded by brightly-colored bracts.)

For some reason, Annalie walked along this strip of sandy soil, drawing a big X every foot or so with a stick she’d found. I asked her why she was doing it but I don’t think she explained. She just waved me off and kept drawing Xs.

As Annalie finished up marking the spots with Xs, we heard what sounded like a fountain being turned on. It was actually a broken sprinkler head in someone’s yard, shooting water six or seven feet into the air. Annalie thought that was pretty funny. I hope they’re aware of the broken sprinkler head, or they’re going to get a nasty surprise in their next water bill.

Annalie started stomping and jumping in the water that was running down the curb. I told her to stop, and she said, “Awww, why?” I started to say something about getting her sandals all wet, and then paused, remembering how when I was a kid we used to love it when someone who lived up the hill from us washed a car so we could stomp in the water and send paper boats floating down the river. So I told her never mind, splash away.

Sometimes, not getting your shoes wet isn’t a good enough reason to stay out of the river. Sometimes you worry that your child might be careless with your expensive camera but let her use it anyway. Sometimes a looming bedtime and distracted mom aren’t good enough reasons to not take a walk in the golden evening.