I won’t lie. It’s easier to go for a walk every day when the temperatures are warm and the sun is shining. It’s hard to get outside when it’s cold and wet — the kind of day when you tuck your fingers up inside your coat sleeves and your chin down under your collar. On those days the world seems to be shades of dreary brown and spring seems a distant dream.

But if you force yourself out there you might just find a few fun, maybe even colorful, things to keep your mind occupied long enough for your fingers to warm up.

Come along with me on a walk somewhere in the chilly Midwest. At first everything seems sort of grey. Or brown. Damp. But keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you might find.

For example, park employees have been building a raised walkway. Don’t you wonder where it goes? Are you in a hurry? Because if not we could go check it out.

This is a brand new walk, put here just in the past day or so. Turns out someone else has already been walking on it. Isn’t that cute? Little raccoon feet! (Click on this photo to see the footprints more clearly!)

It doesn’t look like the walkway is quite finished. But it’s kind of pretty back here.

Back on the damp pathway you have to notice the cool reflections in the puddles.

And since it’s not raining anymore you can throw back your hood, untuck your chin and notice the color that is everywhere back in the woods.

And the textures on the trees.

This sign always makes me smile. Keep right.

But the path clearly heads to the left.

Even in dreary, misty weather this pond is pretty, tucked back into the trees. Wonder what lives there?

And look at this! At about eye level is the latest remodeling of the local pilated woodpecker.

I guess this wasn’t such a dreary walk after all!

So tell us, what will you see when you head out the door today?