This morning as I walked the dog out for the morning paper the intense color of the delphinium near the mailbox hurt my sleep deprived eyes. I had stayed up past 2 a.m. playing retrieve the squeaky toy with the dog while talking to my husband, so I was operating on minimal sleep. I faced a day full of mulch moving, having received yesterday 4 yards of composted mulch that smells, after the evening rain, reminiscently of my uncle’s pig farm. But first I needed to get my 5 mile training run in. And I had to do it quickly before the sun got any higher and the temperature got any warmer. I headed out the door immediately after eating my Cheerios.

Nature report mile 1: The tracks of deer crossing the muddy road, a deer fly circling my head, and the calls of the blackbirds in the swamp; “Hey! Whose on guard duty?! She’s already out here running! Get her away….away…away…!”

Nature report mile 2: A bright red male cardinal flying out of the brush on the side of the road next to me and perching in a tree to sing me along, and during a patch of road in the sun, the shadow of a deer fly buzzing the shadow of my head.

Nature report mile 3: Two blue herons flying low across a horse pasture parallel to the road where I was struggling up a big hill, a couple of horses further on, maybe mom horse and her child looking up calmly as I gasped my way past their yard, with a deer fly buzzing my head.

Nature report mile 4: This is my worst mile, uphill, through town, on a busy road. I watched a white egret fly above me as I passed the pungent Davisburg candle factory, and swatted a deer fly that bit my leg.

Nature report mile 5: A very loud chattering little red squirrel up high in a locust tree scolding me for disturbing him, a couple of rabbits zig zagging across the road in front of me, a neighbor woman walking her child in a stroller, talking on her cell phone and trying to control a very big young dog, and a deer fly who bit my arm.

During the last quarter mile walk home after I finished the requisite five miles another male cardinal sat on an overhead wire and cheered for me, and up ahead a blue jay jeered; “It’s downhill, you could be running!” Three black ravens flew up from an ant hill beside the road and cawed; “She’s not dead yet!”

But I might be after I move four yards of stinky pig farm mulch!