Tag Archives: weather
Running toward the past
Once upon a time, more than two decades ago, I joined a online group of women who wanted to run. I met some of them out at Kensington, my favorite park, and that first day we walked and ran around the lake, eight miles. We walked the uphills and ran the downhills and had a great time talking.
Today I ran behind this guy for quite awhile, but at 3 miles I turned back and he kept going.
Over the years we’ve run plenty of training runs either together in person or together in cyberspace. Plenty of races too, including several half and full marathons. We’ve even been on a few road trips to do races, those are the most fun!
And after each race or long run I’d post my ‘nature report,’ things I’d seen along the way. Even in marathons I could usually remember one thing from each mile to comment on in my race report delivered to our common website after I was home.
The cowslips and most of the trillium are gone, but I found a few still blooming.
Then, ten years ago I ended up with a stress fracture in my right foot, training for a local half marathon, and the running, for me, stopped. I stayed in touch with the group though, cheering on those who were still running, celebrating life events like children’s weddings and the birth of grandchildren too.
The group is much smaller now, but they still support my attempts to get back to running. On my 60th birthday I met some of them for a race in a small town several miles away. Some of them did a half marathon, I did the 5K and then waited to cheer them in after their race. (If you want a giggle, read the post at the link above.)
I don’t know what this is, it was about knee high, all these blossoms are connected to one stem.
Still, even after that I didn’t get back into the running groove. And time moved on.
I miss my friends, I miss the comradery of preparing for a race together, even if it is online. I miss writing my nature reports.
There’s quite a bit of this, reminds me of perennial geranium in my garden.
So a couple of months ago I registered for a local race. It’s a 10 mile race in Flint Michigan at the end of August, and I used to run it all the time – I think the first time I ran it was 1990. In the past decade I’ve run the 5 mile event, and I’ve walked the 10 mile, but I haven’t really trained to run the long, hot and humid race.
And now that I’m registered, well, I have to get cracking. So for several weeks I’ve been trying to get out the door every other day at least for a long walk. And in this past month or so I’ve been adding running bits.
This little whippersnapper passed me a couple of times. Then she’d walk and I’d pass her.
At first just a quarter within each mile. Sometimes not even that. Some days are just walk days. But this week I had a four mile run/walk where I ran the middle two quarters of each mile back to back. A half a mile each mile run.
OK, so run might not be exactly the right word. It’s not that I’m fast. But still.
Then she got further ahead and when I went around the next corner she was long gone.
Some weeks are better than others, and I’m worried that I’m nowhere near ready to do 10 miles, but I’m trying not to get injured, so I’m going slow.
I’ll be traveling a lot this summer which always makes it more difficult for me to train. But I hope that we’ll be doing lots of walking and somehow I’ll stay in shape.
Hot and sweaty but still smiling.
Once I get in shape of course.
Set the phone camera on ‘selfie’ and held it under the may-apple leaves, shooting up.
PS
Katy here again. (If you didn’t read it, I did the previous post too. Just saying.)
I bugged and bugged mama this morning, whining to go outside. At 6 a.m. In the rain.
And because of me she got to see this. It lasted less than a minute.
You can thank me later. She already did. As is appropriate.
Your gal, the damp but still beautiful Katie-girl.
Yard spectacular
Katie here. Mama says I can show you a little bit from my back yard. She and I went ‘sploring out there this afternoon.
A bit of sunbathing in my yard.
At first I was reluctant to go out with her cause I thought she was going to put me in my kennel. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time in my kennel, but only when I want to be out there, not just cause she’s tired of my whining politely requesting treats.
Looks like this little bug was out exploring too!
Mama and I love spring, so many subtle colors! And then there are the brilliant colors of spring. I like those too!
I’ve got hearts on my shoulder mama, and forget-me-nots at my feet!
I think my folks have done a pretty good job of keeping my yard looking nice. I should probably appreciate them more.
Isn’t this pretty? It’s a quince blossom.
This week mama and I weeded one of the gardens. I was the motivator and she was the labor. Every time she stood up to stretch I barked at her to get back to work. She said I’m something of a taskmaster!
I love this color, don’t you?
I told her that as a princess I expected the best out of my people. She sort of nodded wearily.
More pretty color!
We have lots more gardens to weed, I hope she maintains my high expectations.
This evening mama took me to a neighbor’s land again. We got to run through the woods and I had a wonderful time, but it sort of wore me out, so I’ll have to share that adventure another time.
Sometimes a run in your own backyard is the perfect way to enjoy an afternoon.
I hope you all are enjoying spring wherever you are!
Talk later, your gal Katie.
The weekly smile
It’s harder, some weeks, to find a reason to smile, and this week has been one of those. What with the deaths of Tim Conway and Doris Day, the fall and hip fracture of former President Jimmy Carter, some health issues within my family and a semi crash not far from me that has critically injured two people just today, it seems there’s not a lot to smile about.
But if I take a moment (and a deep breath) I know the truth, that there’s always something to smile about. You just have to pay attention.
For instance – today the sun came out.
Really mama? Can’t we just get on with our walk?
To those of you living in Florida or Arizona or California that might not seem like a big deal. Now that I think about it, maybe all of you in those far away states are sun hoarders, unwilling to share a little light with us in the northern, damp and bleak states. Well, today the sun came out and we reached 70 degrees.
And Katie and I reveled in it.
The neighbors have a beautiful pond.
We took a walk, my girl and I, on a neighbor’s land across the street. I let her off her leash and she trotted along the pond, nose to the ground, then up and down hills so happy to be free to sniff all the good stuff.
Come on mama, there’s good smells over here!
I was happy to be free of the wet dripping rain.
And it was enough, this one day of sun, to make me smile.
Spring pushes winter out of the way.
Katie and I hope you have something to smile about too. Let us know what’s making you happy and put a comment in Trent’s Weekly Smile post (pingbacks aren’t working at the moment.
We look forward to reading all about your smiles.
Big thanks to our neighbors for letting us wander in their yard!
Spring finally fights off the winter blues
Singing with joy in the sun.
It’s been cold and rainy for what seems like weeks, not feeling like winter, certainly not feeling like spring. But with all the rain things are starting to bud, to spring up from the squishy earth, to green almost before our eyes.
Color is popping up everywhere.
I was walking out at a local park earlier in the week, trying to get my miles done, training for a summer race. I know that if I start noticing things, stop to take pictures with my phone, that I’ll never get the miles in.
Subtle color glows.
So I made note of where some of the prettiest stuff was and went back with my camera the next day. I was expecting a quiet walk in the woods, but it turned out to be the most beautiful, sunny, warm day that we’ve had yet this spring and that caused lots of people to go out to enjoy the park.
Light turns skunk cabbage into emeralds.
That didn’t bother me at all. I was immersed in the beauty of light on leaves, light making grass and skunk cabbage glow.
Cow slips, or marsh marigolds, either way they’ll make you smile.
Light bringing color to what has been, for months, a grey and drab woods.
Green life glows in the woods.
I only walked 5 miles on Sunday, but it took me almost three hours. Seems I was stopping every little bit to capture something else.
Tiny bits of color are everywhere if you look.
While others were riding by on bikes, or jogging past with the slap of feet, I was crouched down, my face near the earth trying to capture that illusive image.
Bits of gold hidden near the forest floor.
I couldn’t have been happier. Indeed, I couldn’t stop smiling.
A photo a week challenge: Rule of Thirds
Nancy Merrill is good enough to post a photo challenge each week. On Thursdays I read her post and file it away in the back of mind in case I run across the perfect fit. Sometimes I find something interesting, lots of times I don’t, but I’m always looking.
This week’s challenge is ‘rule of thirds,’ which means the main point of the image should be resting at the intersection of lines drawn a third of the way across and down the image space.
Tonight I’ve been watching my goldfinches arrive to eat their supper in the pouring rain. I set the camera on a tripod, focused it on the feeder, and then sat across the room with my remote shutter release.
It was a bit of a wait, but finally this big guy showed up. He was hungry, so he hung around long enough for me to get a few nice shots.
And with a bit of cropping he turned into a perfect fit for the rule of thirds. I love the colors of spring, the brilliant green of the grass and the bold yellow of his feathers.
Even with the continuous cold rain this image reminds me of warm summer days to come. I hope you feel warmer too.
This week’s smile
Trent, over on Trent’s World, hosts a weekly blog post that collects smiles from bloggers all over the world. This week his featured smile is the bees that survived the Notre Dame fire.
And he wonders what all of us have found to smile about lately.
I did plenty of smiling this week, given the first part of the week I spent in Florida, walking beaches and exploring parks, and especially hanging with good people and wonderful dogs.
Hi mama!
And of course I flew home on Wednesday to my husband and my Katie-girl. Lots to smile about there too.
Then last night I attended a community orchestra concert in a small town about an hour from here.
A fun evening.
On the early evening drive over to the venue the sky was filled with big beautiful blue bottomed clouds. I wished I had my camera and time to find a place to stop.
I had neither.
The concert was fun, and it was good to see an almost full house to support a community orchestra. There were some really talented people playing, and you could tell they were having a great time.
Pretty amazing!
After it was over I emerged from the high school to see the clouds were thinning, but still in evidence. And they were turning purple and pink.
The barns were glowing.
With only my phone to capture the beauty and in a community I didn’t know I set out trying to find an open field with a place to pull over before all the light was gone.
Everything was beautiful.
I got a few good shots, and that, in combination with the evening’s music, made me smile.
What made you smile this week?
The last glow of a great evening.
Nobody asked me if I wanted to go
Katie here.
You’re going to think I’m being repetitive if every time you hear from me it’s to complain about mama. Yet here I am once again having to deal with a mama that obviously doesn’t think about me before she goes off and has a good time.
This time it was even worse because she came home after being gone a whole week and she smelled like my boyfriend Reilly! Can you believe that?
Denny and Reilly my boyfriend at the beach.
She went to visit Reilly and his little brother Denny and she didn’t take me!
OK. So yes she flew and yes I would not like flying. And yes I didn’t have to go to camp and yes my daddy was with me and yes daddy and I had a great time.
So maybe it wasn’t all that bad. I guess.
She came home Wednesday night and I made sure to get her up very early Thursday so that we could spend lots and lots of quality minutes together.
She was very appreciative.
Red skies early in the morning.
She did get to see the sunrise because of me. She said it was pretty. I guess it probably was, I don’t know because I went back to sleep as soon as she was up and moving around.
She did take me to my favorite park Thursday afternoon and we even got to watch some guys do a managed burn at one of my other parks!
This was at one of my parks!
I’ve never seen that before, it would have been scary if I hadn’t been in my car with my mom right by me. Mom thought it was very interesting even though emotionally she has a hard time with something burning up right in front of her eyes.
Me at my park, with the burned area right across the creek.
Mama said she liked the bits of spring she found better than all the smoke and flames across the way.
Hope buds eternal.
And she says we better enjoy it while we can because those weather people are predicting snow this weekend.
So anyway…I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on mama. My Mr. Reilly wanted her to visit for a few days and she went to take care of him, and I’m thankful she could do that, cause Mr. Reilly is a very very special guy.
I hear the boys are very good at asking for treats too.
The fact that mama got to walk on the beach without me is something I will just have to forgive. Forgiving will be easier if there are treats involved. You, my faithful readers, may want to remind mama of that important detail.
Guess who forgot to bring treats on this walk?
She seems to have forgotten that part of our contract.
Talk later,
Your gal Katie, patience is my middle name.
Yea. Right.
You can’t hide treats from me mama!
Change Is Hard 