Vacation Week

A lot of Facebook memories of North Caroline trips popping up over the past 10 days or so. It was always such a lovely time to head south and enjoy warmer weather and things blooming! We will definitely miss the trips, but are so glad that Mom and Dad are right in town so that we can do fun things with them more often, and especially during vacations! 💗 

As Monday was a holiday for me, I got out and out for a run out into the Cathance. Pretty morning. Legs a bit creaky so took it nice and easy. (6.0 miles)

Ryan was working for the day and Sam and I went out to see if we could find her some spring/summer clothes - she's grown so much, she's needed all.the.things! - but later in the afternoon, we all got out for a nice walk on the powerlines. Lovely afternoon. (2.4 miles walked)

On Tuesday, I headed into work and Sam headed to Reid State Park with Mom and Dad for a beach trip. Who do you think got the better deal? 😉 Lucky kiddo! Looks like a lot of fun, and then of course, the beach was followed up with a stop for ice cream, and then fried food for dinner. Yum! A pretty good vacation day, I'd say!

Wednesday morning, I headed out around 6:15 for a run on the cart paths. A nice, if rather damp, morning. (6.0 miles)

Came home to find the azaleas outside the front door almost in bloom 🌸 Seems way too early but so pretty!

Thursday morning it was snowing and incredibly windy, with a feels like temp of 18 degrees and I just sort of said, nah, I don't think I'm going to run today! 😬💨

We did, however, get out for a nice afternoon walk on the Otter Brook Preserve trails down in Harpswell. Chosen due to the more wooded nature of the preserve, in the hopes of staying out of the wind! It was chilly and was spitting snow throughout the walk, but we were protected from the blustery wind at least. I really like this quiet little trail system, and we had a nice walk. Always good to get out no matter what the weather! Plus, there were some amazing patches of trailing arbutus blooming, including a number that had a lovely pink coloration. So pretty! 🌸 (1.7 miles walked)

The wind did not abate much overnight, but it was a wee bit warmer and sunnier on Friday morning as I headed out onto the powerlines. Trails were quiet. Headwind was quite strong on the return trip!💨💨 (8.0 miles)

We had planned an afternoon walk out over Morse Mountain to the beach with Anne and family, but with the wind whipping, we decided to modify plans and met up for a walk on the Cliff Trail instead. It was bright and sunny out and we were nicely protected from the wind en route, even atop the cliffs. Always enjoy this loop and extra fun to hike with friends! (2.1 miles walked)

😍

By Saturday morning, the wind had finally abated. Phew! I headed over to Bowdoin to start my run from the field house, running out to loop on the Crystal Spring Farm trails, then connecting up with Coleman Farm via the extended Commons. Added on a loop on the Landing singletrack before finishing up through the Commons. I always enjoy this road and trail loop, and it was a lovely morning for it. Warm and sunny, with a few early season wildflowers and quiet trails. Definitely a bit of a grind in the final few miles, as I ran out of water (oops!) and it was my first 20 miler since September 2020, but overall, a solid long run and happy to have gotten out and gotten it done! (20.0 miles)

  

Controlled burn of the blueberry fields out by Crystal Spring

Always love these daffodils by the pond out in Coleman Farm

Trout lilies in bloom 💗

Came home to find the azeleas in full bloom out front, and after a bit of lunch and relaxation, we headed over to the Cathance for an afternoon walk with mom and dad. 

The day had warmed up significantly, and although there wasn't much yet blooming out in the woods, we had a nice walk along the river and checked out the snowhole, where there was definitely still ice! Always good to get out in the woods, and a mellow walk was perfect to loosen up my legs a bit after the morning's run. (2.1 miles walked) 

Snowhole!

Stopped at the vernal pool and saw this little guy swimming by. Also a few egg sacks, plus one aquatic red eft. Neat!

I will admit to being rather tired on Saturday night, and did not get up and out early on Sunday morning, but as we had nothing on the calendar for they day, it was OK. Finally motivated to get on my shoes and out the door around 9:00 am and ran a road loop around town. Felt a bit creaky but not too bad. Forecast had been calling for rain but the morning turned out to be much nicer than expected, which is always a treat. Happy to wrap up a 48 mile week, but definitely feeling it a bit! (8.0 miles)

And just for fun, Gigi has decided that whenever there is spot open in amongst the shoes, it is the place to sit 😹

Mid-April

Monday was not the nicest of days, cold and windy, and between Ryan waiting for hours for AAA to come and jump start the Prius, which had was good and dead after admittedly probably been sitting dormant for 6 weeks (oops!!!), and me having a long afternoon conference call, we didn't even get out for a walk. Ah well, sometimes it's ok to have a total rest day. 

Tuesday morning I got up and out for a run on the cart paths. We are back to typical April weather. Cool in the mornings and warming up as the sun rises. A bit of a breezy morning but the cart paths are drying up nicely and the colors in the sky were lovely. (6.0 miles)

It turned out to be a really lovely day, and Mom and Dad joined us for an afternoon walk on the powerlines before Taco Tuesday 😋🌮 (2.0 miles)

Didn't get out of bed to run early on Wednesday morning so headed out after finishing up work in the afternoon. It seemed like it should be much warmer than it actually felt out there. 55 degrees and sunny but quite a cold wind. I headed out on the trails and did the lollypop down to the river and back. One deer, one groundhog, some ferns unfurling along the river banks and a few big patches of coltsfoot blooming along the roadside on the back dirt road. (6.0 miles)

Thursday afternoon, it was a nice and sunny if slightly chilly afternoon, so Sam and I walked down to DQ and back to celebrate the start of April vacation week! 😀🍦 Always good to walk and talk with the kiddo 💗 (2.0 miles walked)

A storm moved in on Friday but I managed to beat the majority of the hard rain. Headed out around 7:30 for a run on the powerlines. Dreary, damp, misty, windy, rainy but still some lovely small sights of spring to be seen. (8.0 miles)

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, getting things done around the house and relaxing, as it was definitely a good inside day! The morning started with temps right around 40 degrees when I went out to run and by mid afternoon had fallen to 34 a heavy, wet snow falling, creating a wet coat atop all the trees and grass. Guess we weren't quite able to escape an April snow! ❆

The wind was still gusting a bit on Saturday morning, and it was chilly and spitting rain when I woke up, but the layer of wet snow had melted. I wasn't really feeling enthused to get out in the cold rain, so I had a leisurely morning and then headed to the farmer's market at 9:00 for veggies before finally getting myself out the door around 11:00 am once the skies cleared a bit. Still windy and kind of misty of out, but I had procrastinated long enough 😉 Stuck to the roads just to get it done a bit faster. (8.0 miles)

Sam spent the afternoon over at Anne's house, tromping down to the stream and making cupcakes, so was another quiet afternoon before Mom and Dad brought over Thai for dinner. Yum! 

Headed out around 8:00 on Sunday for my long run. Ran the cart paths and down to the river and back before looping around on the powerlines. Still a bit windy and cool to start, but much nicer than Friday and Saturday, that's for sure! Felt a bit off to start, but ended up feeling pretty strong to finish. Saw a mink down along the Cathance and several phoebes and there were some nice early signs of spring plantwise with ferns, false hellebore and skunk cabbage emerging, but otherwise the trails were quiet and fairly dry. Listened to the 100 mile music playlist I've been working on for No Business, as although Ryan will be there crewing, I anticipate going pacer-less and want to be prepared in case I need some musical motivation at some point! I'm used to listening to podcasts while I run so the music was different, but enjoyable. (15.4 miles)

False hellebore

Not sure what type of fern this is. Perhaps interrupted fern? I'm going to have to check it out more closely once the frond emerge

After lunch, we Zoomed in for a virtual tour of the Y camp that Sam and Anne are going to at the beginning of July for 2 weeks up near Augusta. It was a great look at the camp and really informative, and I think Sam is going to have a great time there this summer! And I think she really appreciated being able to now envision camp having seen the property and learned a bit more about how the days will be, etc! 

Once the tour finished up, we headed over to Pennelville for a walk out at Coleman Farm. A bit overcast, but always lovely to get down along the ocean! The woods were carpeted with trout lily leaves and the daffodils are coming up along the pond. So pretty! A nice walk to wrap up the weekend. (2.4 miles walked)

Great blue heron flyover

Squill or glory of the snow? Not sure, but they were so pretty amongst the grasses!