Things are really greening up and blooming this week! I love the new neon green hues of the new leaves and seeing what is coming up in the woods. It is always a treat, even with the pollen making me sneeze and my eyes water 😁😂
Monday, Ryan and I got out for a nice late morning walk on the powerlines. Lovely out there and nice to take a break from the computer (1.9 miles walked)
On Tuesday, Sam started a two week session of daily 1-hour swim practices. So instead of worrying about getting up and running in the morning, I just decided to run during practice. Seemed like a better use of time. And so, I headed out around 3:10 onto the streets of Bath. It was sunny and quite warm - definitely felt like summer! I headed up High Street to the viewpoint at Thorne Head and then did a short loop on the trails before heading back on the roads the way I came. A solid afternoon run. (6.0 miles)
Wednesday turned into a very sedentary day, but that's OK, so on Thursday morning I headed out a little after 5:00 am for a run on the powerlines. Nice, soft morning light and a layer of low fog sitting atop the bushes. So pretty. Rhodora was blooming, and even found one small bush that had white flowers. Neat! Multiple catbirds and towhees calling. (6.0 miles)
Towhee!
On Friday, I ended up deciding to run the shorter of my back-to-back runs instead of tackling the 20 miler. Felt tired, and honestly, I often just feel better when I know I am going to have time to get some of the other non-run related items crossed off my to-do list. So I dropped Sam off at school, stopped at the farmer's market to pick up first of the season rhubarb to make strawberry rhubarb pie this weekend - yum! 😋 - and then parked at the field house to head out through the Commons & Coleman Farm for a ladyslipper status update! Soggy with high humidity and very sniffly due to all the pollen, but otherwise enjoyed the miles. All the purples and pinks were on display with fringed polygala, violets, lilacs and rhodora blooming. And I counted 119 ladyslippers! (10.0 miles)
Then it was off to fill the car with mulch and mulch the garden beds. Had to go back to the store for a few more bags. Note to self: you always need more mulch than you expect! Hot and sunny and dirty and sweaty by the time I finished, but the beds look good! Mom and Dad planted some extra hostas in the back of the back bed for us earlier in the week and it is nice to have that space filled in!
After a quick lunch and house clean, it was off to get Sam up to the Y for swim practice. It was just too nice to sit in the car for an hour+, so I took a nice 30 minute walk around town and then relaxed the rest of the time. (1.8 miles walked)
And of course, we stopped at Fielder's Choice for a "hurray, it's the weekend" ice cream on the way home 😋🍦
Between running, mulching, cleaning and walking, I had like 30,000 steps showing on my Coros - oops, perhaps a bit much for a day I woke up feeling tired?! 😁 - so I was in bed early! HA!
Up and out a little before 7:00 am on Saturday for my long run. Ran out into the Cathance and looped around on the trails out there before heading out onto the powerlines and Gone Fishing trails. It was quiet on the trails except for five deer and one fox seen, plus some lovely wildflower sightings. Trails are very dry, but I was not. 100% humidity out there and I really need to start carrying a buff again to wipe the sweat, and bugs, from my eyes! So gross 😂😂 Didn't feel super duper and did make a fair number of stops for photos, etc, but overall, it was a decent run and glad to have gotten it in. (20.0 miles)
After Ryan got in his run and we all had lunch, we headed over to Lawrence Road for an afternoon walk. We hiked the Wiggles and then took one of the side paths up to Tryon and around the quarries before heading back down to the parking lot. It was a nice loop but holy moly, the mosquitos were horrid and man, there was no air movement in the woods and it was incredibly humid. Still, we counted 172 ladyslippers and saw two cute toads, and stopped for a second to take a family photo before succumbing to batting at all the mosquitos again 😂 (2.1 miles walked)
Then we came home and ate dinner and sat on the couch and watched like 3 hours worth of Survivor episode 40 together 😂 It's all about balance, people 😉
Ryan was heading over to Bradbury for the Sunday group run, so I needed to be up and out and get in my miles before he left at 8:30. I might have cut it a little bit close, but managed to get back by 8:28, so I'm still calling it good! Warm and muggy, with heavy legs and oh so sweaty. Ran a road loop around town. (8.0 miles)
I book our flights for No Business at the start of the week, so it was time to crank it up a notch, and feel happy to have gotten in a solid 3-day block of 10/20/8 miles and my first 50 mile week in a long time. Onward!
While Ryan was out running, I got a few things done around the house and then Sam and I baked up a strawberry rhubarb pie for dinner, plus some sauce with the extra fruit. Yum!
And then after lunch it was off to Boothbay to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for the afternoon! Their Guardians of the Seed troll sculpture exhibit officially opens next week but these works of art are so complex and large that they of course have already been installed. Although I would have gladly gone up to the gardens even without the trolls as an enticement, they were pretty cool and really neat to see in person. There were five of them spread throughout the garden.
Shortly after we arrived, the wind picked up and a small rain squall passed through. Temperatures dropped and the winds kept most of the bugs away, making for a very lovely afternoon spent wandering the gardens, taking way too many photos of flowers and enjoying the trolls. (2.5 miles walked)
All the blooming trees smelled so lovely
Yellow ladyslipper 😍
Such cool jack in the pulpits!
This guy even had hair in his armpits! 😂
Ooommmmm
We timed it just right for the rhododendron gardens - so many of the flowers were in bloom. Beautiful!
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Love these helleborous
Can't stop taking rhodie photos...
Look at that hair!
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Such fun! After a few hours wandering the grounds, we were all hungry and tired, so we headed home for Frontier take-out and finished up the day with pie! Delish! 🍓
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