End of the School Year

Hard to believe, but school is over and we no longer have a middle schooler. We officially have an high schooler!! 😲 What a wild three years it has been for these kids, starting off 6th grade in the midst of Covid and making their way through so many changes over the past few years. Grateful and happy to say that Sam has thrived and truly seems to have come into her own, all while managing to mostly avoid all the middle school drama. She is becoming so grown up. It truly is crazy. 

Monday was a rest day, and on Tuesday, all I managed was a swim walk in the early evening, but good to get a bit of movement in for the day. (2.0 miles walked)

Wednesday, I ran a road loop around town. Foggy, soggy, overcast and damp morning. Five great blue herons on the river banks. Air sweet and heavy. So much pine pollen, lining the puddles like chalk outlines. (7.0 miles)

Thursday was the last day of school and a half day, so I fit a short run in between work and school pick up at 11:00 am. Ran around Highland Green Road and added on the short lollypop down to the river and back. (7.0 miles)

After a two-hour work Zoom, I dropped off Anne and Sam at Lauren's for the afternoon so they could hang out and get ready for the dance together. Don't they look lovely? 💗💃😍 And so cute to see all the girls together at the dance. It's been truly incredible to see Anne, Sam, Abby and Ella grow up together and remain friends, as well as see the new amazing kiddos who have come into the fold as new friends.

😂😂

💖💖 Photo by Ella's incredible aunt, Stephanie

Class of 2027! 🌟🌟

While the girls were hanging out, we were finally getting the dishwasher fixed (hurray!), and then having to call the plumber back because we discoverd the pipe he redid for a proper route for the water for the dishwasher ended up cutting off the water to the upstairs bathroom (aie!). And yes, whoever was the contractor for these units did not follow some very basic, standard construction rules and cut some corners along the way, but thankfully it was an easy fix, and we were able to get out to dinner, albeit not for our original reservation. Oh the joys of home ownership! We decided to try out the new Brickyard Hollow resturant/brewery in town. Yummy beer and some delicious bacon cheese fries hit the spot, and the pizza was good too, although most of it ended up coming home for Friday lunch 😂

Headed out early on Friday to get in my run before ticking a bunch of items off my to-do list for the day. Warm and muggy 💦💦 Headed out on the powerlines, with one deer and bluebirds seen, and what I think was a green heron scared up from admist some marsh grasses! Sheep laurel, viburnum, iris, and blackberries all in bloom and scenting the heavy air. (10.1 miles)

The weather took a turn overnight, with Saturday dawning cool, grey and rainy. Emily and I had made plans to run over at Pleasant Mountain together, and since I knew she was going no matter what the weather, I figured I would suck it up and go despite knowing the weather was going to be less than ideal. She was planning on three 7-mile loops that would take us up Fire Warden's Trail and down Southwest Ridge Trail connected by a few miles of dirt road. I was thinking I could keep up for two of those three 😉 but in the end, the weather had other plans for us and we ended up with only one loop 😂😜 While it wasn't raining when we started, the Fire Warden's Trail was pretty much a stream with a lot of very slick rock ledge and a whole lot of picking around the edges to stay upright. As we headed further up the mountain, we were engulfed by the cloud sitting atop the summit, and then it started to rain in earnest, which in and of itself wasn't so bad, but the Southwest Ridge Trail was also a lot of slick ledge, and incredibly slow going on the way down. Still, it was great to catch up with Emily, good to get in some vert, and have a fun type-2 sort of day. 😉😅😆No other people seen, what a surprise - ha! But we did scare up three deer and saw some nice patches of ladyslippers and bunchberries. Also, we got very very very wet💦💦(7.5 miles)

What a view! 😂

And so it was that, once again, Sunday, after 4 days in a row of running, I headed out for my long run. Nice muggy breezy but not rainy morning. Lots of swallows flitting about, several bluebirds, a red eft 🤩, and an owl too. Ran the cart paths and down to the river before crossing the street to run the Highland trail and loop back up on the Town Landing Trail. From there, I headed out on the powerlines and hit the Gone Fishing trails. Felt a bit sluggish but perhaps not too surprising. First 20 miler since No Business and first 50+ mile week of the year too. Took a while, eh? Ha. No one can accuse me of rushing into things 😂😜😉😆 Also hit 1,000 miles for the year early in the run. Woohoo. (20.0 miles)

😍😍

Spreading dog bane

Love these hay scented ferns

Who's looking at you? 🦉

And later in they day, we headed over to Mom and Dad's for dinner and to celebrate Father's Day together. A very Happy Father's Day to all my favorite dads out there 😊

And just a few Ronnie and Gigi photos to round out the post 😻

Busy Busy

So busy I didn't get around to posting this until Wednesday evening!

It's that crazy end of school time when there are activities happening almost every day and a lot going on. The to do list for work is pretty much endless these days, and Ryan was away Tuesday through Thursday, so let's just say it's been a busy week. Whew.

My training plan these days pretty much seems to be "start your run week on Wednesday, run five days, take two days off." Oh well. It is what it is. I'll try to turn it around once school gets out for Sam and I have a little more wiggle room in the mornings, but for now, I'm just rolling with it.

Monday was a planned day off from running, but I really had intended to get up and out on Tuesday morning before Ryan headed over to NH for a work conference. Obviously that did not happen. And then the day just slipped away from me and work consumed me until 5:00, by which point I was done and nothing more than making dinner and sitting on the couch for the rest of the night was going to happen. We didn't go to swim as Sam's team had had a field trip out to the LL Bean outdoor center in Freeport where they did various team building activities for the day. 

So, with that, I was up and out on Wednesday morning a little before 6:00 am to loop around Highland Green Road to get in 7 miles before 7:00 am, as it was Step Up Day for Sam and she wanted to be sure to be up on time since Lauren's dad was picking her up so they could walk into the high school together. Humid and sunny. One salamander, I think it might be a red-backed salamander, seen. Neat. (7.0 miles) 

😍

A rather rainy afternoon and evening, so I took my walk indoors around the track during swim practice. (2.0 miles walked)

The chorus and band groups were headed on a roadtrip on Thursday morning, down to Metheun to the Great East Music Festival to perform, and then on to Boston to the Museum of Science for the afternoon. That meant a 6:00 am arrival at school to get on the bus, so after I dropped her off, I headed out from my run. Ran the cart paths and added a bit extra on the roads at the end. Muggy. (7.0 miles)

Do you see the deer? 🦌💗

Sam's chorus group at the Music Hall

I had originally been planning on some hill work on Friday but instead, I pretty much did the exact opposite and headed out to Pennelville for a flat road run instead 😂 But I love it out there, and had been thinking I wanted to get out that way to run through the fields and out to the ocean and hear the bobolinks, so that is what I did 💗 So much beautiful color with lupines and iris in bloom, Simpson's Point at low tide and bobolinks chattering amongst the buttercups. (8.0 miles)

One of my favorite views

Then after my typical Friday errands, I got in a short walk around the Bath block during swim practice later in the day. (1.7 miles walked)

Black locust in bloom everywhere

Totally recognize that I should have done my long run on Saturday, as it turned out to not be as bad weatherwise as forecast, but I also just needed a bit of downtime mentally and to be able to have a reasonably chill not with a quiet morning and to not rush out the door. So instead, after finishing my book, I finally headed across the street around 9:00 am to do the hill work I did not do on Friday 😏😜Mt. A. is just a small bump, but it'll do. 12 times up and over, via some road and some trail. Air was quite heavy. Milkweed, blackberry brambles, viburnum and sheep laurel in bloom. One thrush seen. (8.0 miles)

Out back, one of the self-seeded columbines that has come up right against the house is in bloom and the groundhog has not found it yet. So pretty! 

After a quiet afternoon at home, we headed over to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Mom's birthday. Indian food and Crazy Cake! That is my kind of dinner. Yum! And so grateful to be able to celebrate these days together 💗Happy Birthday, Mom. We love you.

Sunday morning, I headed out at 7:00 am to get in my long run. Nice morning. I ran the cart paths and down to the river before heading across the street to run the Highlands trail and then along the Town Landing Trail before connecting up to the powerlines and Gone Fishing trails for the remainder of the miles. Two snapping turtles seen, one moved from the road, one laying eggs very close to the edge of the road. The glorious smell of hay scented ferns, blackberry brambles and Dames rocket, plus some long grass but thankfully no ticks! Definitely some brown tail spots. And definitely warm. So much sweat 💦🤪 (18.1 miles)

Then it was home to shower, eat an early lunch and a big piece of leftover birthday cake from mom’s birthday yesterday, and head up to the botanical gardens to take in all the flowers! 💖🌸It was a beautiful afternoon, and as always the gardens were looking lovely and it is a treat to be able to stroll through this piece of property and enjoy it all. (2.4 miles walked)

And of course, as is tradition, we had to make a stop at Fielder's Choice on the way home for ice cream! Yum. What a fun way to wrap up the weekend! 😋🍦