Well, perhaps not so wee: he's about the size of my thumb.
This creature was waiting for me on the back stoop, when I got home. This cicada -the first I've ever seen!- is far more welcome than those charming feces-ejecting rock doves who sometimes congregate back there.
Technically it's not quite summer yet, so I suppose it's appropriate that we have an overcast sky today and a forecast for rain over the next seven days. The Iris sure look fabulous, however. As does Rosa glauca and our Weigela 'wine and roses.'
I managed to catch a cold about a week ago; I'm sure it was at Grand Old Day, out amongst the seething roaring mass of people, sun, and weekend exhaustion. Ah well- I suppose I needed an extra challenge during the last two weeks of preparation for my 12k race on June 14. I fit in a swim as well as an interval workout before the coughing started, so we'll see.
We are very excited about our vacation, which starts in five days.
The sight of Hosta bursting up from the earth in the spring always sort of ... scares me. It's very violent and powerful. The pointed, sharp-edged fat fingers, forcing their way out of their temporary tomb.
At the same time, it's just so... celebratory. Such a lively, happy, bright green. Ahhh, hello, world! Welcome back, sun and warmth. It's very inspiring.
Yesterday, my training plan called for an easy, long run of 10 miles. Seeking solace for my joints as well as a release from the boredom of the usual nearby sidewalks, I decided to try a trail run, at the nearby state park.
You know, the one I used for my mountaineering training, a few years ago? Ho! Easy run. Foolish mortal, how easily you forgot. It was a hills love fest. I had been seeking to keep my HR around 150 or so, but it ranged from 144 to 163, and those fluctuations happened quite often.
This would have simply made for a more interesting run, and certainly a very scenic one, had I brought some sustenance along. I'd figured to stop by the car -where my banana and water were- at least once during the run, but another thing I'd forgotten about the park was how large it was. The loop I thought I'd have to do twice, took me once, for the whole 100 minutes I need to run. So... at around minute 70 my energy started to wane a bit. Lead-legs greeting my every step up those nasty hills. I was very happy to see my banana and water, once I finished & returned to my car.
Fun, fun fun! Ah well. At least, after this 10-mile run, I was still somewhat functional, later in the day. I appear to be improving.
The ranger at the park informed me that there's a trail run race, there at the park, in July. A 25k and a 50k. At the start of the day I was intrigued. 25k is 15 miles. I could easily do that by July.
Later in the day, approximately 60 minutes later, I was less intrigued. It's hot in July. I'd rather be in the garden, watching the flowers grow.
Most springs, it's the bright yellow of the forsythia that make me excited about gardening again. But this year, the magnolias are doing the job. They are just stunning, partly because I never remember where they are in the neighborhood, until they bloom. The tiny young ones are the best- why is it surprising that a 3-foot tall one blooms just as much (in proportion) as a 30-foot tall one?
The lanky, lazy blooms, from afar, always make me think of the little tissue ghosts that people hang from trees, around Hallowe'en.
This is a two-year old rain garden-yes, those swamp milkweed and coneflower are about shoulder height on that 5'9" blonde. We have our own little prairie in the backyard- and those are the plants that are faring best in his heat. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the yard we've been playing musical flowerbeds with the sprinkler, every other day or so.
This is the first summer that the butterfly weed (one of the rain garden employees) has bloomed. This is most excellent news, especially as the Louisiana iris that we snuck into the otherwise native plant-filled garden is languishing. Ah well, serves us right. At least the native blue flag iris are flourishing.
These Asiatic lilies decided not to open up unti after the hailstorm that shredded my hostas Francee and Frances Williams, at left. Still, these hosta have grown so much in their first two years - tripling their size from last year- that we'll need to divide them at the end of the summer.
Here's a view north from the middle of the rain garden: clockwise from top we have blue flag iris, red-twig (Ivory Halo) dogwood, hardy hosta, milkweed (or boneset?), bottle-brush, then some red lobelia.
This is the first year of blooms for those native Siberian (blue flag) iris... they too waited until after last weekend's hail, to open up.
Thus far it's a most excellent (and very early) year for almost all of the Hosta in my garden. This particular specimen (above-I think it's "Blue Mammoth") I've had for two years but only this spring is it getting as big as it's supposed to.
This one - I believe it is Hosta "White Christmas"- is another one Mom gave me 2 seasons ago and it's really filling out, finally, this spring. It's in a bed that's very close to our monster Norway maple, where not all plants have flourished in the past few years (the maple has shallow roots). Based on how well these two hosta are doing there, however, I plan to beef up that bed with a yew, this weekend.
This is the second flowering season for this Siberian Iris "Summer Skies" and already it probably needs to be divided.
I saw the most amazingly huge Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower (like this, and about 6 inches tall), last night. I'd joined the Friends of the Mississippi River and St. Paul Parks for an evening of pulling herbacious invaders. I can't believe I didn't think to bring my camera! There's an excellent photo that shows a similar garlic mustard infestation here.
We worked in a pretty ravine near Crosby Farm Regional Park that is normally filled with bloodroot, trout lily, trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpit. This spring, said ravine was mainly filled with 3-foot tall (and almost to-seed) garlic mustard, and one small ginger patch. About 16 of us put a pretty big dent in it, but even just to get to that ravine we had to walk though a near quarter-mile of the invasion that was not slated for the guillotine on that day.
It's fun to get dirty in the woods and learn about local plants.
I've been busily not posting to this blog. What have I been doing?? Well... I've been running: now I'm up to 4.5 miles on my weekly longer runs. I've signed up to run an 8k road race on June 3. That's a little longer than my ideal distance, but it'll be a fun long training run, if nothing else, and at least one coworker will also be running it. I am building up my training run miles, but I'd like to compete in a few more 5k races to see how close I can come to beating my high-school cross-country PR of a 7:31 mile. Then, finally, I will letter. At least, in my time anyway. We'll see. At this point if I beat my 8:23 split from the Get In Gear, I'll be pleased.
I've been rock climbing, mostly at the gym, but plan to do more outdoor climbs as well. Somewhat shockingly I'm regularly working 5.10b and c climbs (not flashing them, of course). What fun!
My interest in the garden is ramping up again, as the iris are about to bloom. It's time to get some seeds sowed.
Work's been busy and I've been inspired. This is good, though it's also inspiring me to work slightly longer hours. Ah well, at least it doesn't get dark til 7:30 these days (which is good because I've been commuting via bicycle).
I've encountered the joys of using an RSS reader to get all my news, etc. in one place. Check out "more of same" in the right column of this page, to see some of the more interesting stuff I've been reading.
Oh, and I can now do Pincha Mayurasana. I've also managed to make my evening yoga an almost-daily habit. Live is good.
We don't yet have much in the way of evergreens in the yard, but so far I think we've gone a good job with adding plants to the garden that do look quite nice even when in winter dormancy (click on the images to see larger versions). The above is quite dormant, as it's an annual (alyssum). After putting some ill-fated heuchera in that front planter that gets blasted all winter with wind, we learned our lesson & from then on only put annuals out there. That is, with the Solomon's Seal and spotted deadnettle that somehow keep coming back!
The second photo is of some of the purple coneflower that went into the rain garden (summer 2005); this is our first winter with flower heads to get nicely dusted with snow.
Third photo shows the purple fountain grass that we got the first spring we lived here. That tough tuft has been moved a few times, but keeps getting bigger, nonetheless. We may divide and possibly plant more, as it does so well in that front bed. Thus far it's still my favorite, in the wintertime.
The fourth photo shows another of our rain garden plants: swamp milkweed. It's also its first winter with flowers/seed pods. All summer I was eager to witness the phase where the milky threads appear and then disperse from the seed pods. I missed it, but the remains are still quite elegant.
Two summers ago, Mom helped me plant the Russian sage shown in the last photo. After its first winter, we were suprised to see it return (it didn't grow a lot that summer, and barely a stub survived the winter!), but we'll know better, this spring. It's one of three in the front bed - and it's not the largest, possibly because it's shaded by the huge elm across the street.
The sight of Hosta bursting up from the earth in the spring always sort of ... scares me. It's very violent and powerful. The pointed, sharp-edged fat fingers, forcing their way out of their temporary tomb. 
This is a two-year old rain garden-yes, those swamp milkweed and coneflower are about shoulder height on that 5'9" blonde. We have our own little prairie in the backyard- and those are the plants that are faring best in his heat. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the yard we've been playing musical flowerbeds with the sprinkler, every other day or so.
This is the first summer that the butterfly weed (one of the rain garden employees) has bloomed. This is most excellent news, especially as the Louisiana iris that we snuck into the otherwise native plant-filled garden is languishing. Ah well, serves us right. At least the native blue flag iris are flourishing.
These Asiatic lilies decided not to open up unti after the hailstorm that shredded my hostas Francee and Frances Williams, at left. Still, these hosta have grown so much in their first two years - tripling their size from last year- that we'll need to divide them at the end of the summer.
We don't yet have much in the way of evergreens in the yard, but so far I think we've gone a good job with adding plants to the garden that do look quite nice even when in winter dormancy (click on the images to see larger versions). The above is quite dormant, as it's an annual (alyssum). After putting some ill-fated heuchera in that front planter that gets blasted all winter with wind, we learned our lesson & from then on only put annuals out there. That is, with the Solomon's Seal and spotted deadnettle that somehow keep coming back! 
