the bermuda triangle, catkins opening, and crocus naughty bits

Lately, Kevin and I have been very bad, staying up late, sleeping in late. Our latest addiction, thank you, Netflix, is Veronica Mars, a sort of cross between Nancy Drew and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Such are the pleasures of being a self-employed/adjunct professor (him) and a lackadaisical dilettante dabbler (me). Left to our own devices, we stay up later and later, and get up later and later. 

Recently, though, I’ve felt groggy in the mornings, and I think it’s because my body is ready to go onto the summer schedule of getting up early, like normal people. And given that the next half-marathon (start time: 7:00 am) is coming up in not all that long, it’s probably a good idea for me to get back in the habit of doing my run first thing, rather than blowing it off until the afternoon.

So this morning I set an alarm – I won’t tell you for when, because you’ll snort in derision at me – and it only took me 45 minutes to get out of bed after that. (This reminds me. When I was 10, and lived three doors down from my elementary school, I’d set the alarm for 7:56 am and be downstairs, dressed, in the kitchen, eating breakfast, by 8:00 am. Them days is long gone.)

Then it was time for the week’s long run. Last week’s long run was 12 miles and next week’s will be 13; today’s was a whopping four miles. No sweatski. Mud season is still here, and my shoes show it. We’ve got a Bermuda Triangle where one of our neighbor’s driveway peels off.

Onwards to spring awakening!

Gray birch (Betula populifolia) – this is back on March 26. Notice how tight the scales are.

Here we are today, April 10. See how both the bud and the catkin are starting to open? With the bud, you can tell by the stripe of lighter yellowy green being revealed under the edges of the scales.

Moving right along to some alder - Alnus serrulata. This is a shrubby guy that likes wet conditions – in our case, the margins of the field out front, which has streams on either side feeding it. Here’s how things stood back on November 14.

And now, for yesterday – April 9:

Is this not cool?

Moving on to the naughty bits portion of our post. We spotted crocuses in the lawn today, finally!

Here’s where I pretend the crocus is a lotus.

remnant of snake skin in the lawn

gratuitous cat shot