mistakes and explosions

Bluets. Somehow I love this shot even more because it’s out of focus.

It’s amazing what pops up when you haven’t yet had to mow the lawn. No idea what this is.

We last saw the unidentified sapling I’ve been calling mystery witch on May 4th.  I am dismayed at what I missed over the past week, since I forgot to check in with it since the 6th.  

May 4th at left, and today at right. A riot of compound leaves. I swear, you miss just a few days around here and you'll be totally lost. Sheesh. Incidentally, I now realize that what I thought was an ash sapling yesterday is the same thing as this mystery witch – I only came across that guy when it had already leafed out, so I missed seeing it at the bud stage. But I thought to take pictures of mystery witch’s tinier buds today, and guess what?
 
The official mystery witch sample at left; the probably-not-actually-an-ash-from-yesterday at right. They look the same to me…
Onwards! Let’s break the rules and shoot into the sun.

I love doing this.

My current vote for Solomon’s Seal. The little pods are getting fatter. I don’t think they’ve flowered yet…stay tuned, I guess!
Another friend I neglected for a few days who’s suddenly all grown up – this is positively shameful, how I missed the day-by-day of this one:

At left, an ash sapling in the rain on April 5, and at right, that same sapling today.

Crazy explosive, huh? Here’s another example of crazy explosive, this time with the lilacs.

May 5th at left and today at right. Yowza. Another six inches of stalk and ancillary side bits have sprung up outta nowhere. In the meantime…

…the more established sprays of lilac flowers are just starting to show what they’ve been thinking about, color-wise.

and there is on last hold-out set of buds that are just now joining the party.

Remember her? It’s so easy, when the flowers start to fade, to forget about them. But they’re still quite busy! They’re developing seeds. So when I remember to, I like to check back in. I still don’t know what this is.
Onwards to the running report.
I did a simple half-hour run today – I’m in tapering mode for the half-marathon, which is happening THIS SUNDAY. Gulp. Today’s run was slower than what I’m used to, and painful – also something I’m not used to. 
On the one hand, I should be in decent shape – I’ve followed my training plan religiously, a plan I know from experience works, and all of my long runs have been eminently doable – no thoughts of quitting or throwing in the towel.
But on the other hand, the recent combination of a lot of ‘gardening’ (by which I mean killing innocent saplings and not-so-innocent raspberry canes) has made me sore in places I didn’t know I had. I overdid it with yoga last week. And then I did that 5K at quite a clip – maybe not such a good idea so close to race day. I don’t feel up to it right this second. I will by Sunday and I expect and hope it will be fine, but right this second? I repeat, “gulp”.
Happy International Monty Python Day!