Brave chimney sweep

That’s a 40′ ladder which he put up and took down without help but not without difficulty. The task was to repair the crown, the rubberized cement which surrounds the chimney pot. The stainless steel chimney cap (temporarily parked between roof and ladder) did not need replacing.

Virginia Ten-Miler

My favorite race of the year:
47th Virginia Ten Miler (my 24th).
Of the 15 men in the 70-79 age group, Allen was first (he’s much faster than I am — 1:28:34 for an 8:52 pace) and I was second (way ahead of the 3rd place man.)
Weather was perfect: sunny, clear, no wind, 48°F, 9°C.
As always this race, I insisted on Waffle House breakfast.

Pawpaw

We hadn’t realized we had any pawpaw trees until yesterday, when I found these several fruits on the ground by the bench in the meditation garden. The leaves were familiar enough, although I had previously mistaken their trees for hickory saplings. Apparently both the skin and seeds are poisonous. Sandy cut two open for an inside photo, and we carefully tasted, spitting out the seeds. It’s somewhere between pineapple and banana. I went looking for more, and found the set on the left, below, at least long enough to snap the picture.