Dad’s 102nd Birthday
Deer, front door camera
6:30 Thursday morning, May 18th. Previously we’ve only seen occasional distant shadows in the wee hours. Photo probably taken minutes after some miscreant decimated Sandy’s new annabelle hydrangea.
Gareth’s bluebird feeding youngster
We’ve been watching this same thing from our own breakfast/lunch window. Photo by Gareth, saying “I put some dried worms in the window tray this morning and within minutes the Bluebirds were there. This is with the window open and me five feet away.”
Grosbeak
First grosbeak seen at our house in a year or more. And he kept feeding long enough for me to go and get the camera.
Squirrel-proof, you say?
But I’ve been here at least a half-hour!
Fringe tree blossom
April 24th in the woods just behind the house, almost our only fringe tree, aka old man’s beard. (Only sometimes attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer. See https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/chionanthus-virginicus/.) We do have one other. They’re hard to identify without the blooms. A long shot six days later:
Heppe Chiropractic 15k
This race raised some money for Empowerhouse, whose website I help with. The director Kathy Anderson invited me to join her in a picture, but so were we caught drinking beer at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning. Waters End Brewery was a race sponsor.
Choral concert
I sang with Fredericksburg Singers combined with two other choirs at University of Mary Washington. The main piece is Bob Chilcott’s setting of Native American poetry, accompanied by two pianos and percussion, about 40 minutes. Hear five minutes of another group’s recording below.
Erin, half-marathoner
“Juuuuuust caught her” at Coastal Delaware Half-Marathon, 13.1 miles. Chip 1:52:28.6, pace a very consistent 8:35, 13th of 106 in her age-group, and 57th of the 617 women finishing the race. The course featured a knee-deep flood, not pictured.
Sandy’s Azaleas
