Happy summer!

You know it's summer when the hydrangias start to do their high-maintenence thing, getting all wilty and all but whining when they want to be watered. You water them, they perk right up, and even start to blossom. Although this one has been really pink for two summers, the blooms seem paler this year; maybe it just needs time to catch up.

Also, I owe an apology to the yucca, which turns out to be very pretty in bloom, although the scale of it is still a bit dramatic.




Finally, in yet another indicator of summer, I ran a 5K this week called "A Short Run on a Long Day," timed to coincide with the longest day of the year. It was fun, and although it was hot and the course was hilly, I did better than my last 5K with a time of 29:22 (which, as the race results helpfully indicated, a 9:30/mile pace.) I was 127th of 250 some people, including walkers. Overall this is not an especially remarkable time (consider, for instance, that I barely outpaced a guy who ran pushing the wheelchair of a full-grown adult, although as Mike pointed out, it was probably one of those lightweight sport wheelchairs.) But it was a really good race to do, and the kids had a good time playing in the park where the race started and ended, although I understand there was some throwing of sand.