End of May

The month of May FLEW by!! Less than one week left and it will be filled with Emily's dance recital. She no longer needs me at all back stage which is kind of sad and nice at the same time. I miss watching what goes on behind stage but I like getting to watch the whole show. Emily will be dancing on pointe for the first time in this ballet, unfortunately on very new pointe shoes. I'm sure she will be lovely.

I ran a race in Ironton this morning. Gosh it was a perfectly beautiful morning - a little foggy but the sun was out in full and it was very humid and nearly 60 degrees at 7 AM. It was a 5K through Ironton and the big, old cemetary, which reminded me very much of the old cemetary in Portsmouth. The course was pretty flat, the main hill being an overpass over Rt 52. I struggled to breath through the first mile, but I thought I was going to get to the first mile mark in like 8:45, but the timekeeper called out 9:02. I didn't find a comfortable stride until well after the half-way point. I was disappointed in my time, I wanted to finish under 28, but the sad reality was that my time was more like 29:20...I think, I hope it was no more than that. Anyway, it was a great race - well organized and the route was easy (other than I prefer not to run on concrete and brick is especially tiring...doesn't matter so much for a 5K but I'd hate that for a 10K). I finished 3rd in my age group (female 50-54). The woman who won my age group finished in like 2+ minutes faster than me, and she was 3 years older than me. I have to be inspired. The next race is Run By the River, in Russell in 2 weeks. I have run the course before. It has some gentle hills and one minor hill. It is a very pleasant route through the old part of Russell on the riverfront and then the road that connects Russell to Raceland (along the river).

The late frost spared the cherry trees. Look at these lovelies!

This is a picture of our little sour cherry tree. For some reason, the deer don't eat it. It must be a bumper year because our poor sweet cherry tree even has 6 cherries on it. The deer have mangled the sweet cherry since we planted it and now it's sort of a giraffe tree - a tall skinny twig shaped like a palm tree. The deer eat all they can reach. It looks to me like they even get up on their hind legs to reach what they can. I would cut it down but we need it as a cross pollinator and I'd feel guilty. I think trees have soles...so I hate when they are cut down before they die of natural causes. Especially some of these trees that are like 400+ years old, it makes me sad when they are taken. Slaughtered!

I miss Sarah. She is coming home in June, but I know she has much to do when she gets back.

Here are a couple of old pictures of the girls..these are a couple I like.

The time is late and I have much to do tonight. I will write more later.