Random thoughts, long delayed

We've had a lot of rain, with puddles of standing water all over the place, highly reminiscent of Ohio, and a few days of warmth, but there has mostly been a chilly breeze even when sunny.  Today is quite sunny, with that chill breeze, but not as chilly as usually.  So I went for a walk.

I've already noticed that my little town is very heavily planted with redbuds, which are nearing the end of their blooming season, but still looking quite lovely.  I have planted three myself in my yard, and am glad to know I can expect them to do well.  There are also a number of pink flowering dogwoods around, which is probably my favorite flowering tree.  I initially did not expect them to grow in this area, but have since planted some of those as well.

The little ornamental willow in my front yard has a bird's nest in it this year.  I was sitting out on the front porch and when I sat very still for long enough, the mamma bird would go sit on her nest.  Very sweet.  There are a ton of bunnies running around as well, which has suddenly made me worried for the tomatoes I plan to plant.

Between last fall and this spring, I have planted 16 trees in my yard, with two apple trees sitting waiting to be planted tomorrow as well.  I plan to train them along my fence, and am hoping that my crawl space will make an adequate root cellar for apple storage.  Otherwise my dehydrator will be extremely busy.

The kitties are all getting along fairly well now; it seems to take several months to integrate a new cat into the household, and things had only just calmed down from getting Mimi Rose when I got George.  For those who don't know, I found him at the post office, curled up on the bench outside the door, looking cute and hungry.  He was very friendly as well, and my initial plan to bring him back some kitty food turned into a plan to bring him home and give him kitty food, but make him stay outside.  Which morphed after a few weeks into bringing him inside because I just couldn't make him stay out in the cold, and he is a very lovable and adorable kitty.  After several months, they've all worked out new relationships and a new status quo.  I probably should call it quits with four kitties.

During my health troubles earlier this year, I lost a lot more muscle and cardiovascular fitness than I anticipated.  When I finally stopped having belly pain, and had improved enough that I wasn't nearly dead just from being upright for 12 hours at work, I finally made it back to the gym.  I did not start out with what seemed to be an extreme workout, but I felt very wussy, and was shortly thereafter the most sore I have been in a very long time, possibly ever.  Things have improved a bit since then, but the whole thing has been very sobering.  And expensive.



And now, a photo journal of small town midwestern America.

Trains beside the bike path.  In much of the midwest, old train tracks have been replaced with bike trails.  

Redbuds!

White lilacs

Such a typical house...

No home mail delivery; one of these is mine.  

Random army truck that lives at a house with many military flags lining its porch.  You can see part of 'Don't tread on me' to the side there.  

This place has good food and does pretty good business due to being right next to the bike path.

More redbuds!

Sweetser, btw, is the only Sweetser in the US, according to the interwebs.  In a state with Peru, Warsaw, Brazil, Delphi, and hundreds of other much-used place names, its kind of fun to have a unique name.