Today, I also took a day off from work to play on the farm.
First task, while imbibing in too much coffee: refurbishing a 1960's Danish teak table lamp. As soon as I laid eyes upon it in a friend's project pile, I coveted it. She was sweet enough not to make me grovel.
The legs serve double duty as the stand and shade support, so minimalistic--I'm daffy about it.
By coffee #3, I possessed sufficient coordination to pick roses.
Not one of my antique roses, but a floribunda called 'Rock and Roll'. I discovered this fragrant beauty in the Rose Garden in Tyler, Texas and coveted it until I found a nursery in Wisconsin that still bred it.
I've been a little groggy since our newest guest arrived on Friday. Enter Sadie, a one year old Lab, who's a night owl. Saturday night was better than the previous night, but she had us up an hour before I ordinarily rise. REM sleep interrupted.
She's now the ad hoc second half of Smith Racing.
Getting out the door can be a challenge. She ran 4 miles on Saturday and 3 this Sunday...just enough to curb her enthusiasm.
With Cole benched since December, I haven't had a good running partner... I haven't had a bad fall either, but who's counting? Sadie is a natural skijorer: no stopping, no twisting me up in the line, steady pace, what a treat!
I finished off my 20 mile run by my lonesome. Now that I have annexed 3 surrounding properties to my running fiefdom, I really can run all day long and never leave home. Sure, it involves multiple loops, but the scenery is always different.
Who can beat the crowd support? Morel, my head cheerleader.
Wildflowers, verbena in this case, are busting out everywhere.
New territory, a forty acre field I like to call The Briar and Poison Ivy Patch.
New paths to discover.
Log cabin something or other. Quaint and full of snakes.
A new secluded pond perfect for spotting waterfowl and turtles.
At home in the woods, with the poison ivy, the snakes, all part of the package.
20 strong miles. Not at all fast, my GPS record shows that I had a mini-bonk between mile 16 and 17,a granny in a walker could have passed me! Plenty of room for improvement.
Sunday night, I took all three dogs out for ice cream. OK, I wanted ice cream and I needed co-collaborators.
All's well that ends well.
