Folk art

I originally bought this for the frame as I could insert a 10 x12 photo in it. The painter (unfortunately this is just a print) worked in our MA sister city painting scenes of Cape Cod

framed female oriole

Finally this bloomed, a new plant for me that I bought last spring. It's called a toad lily

The high heat and humidity didn't come until later this morning. Two more days of this. Fortunately this morning it was cool for my long bike ride. Even though I have many jerseys, I end up wearing my yellow one most of the time especially when I start off in the fog. I do have flashers. I have to start later and later due to our disappearing daylight which means the traffic becomes heavier. Gone our my rides before 6 am.  Fog at least mean no wind, fine for biking but now it makes the heat more intense. My usual Sunday route: 4 miles of flats, 4 miles of pretty much a steady, hard climbs and the remaining14 miles are such that I am rarely in the lowest gear for more than a minute. Although I have a 24 speed bike, I've yet to use the upper 8 gears. For Southern Michigan, gears 9-16 are just fine. In Northern Michigan even gear 1 wasn't low enough for me. After about 10 miles, the sun came out so I could turn off the flashers but then I worried about a mile stretch that I head SE directly into the sun blinding the drivers behind me. Flashers are not much help. Fortunately the sun popped behind a cloud for those 5 minutes.

 

But it is so pretty in the morning going through fields and forests. Lots of cranes spotted today but no deer. It feels so nice careening down a steep hill in the cool air. I return from these rides in a much better mood.

 

I am beginning to become bored though with all these little tasks to complete, I have no excuse. Do you realize I never packed up my camping equipment from the bike ride almost 2 months ago? I did pack up a bit of it today. Baby steps. And while Steve was gone, I hung up a few more 'trashy treasures'.

 

Tomorrow the kids and their kids come. Today I just swelter.