Breakfast with the Beatles

Northern flickers are so pretty  Unfortunately she kept moving around. They are woodpeckers but like to feed on the ground. They ignore my feeders though the closely related golden flicker was at the feeder where we stayed in Tucson

at least she is in focus

begonia basket decorating my porch

bought a yellow hibiscus the other day. These are not hardy so I have to bring them in this winter. I do have one hardy hibiscus but it won't flower until August

one of my chestnut or buckeye trees. Haven't figured out if these are edible though the squirrels get to the nuts before I can

Yesterday I made a three hour round trip to Ohio to attend one of the Moms mom's funeral. To keep me company, I had the Sirius radio new Beatle's station on (until the announcer kept blathering then back to Pearl Jam). Hey Sirius, how about a Rolling Stone station? You could rid of the Jimmy Buffet station....

Years ago, I trained for the marathon by running between Ann Arbor and Dexter on Huron River Drive because all the miles are marked. Most of the route is shady and early in the morning, not much traffic. I'd pin a dollar to my top so I could buy a Gatoraid at the ten mile mark. If desperate, I could pump up the iron infested water at the 2 metro parks along the way. I used to run with a radio. Early Sunday mornings they had Breakfast with the Beatles on which would make the miles go a bit faster. I'd lose the station though as I descended into the Delhi Valley but would get it back later.

One of my father's many whines was that as a 13 year old, he was forced to march from Dexter to Ann Arbor as a Boy Scout and what an ordeal that was. His mom felt sorry for him and allowed him to quit the Scouts because of that. Every time we drove on Huron River Driver (adjacent to Barton Hills where my grandparents lived) he would go on and on about it. Well I would run it both ways and at a good clip, so there.

After the funeral and burial, there was a church luncheon. A woman at my table didn't want to stand in line so was asking me about the food..did they have funeral potatoes? I don't eat anything potato (except latkes) so I couldn't tell her but apparently funeral potatoes are a shredded potato and cheese concoction, which they did have. They did have rhubarb crisp, which I can't resist (other standard Midwest Lutheran funeral food does not tempt me in the least). Tomorrow I will make some rhubarb scones for Steve's cousin who is coming the next day. She has now moved to the Midwest.

What I wasn't able to find was cheap buckeye gas. One advantage of Ohio is that the gas usually is a lot cheaper than Michigan's but not yesterday.

My favorite time of day. When I have finished my workouts and can drink my coffee in peace. Today's workout: elliptical trainer and bicycling, the latter being Impossible earlier in the week due to incessant rain though now that I am not doing The Really Big Bike Ride this year, I can ease up a bit.