Ah, Summertime ...

And the eatin' is luscious. Matt and I went to Sterling Fruit Farm ...

Saturday afternoon to pick raspberries.

It's beautiful out there NE of Rochester.

The berries are nice and big. It didn't take us long to pick 12 pints of berries.

Now I'll make some jam, freeze some, Matt is bringing some back to Winona, I'll give some to friends and enjoy some on my oatmeal for the next couple of days. Raspberries are my favorite berry. I also bought a lug of peaches from Youth for Christ that I have to can either today or tomorrow. They're deliciously and perfectly ripe. The wonderful tastes of summer ...

So why I am in running clothes in the photo above? Well, yesterday I ran from the RAC and put in 5 miles before the regular 7 AM start time. Then ran 12.5 with the group. (I forgot my camera. I guess I was a little out of it. I looked at my hands thinking they seemed empty but the thought of my camera never came to mind.) Then we went to Brothers for breakfast.

When I got home, I put on different running clothes and laid down for a little while intending to be outside working for the afternoon after a little pick-me-up snooze. When I got up I decided I was pretty close to 20 miles having already put in 17.48, so I headed out again at a very casual pace and picked and munched on black raspberries while I was out on the trails. Well, I ended up getting 22.00 miles. I felt great I have to say. Most of the miles weren't fast, but that was perfectly A-OK. What a beautiful summer day. When I got home I trimmed a hedge on the side of the garage (by hand, so it was kind of an aerobic activity :-) and removed some branches from a couple of trees.

Watered flowers. Puttered around. This is now all that's left of the lovely (?) sculptural buckthorn in the back yard.

Then I ate a peach for lunch. Yum. That's all I needed after eating a big ol' (straight up, no walnuts) pancake at Brothers for breakfast and wanting to drop a few pounds. Then Matt and I went to Bruce and Jan's to pick tart cherries but when we got there, Jan said the tree was bare. The birds must have gotten to them, just like they did mine. :-( That's when I decided that raspberries would be a good alternative ...

Congrats to Tom Woo who won the Eyota Days 5K yesterday morning. He ran a 17:33. He said the course was short at 2.97 miles, but that's still blazin' fast. Tom's really a talented runner.

Jean must have noticed, as I did, the amount of trash around the golf course yesterday morning. So two July trash pick-ups have been scheduled for Wednesday, July 14 and Tuesday, July 27 at 5:30 PM. Meet in the little parking area by Snappy Stop. Garbage bags and latex gloves provided. And a trip to O'Neil's afterwards is a definite possibility. :-)

Tuesday is the evening for the monthly social get together. This month we're going to try Twigs on 6th St and 4th Ave SW. It's got a nice patio outside and the weather sounds really nice for Tuesday. I'll head over there after doing a 5 PM hill workout and will try to get there not too long after 6 PM. Please join us! No running required but you are welcome to join us on the hills ... people start anywhere between 5 and 5:30 after meeting at the parking lot near the memorial.

I had 204 hits on Friday. Thanks for stopping by. I have a feeling you all wanted to see the goings-on at Retro Team R.E.D. on Thursday. :-)

Well, I think I'm going to drop out of cyberspace for a little while now. I'm going for a run and hopefully later this afternoon, for a bike ride.

Enjoy your day. :-)