Late June 2016

I managed to get up early enough for a walk at the park and lake near my house.



It's not so much a matter of waking up early enough but on the weekend it's getting motivated to leave my house before it gets hot.



I work 30 miles or so from my house and the traffic can be terrible.



To avoid bad traffic I go in early so I beat the worse part of the morning commuters and I leave early to beat the evening commuters.



After so many years of working primarily from my home computer I relish not having to get dressed and leave the house over the weekend.



In the summer if I don't get out early I can't walk because I don't handle heat very well.



This morning was perfect for walking. 



I was surprised there weren't more people at the lake but I'm sure a lot of people showed up after I left.



It's easier for me to walk in the fall and winter because I don't have to work around heat.



My attitude is I can always add more clothes against the cold.



The only time I can't walk in the winter is when it's icy and I have to be concerned about falling.



I love catching the moon in the morning before it goes down.



I've never seen a sign like the one below. 



I like the idea of a butterfly highway.



I'd rather walk through a butterfly highway than drive on one for automobiles.



I was surprised the creek wasn't higher with all the rain we've had.



I know the plants have been happy about a wet summer.



The flowers at the lake and park looked very happy.



I'm not sure what this plant is. I wondered if it might not be a variety of hydrangea but the flowers aren't like ones I'm used to.



If someone tells me what the plant is I'm sure it will be something I should have thought of.

Clouds, flowers and Raindrops

This past week was hot and humid with some beautiful clouds and rain followed by a much cooler sunny weekend.



One of my favorite things about butterfly weeds is how they hold on to raindrops.



My rose of sharon is growing up through the trees.



I was looking up at the trees when I first noticed the blooms.



I have different varieties that haven't bloomed yet and are still much lower in shrubs.



This weekend had some wispy clouds.



I've enjoyed over the past 10 to 15 years watching this garden grow and expand.



The house is around the corner from me and they started with a small trip around the edge of the property.



Each year they added another strip until the majority of the yard is a beautiful perennial border.



On one side of the house they have a mix of flowers and a vegetable garden.



After finishing a father's day brunch I made for Bill we walked around the block and it was nice seeing how well the garden was doing this year.



Nice to have a cool enough day to walk.

First Half of June, 2016

With the exception of the past four days, we've had a much cooler than usual start to the summer which I have enjoyed.



I'm not a big fan of extreme heat.



I took the first three shots with my phone.



The next two shots were taken with my camera in my yard.



I prefer shots taken with my camera but as I said in my last post the camera in my phone is much better than what I had in my old flip phone so it's nice when I don't have my regular camera with me to have the new phone's camera.



I took the shot below in downtown Durham when a co-worker was driving and it's a phone shot.



The last shot is one where I was focusing on a bird in my wild cherry tree but the bird flew off before I got the shot.



I hope we'll have another cool off because after a cool start to summer the past few days have had highs that were as much as 30 degrees higher than the prior week.