Monday, April 21, 2008

Good Morning - Kettlebells and Sunrise

I've been swinging kettlebells for my regular workouts. I swing at home, so I save the time -and the gas- that it takes to get to the gym. It looks deceptively easy; I am soaked with sweat about 20 minutes into it. I like it so much I'm actually thinking about cancelling my gym membership for the summer - swing and run.



This morning I got up at 5 so I could be finished by the time I wake the kids at 6. The sky is just starting to lighten up now, but in about 45 minutes the front yard will look like this:


Or not. It's supposed to rain today and these pictures were taken right before the kids walked down to the bus -7am- on one of those perfect days last week (we've had several perfect days this past week-yay!). Today it's supposed to rain and the mist has climbed into the front yard.
The mist in the valley is beautiful. This is looking out across the front yard. Just beyond these trees, the hillside falls off the cliff. If my kids were younger it would bother me -like the little pond in the backyard. I'm still aware of it when they're out playing, but we've made two trails down into the deep cool of the rhododendron where dirt still clings to the rock face and softens the slope. You've got to slide down on your butt and pull yourself back up with the spindly roots that stick their knees up, but in the heat of summer it's worth it to go down there and hop from rock to rock. The kids aren't allowed to go down without asking -most of the time I go with them, but most of the time they don't ask. When it gets hot again, we'll probably start going down in there again. There's a high rock -though lower than the level of our yard and beneath the tree canopy- that would be perfect to set a porch swing (just without the porch).

This next view is the same, just wider. The spring leaves are just now starting to win. Barely.

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