Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Anybody know what these are?

I had a CLE this morning. I came home for lunch. Instead of going back to work I took vacation time and watched Euro 2008. Germany 3, Turkey 2, in an unusually dramatic game. Germany, of course, has the 2 Polish born players. Turkey on the other hand has 2 German born players, an Englishman, a Brazilian and an Argentine. And unbelievable grit.

I also watched some tennis. French doubles specialist Nathalie Dechy extended current world number 1 Ana Ivanovic to 10-8 in the third set but finally succumbed.

And I got out on the road about an hour earlier than usual. It turns out that an hour earlier is a really good thing. Racer boy and his unresolved angst is still pretty much still at work at 4pm. I had a nice mellow ride along the river.

I thought the flowering shrubs were done but today I came across two different species in full bloom. These are apparently barred by city ordinance in Roseville. In Roseville I saw not a single one of them. But just across city lines in Falcon Heights and then in Saint Paul these were fairly common.These are along Hamline Avenue just outside Como Park at Midway Parkway. The white flowers are small and fancy, maybe sort of like lace. They smell nice when you get close enough to them.

There were two trees in close proximity to each other featuring these large white blossoms.These are just around the corner from the above trees, on the corner of the street that features all oak trees as boulevard trees. The trees are very striking but don't seem to have much odor.

It was hot today, upper 80s, and very windy. Wind always makes for hard work on at least part of the ride but I enjoyed being out there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've seen some of the trees in the first photo -- quite striking, but I don't know what they are. I can't help with the second one either -- but nice photos. Most of our flowering trees and shrubs are done. Just a few here and there. It rained off and on all day here -- I tried to ride, but got wet and gave up quickly.