The Dawn Jogger is beating that she could fool a lot of fellow Menlo Park residents regarding the location of the photo she took on her morning outing. Some might guess nearby Woodside or Portola Valley, given the wine barrels. But the scene is on Arbor Rd. in Menlo Park at the Allied Arts Guild. A gate that is normally closed was open when she jogged by, so she stopped and snapped this shot. Love the color of the wood…
It was only two weeks ago that the Dawn Jogger had walked the circuit at Baylands Park in Palo Alto. Meeting friend Amy and her two dogs, Rosie and Lucy, there this morning, she found the open space had grown. Today was the opening of the expanded acreage, they found out, although luckily most of the early birds had moved on. For now the new acres are just plowed fields. How it will eventually look, she’s not sure…
The Dawn Jogger was on the home stretch this morning, just needing to cross the San Francisquito Bike Bridge and jog up Bay Laurel to home, when a mom and son passed her by. On the back of the tandem bike, old glory was waving in the breeze. Was it always there or had it been added in advance of this weekend’s 4th of July holiday? She’ll never know. But she did get a friendly wave from the mom…
A couple of days ago, the Dawn Jogger spied some young people who were taking advantage of one of Stanford’s summer “revenue generating” opportunities eying the somewhat landlocked red canoe at Lake Lagunita. On her jog this morning, she noticed the canoe had been moved. It is now happily sitting in some water. The paddling opportunities remain limited…
The Dawn Jogger admits she didn’t know much about caging tomatoes – and she doesn’t remember the male DJ doing so. But he could have, that was how little attention she paid to what went into gardening as opposed to enjoyed the bounty of gardening. She was told by gardening expert Nancy that tomatoes should be caged when they’re first put into the ground. So with the lettuce gone and eaten, and tomato plants purchased and planted, she did just that. Her morning jog produced no photos, so she snapped the cages…
The Dawn Jogger has always thought it somewhat ironic that she sees considerably more people around the Stanford campus during the summer than she does during the school year. This is due, of course, to the various “revenue generators” that populate the campus during the summer, the granddaddy of which is the Stanford Executive Program, a six-week residential program costing a cool $58,000 (with an extra $5,800 for “individual development”).
This morning she spotted a new crop of golf campers, appearing to be college age kids, older than the younger crew she’d seen a couple of weeks back. There were also some high school (or college, hard to say) age people walking or jogging around Lake Lagunita (small frogs beware!). A group went down to inspect the red canoe and, for a moment, considered getting into it. Without much water to paddle in they moved on. As did the Dawn Jogger…
The Dawn Jogger is not a gardener, rather she is an appreciator of gardens and, in particular, the bounty of vegetable gardens. But given that the male DJ loved gardening and built a garden in 2010 for granddaughter Grace, it seemed reasonable to keep the garden going this year, with Grace’s involvement, of course.
So she started by buying some lettuce, squash, cucumber and tomato seedlings at the Menlo Park farmers market. Then Grace planted carrot, bean and sunflower seeds on Easter day. To date, the garden has exceeded all expectations. The lettuce grew to be gorgeous purple/green heads, the last of which will be eaten later today. The beans are set to produce a huge bounty, and yesterday Grace noticed the first buds of what will be sunflowers.
With a few empty patches to be filled, the DJ once again made some purchases at the farmers market this morning, buying two varieties of tomatoes to plant in the box vacated by the lettuce. They’ve been put in the ground and cages are on the list to purchase tomorrow. Who would have thought…
After her preschool recital on Friday night, Grace came home for an overnight with the Dawn Jogger. That made it easy for the two of them to get up on Saturday morning and go berry picking at Webb Ranch. The target this was blackberries and Grace quickly picked two baskets full. The bigger highlight was spotting a baby cottontail rabbit, so much cuter than the the desert hares that are commoner in these parts. (Alas, the cottontails are often discarded Easter pets.) But once again showing how small things delight a 3 1/2 year old, Grace spotted a dandelion on the way home from playing in the kindergarten yard at the nearby school. And she now just what to do with it – blow…
Lake Lagunita shrinks even more but the two boats that first appeared at the beginning of the month. The Dawn Jogger wonders who will claim them when the water disappears altogether. Not a bad way to start a summer day…
Trying to stay on the flat more, the Dawn Jogger has been returning to longer Stanford campus runs of the type the DJs and loyal dog Cassie did at least three times a week. You never know what you’re going to see on campus, never more so during the summer months when the various “revenue generators” appear in the forms of athletic camps, executive education and, in the case of this, morning, special colloquiums.
Even though it was well before most people’s breakfast or even wake up time, tables and chairs had been set out near Frost Amphitheater. The topic to be discussed – the 1641 Depositions (top of mind for the DJ, to be sure!). Just in case others are as equally uninformed: “The 1941 Depositions, held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, are a collection of documents comprising some 8000 personal statements collected from (mainly Protestant) witnesses documenting their experiences of the Irish uprising that began in October 1641. Collected by government-appointed commissioners, the witness testimony runs to approximately 20,000 pages, and constitutes the chief evidence for the sharply contested allegation that the rebellion began with a general massacre of Protestant settlers. The 1641 Depositions are therefore a significant, yet controversial source of informationfor the causes and events surrounding the 1641 Rebellion and a unique account of the social, economic, cultural, religious, political and linguistic history of 17th century Ireland, England and Scotland.” OK, so now you know…
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Dawn Jogger 2011 