Fridays are meeting days this term, it seems. I sit on a lot of committees and they all demand a bit of time. Friday is the most common day of the week that everyone has available on their calendar, and so there we all are. In Zoom, in person, you name it. Last week it was an experiential learning committee. This week a student relations committee, and so on.

Also, I need to call together a committee I chair. Note to self …

One day, when I am not pulled in four other directions, I will consider making a photo study of the hydrangeas. Their flowers are lovely throughout the season, whether upright, or bent over by the weight of rains.

There’s a unique trait to some hydrangea plants. Did you know that? The color of many hydrangea blooms acts as a natural pH indicator for it soil. Blooms that are blue are living in acidic soil. Those shrubs with red or pink sepals are growing in more alkaline soils. White varieties, such as ours, grow white in either soil. But you can manipulate the color of some of the flowering shrubs in this way. This is thought to be a singular trait of the hydrangea.

Our yard is full of plants and trees that aren’t from around here. The landscapers that put all of this in, long before we bought the place, were going for a united floral nations theme. And the hydrangeas are no different. Their taxonomy was first discussed in Virginia, there are more varieties of this sort of plant in east Asia. We have two. One by the northern gate and one by the backdoor. They both sit in the shade of the house. One gets a perfect dose of morning and midday sun. The other lives in a bit more shade. They’re both huge.

I just can’t get them to survive, upright, a late summer heavy rain. The water comes down, sits on those leaves and pulls the whole thing over. But they do flower lovely, and even at this later stage of their season, they are satisfying to look at. (But I’d prefer them upright.)

We did a 20 mile bike ride this evening. It was a late start for reasons of work and ennui. So we did most of the time trial route. It was almost curtailed by the new neighbor’s angry dog. He was out in the yard and aggressive. Took nips at both of us. No skin was broken. One sock was punctured.

Usually, when you’re riding, you can see a dog coming. Being field-trained in trigonometry, they’ll often take a good angle. But they don’t understand gearing, and you can usually mitigate the interaction. And then there’s a good old fashioned yell. In my experience, every dog speaks the parlance of my people, “GITOHNOUTTAHEA!!!” works surprisingly well. And no dog is expecting a spray from a water bottle.

But all of that works when you’re up to speed. Since this dog lives directly across the street, all of the dynamics were absurdly different, and I was reduced to using bike frame and tires as a shield when he came back for a second try and we were, stupidly, still standing there.

The neighbors never came outside to observe the ruckus.

Which is good, I suppose. That’s not how I want to meet the new people. We weren’t here when they moved in and we have so far just been waving at one another, all pleasant like, but “Hey, could you watch out for your dog?” might set a tone.

But also bad. My concern is for the young families that walk their kids through this strip of road, the other cyclists that come by, and the people down near the end that drive way too fast on a closed residential street. And, you know, we’re on this road too.

Anyway, it was a pleasant ride, and now we’re going to bring in the weekend with a local outdoor pizza. what a pleasant way to start a lovely few days.

Have a lovely few days yourself. We’ll catch up on Monday.