For a long time during the winter rains this year, I couldn’t go walking in my neighborhood, since I had no way to protect myself (with both hands on my walker) or the walker itself from the rain. Then it was just unpleasantly cool and tough on my breathing, and anyway I moved into Whizz City (for good medical reasons) and had only about 20-minute intervals to walk in, at the risk of pissing my pants on the sidewalks of Palo Alto (which did happen once, just once, an occasion that succeeded in warning me away from going out).
But recently it’s gotten warmer and drier, so on Sunday I ventured to walk around the block during a safely whizz-free interval, and it was absurdly pleasant, to be out in the sun in my place, able to stop and rest when I needed to, because my excellent Rollator comes with a seat you can sit on when you need to (a boon for someone who suffers from dyspnea on exertion).
Along the way I noticed a number of handsome small street trees with quite striking dark purple leaves, trees I apparently had previously, negligently, just treated as background. Some rooting around on-line led me to the information that I was looking at some cultivar — there are quite a few — of the purple leaf plum / purple-leaf plum / purpleleaf plum, purple plum for short (presumably a cultivar with only tiny hard fruits, so it makes a good ornamental street tree). A pleasure of the afternoon.
A bit more on the trees below. But first, on to Monday, yesterday, with a somewhat more ambitious walk in a 20-minute window, this time on business.
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