My then seven-year-old granddaughter spread butter on her blueberry pancakes–blueberries from the bushes just outside the kitchen window. She (who loves blueberries) took a bite and then announced, “These pancakes have too many blueberries!” We still laugh over that comment. Can pancakes ever have too many blueberries?

But I’ve thought of that remark lately as the brilliant green shades outside get more intense every day and the flashes of neon-like flower colors come at me from all directions. This spring has too much color! I can’t remember a more beautiful spring, or has the dull green/gray of the winter muddled my senses and do I say this every spring?

Early morning shades of green in my front yard

I had planned to post “Hitting My Stride” today, a piece about my “participation” in the Viking Fest Road Race, but I instead sent it to the local newspaper, the North Kitsap Herald, and they printed it yesterday. So to read it, you’ll need to go to this address below that will take you to the article on the Herald’s site:

http://www.northkitsapherald.com/community/206985321.html

If you have any difficulty, you can also search “Mary Ekstrand, Hitting My Stride.”