Today felt like summer. Windy, warm. 88 degrees and the pool has warmed to 77. Swimming temperature for me, but not yet for Judy.

It's the kind of day that you search for shade. Several years ago we planted a Forest Pansy Redbud tree at the corner of the house where one of the large Bradford trees had crashed down in a spring storm. It's a beautiful replacement. 

And this afternoon as I ventured out of the house, I noticed the shade that tree provided and looked up to the sky through the underside of those glorious leaves. I've been writing so much about green lately, and our yard has abundant green. So I laughed when I looked up through the shade of this tree and thought how wonderful it was to have colorful shade. 

I'm an ordinary guy, but I love color. (Except maybe on my plate). Unfortunately, that affection for color has sometimes drawn unwanted attention, like the green-and-orange plaid bell-bottomed suit I wore for Easter (when I had hair) or the red and yellow Hawaiian jammers I wore on campus (when I used to wear swimsuits) or madras shirts and striped pants and lots of other clothing choices.

I mean if you have to choose, you might as well go for bold. Maybe I'm not so ordinary after all!