Sizzling summer

Wow, it's hot. The oppressive heat combined with a crazy work schedule this week meant no running after work. Had to switch over to walking.
A run last week brought some surprises on my route.
The nice thing about a neighborhood running route is I feel like I get to "know" some of my neighbors, even though I have never met them. Along my route, one neighbor plants a great garden. I love running by this house because I get to see where my garden is compared to another one. And I delight in how well that garden is doing.
This neighbor planted sunflowers and it made me envious. I might have to try those next year. Not sure where I will put them, but here is the end result.

Not only are these beautiful flowers that remind me so much of summer (my grandmother used to grow them in her garden every summer) but you get some yummy sunflower seeds to eat once they are spent.
Another neighbor has left a permanent gift -- sidewalk art.
The sidewalks around my neighborhood are in terrible disrepair or don't exist. It's an area where I think the county that I live in really fails. So I generally run in the street, where it is safe to do, because the sidewalks are so uneven I deem them more dangerous than the road.
So imagine my surprise my first time out on this route when I found this.

sidewalk art

sidewalk art, tree

What I wonder as I pass this art on my route is did the artist have any idea how much joy he/she was giving to a solitary runner like myself? This art is on a part of my route that I can easily skip. I have to turn to make a little loop on my route to include it, and many hot, humid days it is too easy to cut the run short and not make this loop. But then I miss the art.
If you have been following this blog (thank you) you also know this is my "summer of Leo."
I am really bogged down in Anna Karenina. I'm now about half way through, but it is now a really tough go.
First, there are A LOT of characters in the book. I am having a hard time keeping track of everyone. Tolstoy refers to them my different names -- a formal name and a more familiar name -- throughout the book, including nicknames, and I have lost track of who was whom. That is frustrating.
Second, it is a very descriptive narrative, which I think slows the pace of the book. It's not that I dislike descriptive narrative, it's just that Tolstoy's use of it seems excessive to me.
I can certainly see why high school and college students would go to the Cliff Notes version of this book. I'd like to right about now.
I almost feel like ditching the book for several of the books I have in my reading queue. I usually read at least a book a month and I'm still on Anna Karenina!! I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet, but I've thought about it.
Maybe Leo and I should go for a walk, visit the sunflowers and sidewalk art and he can tell me how his book ends. ;)