Not Paris

Last year about this time I was in Paris for the French Open Tennis Tournament. While Paris was quite nice, I remember at least one memorably rainy day spent in the stands on Court One, waiting for the drizzle to dissipate. Bad weather happens. The photo below of Gino and me was taken on one of the nice days we spent at Roland Garros, a day on which there was a lot of walking around, watching great tennis and fighting the crowds of tennis fans. Paris was beautiful. St Paul is pretty nice, too.

Today in Minnesota the weather was nice much of the day, except for the couple of hours in the afternoon when it rained and the weather creatures took over the local TV stations to warn about impending tornados - and interrupting the broadcast of the UEFA Champions League Final soccer game between Manchester United and Barcelona from Wembley Stadium. (Barcelona won 3-1.) The morning weather was nice enough to demand a walk around the neighborhood and the photo below records the day from the top of the St. Clair stairs near the new tennis courts.

Then it rained really hard.

After the game and the rain, I went back to Como to appreciate the return of the sun. It turned to sunny and pleasant in a hurry. The sun brought back the wildlife, including this great white heron - maybe the same one I've caught there in the past. This guy is perched on a fallen tree's branch and seems to be at peace with its world. There were also wood ducks, mallards, geese, turtles and muskrats using the lake today, while the citizens of St Paul used the walking paths, mostly unaware of much of the wildlife's activities.

There was tennis again today at Roland Garros. I was in St Paul, but, by the miracle of the modern internet, I know that Novak Djokovic won his 40th consecutive match of the year and 42nd overall by beating Juan-Martin del Potro in four sets. Next he gets Gasquet, then probably Federer, followed by Raffa Nadal, if the historic streak is to continue. Things are getting tougher.