May is a strange month, with one foot in the school year and the other foot in the summer. One foot in a sensible ballet flat and the other in a flip-flop. One foot with a sad, neglected pedicure and the other with a bright new polish color.

I’m sorry. I was clearly just going to keep going with that terrible metaphor. I’ll try again.

The month began with a breathless, pavement-pounding final-exam grading sprint, spent a little time with its feet up on a plastic chaise longue at the pool, and now it’s back to walking the halls for summer school.

Ennnh, nope.

As a month, May was not a girl, not yet a wom–

Oh, hell; I give up.

Here are my top five photographs from the month. The year’s daily photographs (so far) can be seen here.

[121/365] Graded.

This stack of graded final exams from my large lecture class represented the last task I had to complete in order to finish up the spring semester. The test went smoothly; students did fine; I got everything done and that was a wrap!

[127/365] Solo 20-miler this morning to start my day.

Summer leisure time means long bike rides! I took to the streets by myself for a 20-miler and felt great about it afterward.

[132/365] Favorite

This is one of my all-time favorite basic, healthy, satisfying meals — I realized when I made it this time that I don’t think I have a (good) photograph of it and, worse!, I don’t think I have shared the meal/recipe here. I mean. Without a good photograph and blog post, who can say I made and ate this meal at all, am I right? Well, here is the photo. Blog post coming soon. I hope.

[144/365] Profile

Flannery’s favorite spot of late is this ottoman in the front room of our house. It gets all the morning sun, and she loves to bask in it. She is a pretty lady. As I type this, though, the cat is on my LIST. I do not even want to describe what she did in the bathtub today, nor how harrowing the cleanup process was. I’ll spare you that. You’re welcome.

[145/365] Jade

A broken piece of CW’s favorite (15-year-old!) jade plant he is rooting in this glass. Taking this photo was sort of an afterthought at the time, but it turned out to be a good idea: when I went to edit it, I noticed that the water level was low and had the opportunity to add some more. The plant was saved by my heroic daily photo project, and I will brook no alternate narratives.