• bicycle rides,  bicycling,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises,  trees

    The Gift of Riding

    July 13, 2026
    Edited with Lightroom and Jetpack Image Editor

    “There is beauty in silence and there is silence in beauty and you can find both in a bicycle!”

    Mehmet Murat ildan

    The gift of riding. That’s a simple statement but I think it needs to be expanded on. I had been looking at bicycles because I began having issues with my back when I walked more than 5k steps. This August it will be two years since I purchased my e-bike. From that purchase a new world opened for me and the gifts began appearing. So here are some reasons I consider riding my red steed as a gift. It includes good cardio exercise since it does not bother my back. I do not have to deal with the insanity and congestion of traffic. I spend less money on gas, put fewer miles on my car and I pollute less. I am spending more time in the elements of nature. This was a surprise because the riding puts me in nature rather than being enclosed in a car. To enhance the experience of nature I enjoy taking the Spring Creek Trail, even though it’s a longer ride than across campus. In taking that trail I’m experiencing more of the sounds, sights and smells of nature. While riding I am in the midst of the beauty and the silence of nature. For me it is the gift of a spiritual experience and a wonderful way to start my day.

    I bought the Trek Verve+ 1 bicycle. I did a lot of research into what I wanted before settling on this bike because I felt it met my needs as a Class 1. It has a small rear hub 250W motor with 40NM of torque. That easily gets me up any hills around here. The battery is rated at 250Wh, is integrated in the downtube, and lets me get about 32 miles on a charge. It has a Shimano 8 speed shifter, which has more gears than I need or use. I handed them my credit card after the return of my first test ride!

    Read More
  • bicycle rides,  bicycling,  landscape,  mountains,  nature,  Plants,  reflections,  Spring Creek Trail,  trees

    Another Hot Day…

    July 12, 2026
    Edited with Lightroom and Jetpack Fantasy Art

    The original image for this scene was taken this morning on my bicycle ride home from the coffee shop. I am standing at a concrete detention wall that creates a small pond used for water control. I must say the bicycle ride home from the coffee shop, almost two hours later, was much hotter than the ride to the coffee shop. Today is expected to be in the upper 90s and I can feel it now. Same forecast for the next 5 days. And for anyone interested I found out Dairy Queen was closing about 45 franchises due to some franchise issues, primarily Alaska, Texas and Montana. Luckily the closures do not affect my area. Whew!! I hope you stay cool and calm today!

    Read More
  • Anime,  Art,  bicycle rides,  bicycling,  Creativity,  landscape,  Plants,  Spring Creek Trail,  trees

    My Morning Ride

    July 10, 2026

    I am thoroughly enjoying my morning rides to the coffee shop along Spring Creek Trail. This morning I stopped and took this image while standing on a small bridge over the creek then put it though the Jetpack image editor to come up with this AI generated image. I used anime style with enhancement. I did ask it to add the sunbeams and show more of the creek. I feel it gave a decent representation of the original scene. Anyway, it was fun to play with. It is another hot day for most of the country so I hope you enjoy or have enjoyed your day!

    Before
    After
    Read More
  • bicycle rides,  bicycling,  natural areas,  quotes,  trees

    The Mornings Conversation

    July 8, 2026

    If we think of the Earth as a big warehouse of commodities, as mere objects, we claim a kind of privilege to exploit what we believe that we own. In that property mindset, how we consume doesn’t really matter because it’s just stuff and the stuff all belongs to us. There’s no moral constraint on consumption. And so we find ourselves in a time of ecological and spiritual depletion.

    Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

    My friend Jeff and I both just finished reading a book titled The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The above quote from her book stuck out for both of us and brought up a wonderfully enriching conversation this morning. Every once in a while we enter into such conversations which allows us to get to know and experience ourselves better at deeper levels. At least that’s true for me. I am aware of the amount of consumerism I partake in and have been practicing more moral constraint in my consumption the past few years. I am also aware of how much marketing is placed in front of me every day to increase my consumption. I took the above image this morning on my bicycle ride to the coffee shop. This is the same cottonwood tree elder as yesterday but looking from Stuart St. just before I turn onto Fisher Natural Area. I loved the clouds!! They say possible rain this afternoon so to help out I started dancing and rolled all the windows down in my car.

    Read More
  • bicycle rides,  bicycling,  natural areas,  poems,  trees

    Too be like a tree…

    July 7, 2026

    To be a giant and keep quiet about it,
    To stay in one’s own place;
    To stand for the constant presence of process
    And always to seem the same;
    To be steady as a rock and always trembling,
    Having the hard appearance of death
    With the soft, fluent nature of growth,
    One’s Being deceptively armored,
    One’s Becoming deceptively vulnerable;
    To be so tough, and take the light so well,
    Freely providing forbidden knowledge
    Of so many things about heaven and earth
    For which we should otherwise have no word—
    Poems or people are rarely so lovely,
    And even when they have great qualities
    They tend to tell you rather than exemplify
    What they believe themselves to be about,
    While from the moving silence of trees,
    Whether in storm or calm, in leaf and naked,
    Night and day, we draw conclusions of our own,
    Sustaining and unnoticed as our breath
    And perilous also—though there has never been
    A critical tree—about the nature of things.

    Howard Nemerov, The Tree from The Poetry of Presence

    I read this poem yesterday and loved the message it brought to me. I thought I’d share it on this blog and maybe it will touch you, also. I knew immediately which tree I wanted to include with the post. So this morning on my ride to the coffee shop I stopped to take a moment and admire again this wise old cottonwood elder and take a photo of them. The tree is located along Fisher Natural Area and I have several images of it. You can see in the image we are still experiencing the effects of the forest fires. And, they say it will be hot again today.

    Read More
  • bicycle rides,  bicycling,  coffee life,  landscape,  sunrises

    Bacon Toast

    July 4, 2026
    Bacon Toast
    Spring Creek this morning

    I treated myself to something new this morning at Mugs, called Bacon Toast. It is bacon, avocado, sprouts, feta cheese and drizzled with balsamic glaze over sourdough toast. It was well worth my money. My day has been quiet. After my ride to the coffee shop and time with the community I celebrate there, I made sure I ate a couple hot dogs with chips and a piece of peach pie. It wouldn’t be the 4th without the hot dogs! Not the healthiest eating day for me but… I hope you enjoyed your celebration of our 250th anniversary.

    Read More
  • flowers,  Plants,  quotes

    Morning Glory

    July 3, 2026

    “Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”

    A.A. Milne

    Field bindweed (Morning glory) is a twining weed which spreads by seed and by new plants arising from a perennial root system reaching ten feet or more in depth. The slender stems may reach six feet in length, running along the ground or climbing fences, crop plants, ornamentals, or other convenient supports. Years ago I needed to dig fence post holes and found roots 3 feet deep. Yet, I agree with Winnie-the-Pooh, they can be beautiful and photogenic.

    Read More
  • landscape,  quotes,  sunsets

    Mother Earth

    July 1, 2026

    Water is life, food is life, soil is life – and they become our lives through the paired miracles of photosynthesis and respiration. All that we need to live flows through the land. It is not an empty metaphor that we call her Mother Earth.

    Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Read More
  • Plants,  quotes,  Spring Creek Trail,  trees

    Walking Together

    June 30, 2026

    “My feet were placed on Mother Earth in the midst of others’
    so that I might learn to walk together with them in my heart.”

    Good Buffalo Eagle, The Seven Paths

    The above quote is a good message to this world. It may just be the answer we are all looking for. We have proven so often that violence and hate never allows us to walk together.

    A friend of mine fell a few days ago and had to have some surgery. She spent some time in rehab and was finally able to return home yesterday. So, welcome home Ruth and pray you have a quick recovery. 🙏

    Read More