• 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!

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  • 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!

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  • 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
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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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. 🙏

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  • leaves,  quotes,  sky,  trees

    A Summertime Truth

    April 15, 2026

    “Here is a summertime truth: abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community not only creates abundance – community is abundance. If we could learn that equation from the world of nature, the human world might be transformed”

    Parker J. Palmer

    I have enjoyed this summer-like day. I sat on my porch and journaled this afternoon. A cool breeze blew and enticed the trees to dance with it. I watched two small robins, who I think were juveniles, chasing one another around the old tree stump. I watched two baby squirrels jumping from branch to branch in their game of tag. These simple games most young ones play. A blackbird sang its song from the far edge of the pond. And the geese continue to practice in their attempt at a song, unsuccessfully I must add. As I look up I see the blue sky with puffs of clouds silently and slowly drifting by. For me it was a cool summertime day with an abundance of community around me. I feel my day has been full. I hope your day was a full.

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  • coffee life,  coffee shops,  moon,  quotes,  trees

    Keep me on schedule…

    March 8, 2026

    Collect moments, not things

    Paolo Coelho

    This moment happened this morning as Jeff and I waited for Mugs to open. And, this moment happened an hour earlier than it would have yesterday due to the time change. Strange as it may seem I was not even aware of the change until we got inside the coffee shop. Goes to show how much I care about it and how dependant I am on my phone and watch to keep me on schedule. Anyway, it was a nice moment to share with Jeff. I hope you had a wonderful Sunday!

    And back in September the Department of Defense was renamed to Department of War and that is what they are doing. No defense involved nor any attempt at peace. The president’s 2024 campaign prominently promised to be a “president of peace” by ending “forever wars,” preventing World War III, and not starting new conflicts. What happened to those promises?

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  • quotes,  snow,  trees,  winter scenes

    It’s a quiet day

    March 6, 2026

    Love is the seed of life in my own heart
    when it seeks the good of the other.

    Thomas Merton

    Finally a taste of winter. It began snowing early this morning, just now beginning to let up and turning to rain. I am guessing 1-3 inches of snow. US 287 north from Ted’s Place to Laramie, Wy was closed earlier due to blizzard conditions but is now open. This is a much needed gift of moisture for us. Had a mocha early at Mugs and have laundry in the dryer now. It’s a quiet day. I hope you enjoy your Friday!

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