Not quite warm enough

This morning TOPWLH looked out the front window and pronounced it to be a very pretty day.  The sun was out giving that clear crisp blue sky that often appears when it isn't quite warm enough.

It was 48 when I headed out and I guess I should wait for 50.  It wasn't quite warm enough.

I have the gear so I wasn't actually chilled.  But I never really got warmed up.  And as we all know, riding in the cold is harder than riding in the 70s.  It was hard.

Then the clouds rolled in.  So it was already not quite warm enough and then the radiant heat from the sun was removed.

The positive element of today's ride was that the gale force winds of the last couple of rides were considerably subdued.

I headed north for the first time.  My previous miles this year were all ridden in Roseville, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights and Saint Paul.  Those communities are all quite nearby, all within a couple of miles.  Today I went to Shoreview.  That big new building out there on the shores of Island Lake turns out to be apartments, now available for rental.  Shoreview water tower for perspective.

I didn't make it all the way to Vadnais, that is probably going to have to wait another week or two.  Vadnais is still a teensy bit outside of my range.

I did visit another of the northern lakes for the first time this year though.  Here is Lake Owasso from the south end.

Winter is over but the greening up aspect of spring hasn't really kicked in yet.

Except at the neighborhood tulip patch.

The greens are future tulips, the flowers are not.

I think the yellow are croci, I am unsure of the white and the two shades of purple.  Whatever they are it was pretty refreshing to see this display on April 4.  As I noted earlier, last year on April 4 we had a foot of snow overnight.

This is better even if it was not quite warm enough for a bicycle ride.