But I don't really mean it. I love my bicycle, I love being able to be outside in weather where being outside is enjoyable. Today I did still feel a little sluggish even before I started and that's what got me thinking about a day off. But we all know that rest days always, always show up sooner or later. Long range forecasts are now pointing to rain on Sunday.
We had a southeast wind today. That happens to be a wind direction for which I have a very often ridden, extremely familiar early season route. This route gets me home with less than the standard distance, which seemed like a good idea today. But which also lets me if I feel like it ride the near in loop to get the number of miles I want.
The ride starts off along the extremely familiar almost always ridden route to the south. And here it is, the first flowering shrub of the year. Spring has sprung.
Or it may not look familiar as between the two is evidence that another giant has recently left the neighborhood.
There seems to be an inordinate amount of that going on this spring, I can think of at least 5 very large trees gone since the snow melted. Personally what I think is happening is that the giant wind storm of now nearly two years ago that killed our front yard spruce also killed a bunch of other trees here abouts but the homeowners are only just now facing the facts and admitting the loss.
Meanwhile the BigNewTree is coming into its second growing season in our front yard.
Near the shrubs I passed one of the numerous in that neighborhood rain gardens.
The southeast route requires a tour de Fairgrounds. This is another first, the very first thing I have observed that was packed away somewhere for the winter but has now reappeared on the grounds.
That radio station building is one of my personal disappointments on the Fairgrounds. That's a faux log siding and just aluminum panel structure. Up until either two or three years ago they used to put up an actual log structure for the Fair every year. It would be up for the Fair and then dismantled and removed to reappear the following year. I once asked the crew about it and it was just like Lincoln Logs or something, the pieces were actually numbered and reassembled the same way every time. An actual log building has considerably more charm than what is essentially a storage building with phony log siding on the front.
3 comments:
I don't remember another year when there was this much of a disparity between MN and MI weather.
Finally, a flowering bush.
You need some rain for your rain gardens.
The "Association" board here has elected to have the spruce trees around our little park treated. Also Bob and Marty, next door. That big spruce next to my garage has a disease of some sort, as do the others. Without treatment, and maybe with treatment, they all die. Maybe it has spread to MN?
Depends on the type of spruce I think. Ours was a Colorado blue and had a canker which is specific to Colorado blue. The Colorado blue is considered attractive and is consequently widely planted outside their natural range (think Colorado). Outside the natural range the trees are very often under some sort of stress or another and therefore susceptible to disease. The Colorado blue canker can be successfully treated if caught early enough with aggressive pruning of the affected portion of the tree over a period of at least two years.
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