On the grid

Springtime. Unmistakably springtime.

Today for the first time to me it felt not even a tiny bit like an abnormally warm day too early in the year for it to really be spring. Today felt like springtime.

There is a reason why I keep returning to the same routes. I like the route and enjoy the ride. Today I got back on the grid and took one of the pretty regular routes.

The wind was described as southeast on the TV but when I got out there it felt strong from the east but didn't seem to have much effect on either north or south. I have lots of routes where I ride mostly north and/or south, today I rode one of them.

It was warm and sunny, a spring day. The flowering trees are in full bloom, all of the trees are greening up. The sky was blue, it looked and smelled fabulous.

Springtime.

It is tulip time in Shoreview.

I rode on out to Highway 96 and doubled back through the Snail Lake Regional Park and the City of Saint Paul water impoundment facility.

Some will know that means Lake Vadnais.

I framed that picture up just exactly that way for a reason. I often try to eliminate signs of civilization from photos taken out there. Today I deliberately intended to include that gravel patch (the lighter colored bit nearer to the pavement) in front of the LOOK. The gravel patch is part of a late last year road and shoulder project which saw quite a bit of gravel added to the parking lot in particular. I have been riding gingerly around the edges wanting to be sure that the gravel had "set up" enough to be stable for the small amount of riding that I want to do in that parking lot. It now seems OK but that isn't the reason for including it in the photo.

When we were in Duluth for the hockey we went out to that beach north of town. While standing there looking at the water we discussed some that the large boulders and gravel lining the beach are probably not native, that "rip-rap" was hauled in in the park construction project. I partly believe this to be true (I am not a geologist but I know a couple) because there is a broad expanse of soil between the nearest on land bed rock exposure and the rocks on the beach. Further I thought I could discern a slight difference in appearance between the bed rock and the beach rock.

We got to discussing agates. I theorized that there were quite probably plenty of agates in the gravel but that spotting agates was a skill I had never acquired even though I sometimes wish that it was something that I could do.

A couple of weeks ago I rode to Vadnais and stood looking down at that new gravel and had a eureka moment when I though I spotted an agate. I kept looking and eventually brought two small stones home with me. One I felt pretty confident was an agate and the other I thought maybe could be as well. My intention was to consult one of the geologists I know and get a professional opinion.

Today I was standing at Vadnais lining up my photo when it happened again.

And this time there is absolutely no question, I don't even need a geologist for this one.  I included that gravel patch in the photo because it is where I found two agates.

So the two larger rocks on the top are the ones I found a couple of weeks ago.  The one on the right of the photo seems the most like an agate to me.

The two smaller rocks I found today and they absolutely are agates.

It's a small thing but it made me happy.

Here's another small thing that made me happy.

Two years ago when we went to Paris we stayed on Rue Saint Honoré. We walked down towards Palais Royal frequently and passed by two really pretty fountains. We caught our cab for the airport from the taxi stand right in front of one of the fountains. I tried to find out the names of the fountains but was never able to.

Today I was catching up with a blog that I read frequently but not every day and came across this post: Fontaine du Théâtre Français. The post includes this photo of a fountain recognizable to all.

In the course of reading through the comments on the blog I discovered further that there is a famous painting of the Place and Fontaine which is part of the collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The work is entitled Place du Théâtre Français, Paris: Rain, by Camille Pissarro (1898).

Sometimes small things are the most fun. Today I found two agates and the name of a fountain in Paris. Pretty good work, all things considered.