Still counting

You can't count them until you ride them.  The truth is that I am hoping to have a final count of a somewhat higher number than I currently have.  Before I can count them I have to ride them.

So today I rode in what was very clearly November weather.

So grey, so dark.

It was 46 or so when I started at 1pm.  I assumed that as is the normal course of events that the temperatures would rise slightly during my outing.  I was a little concerned by this.  I think that probably my lower limit is 40 or so.  At 46 I figured no use holding back, I donned pretty much the full winter costume.  Including something called shoe covers.  I was worried that as the temperature went up I might find myself overdressed.

No worries.

The temperature DECLINED while I was out to what one place I saw was reporting as 41.

But the miles I rode today count.

The big news is that the road construction on Roselawn is entering the final stages.  Beginning shortly after the Fair that particular route has been peeled back to dirt, followed by a bunch of digging and only now the return of pavement.  The street is still officially closed but it is now bicycle passable.  This is a look back at the street from the Snelling end after I made just exactly that passage.

That's the corn field on frame left.  Corn was so long ago that fairly complete tilling has been completed.  Many years their is fairly significant stubble left in the field over the winter.  It is an agricultural experiment station, apparently the experiment for this winter involved back to the dirt tillage.

I wanted to ride out to Lake Vadnais at least one more time this year.  This time of year is when in the past I have seen swans.  That's an exotic enough sighting for a guy from this particular spot on the planet, I don't want to miss any opportunity to spot the big white birds.

Alas, not today.  It was extremely grey out there and starting to get colder.

There was, however, a considerable amount of wildlife out there, including a couple of large rafts of ducks.

Each group was pretty much like the others, an occasional mallard but mostly a profusion of what I believe I identified last year as lesser scaup.

I started to ride away and almost missed this.

So the vermin are being culled out there again.

I say good.  Others say how can you shoot Bambi?