july 3--uh-oh flowers

My first bike ride today was riding house-mate's bike to check the mileage of my jogging routes, since she has a bike computer. I was disappointed to find out they are shorter than I thought and I am therefore a really slow runner. When I was running with Gail, her GPS said we had a faster pace than I was expecting, so maybe the bike computer is wrong. I need to borrow a GPS.

The next bike ride was to church for another work day. The remodeling project is starting to seem endless. It was a nice day with very little auto traffic. I love holidays for that reason. Temperature was 70 degrees F, winds 5 mph from the north at 10 am. Here's the start of the bike path:

At the prairie garden opposite the Atwood Community Gardens I saw a cool-looking flower:

Then I couldn't stop snapping photos. flowers everywhere! In the spring it's flowering trees, in the summer it's flowers. There's always something.

Here's the community gardens on the other side of the bike path:

and back to the flowers:

Cafe Zoma, a favorite spot for bikers:

Even my church has flowers growing out of the concrete:

On the way home, I spotted more:

july 2

I'm posting this 2 days later. I got back from my vacation late on July 1. I was in the Florida Keys. It was nice, I enjoyed the heat and sun and lectures and food, but I see more wildlife on my bike and kayak in Madison than I did at Duck Key. It's all roads and houses there.

So "today" I went to pick up my bike at the bike shop and road it home. It rides better--I need to learn to do some of my own maintenance-- to adjust the gears and brakes at least. Temperature was 65 degrees, winds 11 mph from NW gusting to 17. It was just warming up from a cold week. I'm glad I missed the cold.

Later on I went to yoga. Temperature was 70 F, winds 6 mph from the NW. a nice day. Here's the start of the bike path:

After yoga, I visited some friends. Left for home about 9:30 pm. It was just getting dark. The moon was pretty overlooking the lake.

It's good to be back home.

June 23

Yesterday I went to exercise class in the morning and I'm really glad for 2 reasons:  1) I got panicked in the afternoon preparing for a trip and wouldn't have made it to the gym, and 2) it got really hot in the afternoon, so the morning ride was more pleasant.  Though I do like the hot weather.

I'm at the airport right now and the network is too slow to upload images.  Plus I still can't find my battery charger so took crappy pictures with my cell phone; so it's no great loss to not have the pics,  even though there was a cute one.

The temperature was 70 F at 7 am, dewpoint 70 F!   Winds were calm.   It was sunny.  I do like the morning rides because there are so many active birds especially behind Olbrich gardens.   And there was a buckeye tree.  Now I know what those are (see yesterday's post).

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and got home about 10 am.  Now the temperature was 85 degrees F, winds 6 mph from the SW.  I saw the coolest thing behind Olbrich gardens:  a mama green heron teaching her 3 babies to fly!   They had it pretty well figured out.  It was so cute.   I took a couple of pictures of the them.  I wished I'd brought the good camera.   Maybe I'll have to start taking it all the time.  

Now I'm at the O'Hare airport.  I'm going on vacation to a Health Getaway.   I'm told there are bike rentals so maybe I'll be biking this week but I think I'll be busy going to lectures and working out and eating good food and swimming at the beach.   back on July 2...

june 20 & 21

I didn't have time to post on the weekend.  Saturday was a glorious warm day.  Others may disagree with the "glorious" part, but after our long winter, I'm still loving the heat.   The temperature was 78 degrees F at 10:30 am (dewpoint 66 F, yes, I enjoy the humidity too!), winds 6 mph from the NW.  Here's the start of the bike path.

There always seems to be something in bloom.  Now the summer flowers are starting to bloom.  This is the prairie gardens across from the Atwood Community gardens.

After my work day at church I headed to the grocery store.  I love this route.  This is the Yahara bike path I take from Johnson street to Willy street.  Thank you city of Madison for building this route!   It tunnels under the major roads.  Here's E. Washington:

Here's my favorite reading spot near E. Main.

A turtle was swimming by a duck.  

When I headed home at 1:30 pm, it was 82 F, winds from the W at 8 mph.  I road along the lake.

Then yesterday, I did a repeat of Saturday's bike ride.   It didn't feel as warm because of clouds.  Temperature was 76 F at 9 am, winds 6 mph from the SE.  I like these light winds in summer.  My camera battery is dead and I can't find my charger, so there's no picture of the bike path. 

 At church someone mentioned seeing a flowering buckeye tree.  I asked what the heck is that and he said there is one on Johnson st. and it's the only flowering tree this time of year, and that's where the Ohio St. buckeye mascot comes from.   So I went to take a look and there it was.  I remembered I have a camera on my cell phone:

It pretty and tall and makes a lot of white flowers.  

After grocery shopping I headed home at about 2pm, temp was 81 F, winds 8 mph from the SE.  I rode along the lake again.  I looked for more buckeye trees and saw several at Olbrich gardens.  

Biking along Johns street, I came across the largest lawn ornament I've seen:

Almost home, riding up Major street I saw another buckeye tree.  They have big green leaves too.  So now I know what a buckeye tree is.

june 19

oops, we drove the you-know-what today.  went shopping on the west side. 

jun 18

ah, warm and humid.   I bathed in the warm air and sun on my bike ride while wearing my shorts and t-shirt.  I finally sweated during my workout.  Everyone else thought it was too humid.  ahhhh.   felt good.   I left about 4:15 pm, the temperature was 80 degrees F, winds 10 mph from the south.   Dewpoint 66 F.  yeah! 

  

I guess I won't show the picture of the dead animal in Starkweather Creek.  Housemate would probably object.  I think it was a sea turtle.  how sad!  They are so cool.

I stopped at a friend's house on the way to the gym to drop off our dinner.   Then stopped off after the gym to eat it.   Yum.  

I headed home about 9 pm.  Temperature was 76 F, winds 10 mph from the SSE.  It was starting to get dark and was very peaceful on the bike path.  I wondered where the birds and animals headed home to at night.  

June 17

Today I had 3 different places to go, with breaks in between so I got to spend a lot of time outside. The temperature was 72 F when I left at 1:30 pm. Winds were 5 mph from the north. The sun was just starting to poke out from the clouds. It was humid. It felt great, if a little cool. Here's the duck family at Starkweather creek.

Then I realized I forgot to take a picture of the bike path. Here it is from the Starkweather creek bridge:

After my haircut, I had some time to kill before my exercise class, so I stopped at a dock on the Yahara river near E. Main st. This was nice. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I read some work stuff. Got a lot done actually.

Facing north:

The ducks rambled by

looking south:

then I headed off to a meeting, read some more work stuff before the meeting started, then headed home at 8 pm. The temperature was about 70 F then, winds calm. This rose bush (I think) at the Atwood community gardens was beautiful.