Saturday, June 6, 2009

Communing with Nature

Lightning storms on Wednesday, with a a breath of sunshine on Thursday but stuck at work. Friday raining like gangbusters followed by a Saturday fraught with clouds. My umbrella placed back in my car as a peace offering to spirits. My mistake for removing it before the first day of summer.

The long cycling leggings were dug out of the drawer this morning. A bit warm for the hot sweaty ride on the way up. Perfect for the descent. Was this June or January. Both.

The air smelled fresh, easy to breath. Clouds kept a few folks off the road and the natives of the forest were out in the mid-morning quiet. Movement on the road caught my eye. The bushiness of the fur made me think rabbit, the upright ears alert and velvety reminded me of a deer, then the short skinny legs rising up to the all over fuzziness of youth emerged as coyote pup. No time to retrieve a camera from the back pocket. Directly above us a predator bird floated looking for rabbit sized food. Hide pup! Hide. The aviator sported dark wings, dark body, a red flap of skin looped over its beak.



Photo courtesy of Ron.

Darting across the pavement the pup disappeared into the brush of the hillside, back to home base and safety.

Missing in action were the bee hives. Taken out on two heavy flat bed trucks on Thursday evening around eight o'clock. Two of the three locations were vacant.

Clouds shrouded the earth and brought living things closer. A crow led my bike up the ascent to the maintenance shed. I spoke to the floating bird and asked if the wrappers from fast food looked enticing. Perfectly logical thing to do when the blood circulated fast and hard in the body.

The top of Monroe reached Mt. Baldy was hidden behind clouds.



Ron G's photo of an eagle or hawk on Monday:






The afternoon brought a nine month decision to a finality. I have ordered a new bicycle, a Specialized Ruby Expert Triple.