the sun rose alone into a robin's egg blue sky.
the world was very quiet.
so i got out my bike and went for a ride.
a mere shadow of myself.
humming past a crow . . .
"hello crow" . . .
"lot's to see today steven."
"yeah thanks crow, i'll keep my eyes open!"
wildflowers by the side of the road
i love a lot about bike rides.
i especially love climbing hills which runs against the usual perspective cyclists have of hills
but you see there's this magic moment
approaching the hill
when you start to wonder,
what'll be on the other side?!!
it's so much like the rest of life.
i'm rarely disappointed
over the hill
and
on through the countryside
'cross the slow-moving little river
i stop and admire the loathed purple loosestrife.
why loathed.
it's so beautiful!
i have a moment of wish i could wish i might -
oh pleeeeeease, please let me ride on the ultra smooth 100 kph highway to ottawa
one hour and 26 kilometres later a little less of a shadow of myself . . .
and then home . . . . .
35 comments:
Hi there Steven
what wonderfully peaceful roads you are biking on. Is your town very large? You are on the outskirts right? Near where?
I had planned to get a new bike this winter - too hot for riding in the summer unless you go at 5am... which many people do. Do you ride early?
Ok, got a clue - you said ride to Ottawa - so I have found Peterborough in the atlas...
These green paddocks are so picturesque, what is growing? Is this area covered in snow in winter?
Thanks for the refreshing ride through the countryside...
Happy days
Hey Steven:
Thanks for letting me come on the bike ride with you and your shadow! Love the shadow shots. Makes me think of the Stevenson children's ditty:
"I have a little shadow, that goes in and out with me;
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see;
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head,
And I see him jump before me . . ."
Oh yes, our shadow follows us everywhere . . .
You have a lot of wide open spaces there - quite lovely!
Such lush, lovely countryside.
Yes, lots of metaphors for life.
Congratulations on your 1000th post.
That is quite an achievement.
hello delwyn! i'm glad you could come along! the town i live in has over seventy thousand people in it. i am on the western edge of the town about one hundred metres east of farmland. if i bike north one kilometre i am in fields and it extends into the most beautiful area of hills and lakes called the kawarthas. south of where i am sitting i need to go about two kilometres before i arrive in countryside which is where this ride took me. if i keep going south, which i will in a week and a bit, i travel about fourty kilometres before i arrive at the edge of lake ontario. on the other side is america.
i like to ride in first half of the day for shorter rides - fifty km and under. longer rides - well i'm looking at 25 km per hour so they can go for whatever amount of time it takes so it can be hot sometimes. not so much this summer but you sweat regardless!! the fields in this area are largely growing corn for human consumption but there's also alfalfa, root crops, and more recently ginseng and hemp have started to appear. yes, this entire area is covered with snow in the winter. if you travel through my winter postings you'll see lots and lots of winter scenes delwyn!!! in a normal winter we'll accumulate several feet on the ground with the snowbanks up the side of the driveway sometimes reaching ten or twelve feet. but it depends on the winter! i can hardly wait to share the seasons!!! have a lovely day by the river delwyn!! steven
hello bonnie, thanks for coming along! i love that little poem. i looked it up because there's so much poetry i just don't know. you know from your work the metaphoric place the shadow sits in!!! if you read that whole poem with both the literal and metaphoric in mind it's really intriguing. nice choice for the lovely double entendre....... have a peaceful sunday . . . steven
hi golden west, i love the opening up of the big expanses, especially from the hilltops - of which there are many in my area because we are situated near a lot of glacial depsits - drumlins - and one honker of a moraine. lots of climbing, lots of amazing views., lots of flying down the other side!!! have a lovely day out west! steven
hello elizabeth, i know that living where i am , i am truly blessed. it is a very beautiful area and the next time i'm north of here near the lakes i'll try and remember to get some pictures. thanks for coming along on the ride. steven
Hi again Steven:
I am a follower of The Golden Fish, and yet it does not appear on my blog list. I was perplexed by this, tried a few things and then finally tried to type your URL (twice) to ADD to my blog list. Instead of your blog name, a french blog name appeared twice.
Anyway, was wondering if any other of your followers have had this problem. If so, it will affect the traffic here - AND deny many people the option of clicking on your blog, when they see it listed on others'.
I knew you were ethereal, mysterious and not easily pinned down, but . . . I want The Golden Fish to appear as one of my favourites - and it refuses!
hi bonnie, i haven't heard of any issues from other followers who arrive here and i'm not entirely sure why it would default to a french blog. i got kicked out of french in grade 8 for failing it so miserably and then for being a behaviour problem!! go figure!! perhaps if you send it as a concern to blogger they can look into it for you. thanks for the heads up. if anyone else reads this and has a similar challenge please let me know!! thnaks. steven
I really enjoyed that bike ride Steven, and all from the comfort of my arm chair - that's the sort of outing I like. Must say that the countryside could have been in England.
hello weaver and thanks for coming along on the ride!!! i can tell you that the saddle on my bike is a whole lot less comfortable thank your armchair!!! i see the comparison with the english countryside and it wears well. what i haven't seen here and what i miss with all my heart are the moors and the pennines weaver. have a lovely day - and i hope it dries enough for the farmer to get his hay in!! steven
Hi, Steven,
I really enjoyed riding with you this morning. Cycling was for two decades (from 1981 to 2003) my favorite form of exercise and recreation and, like you, I live adjacent to some excellent cycling venues. I kept a logbook and logged upwards of 50,000 miles twice around our fair earth at the equator.
I stopped riding so much in 2003 when our country went to war. I noticed a significant spike in impatience and hostility in our country generally. and a tiny fraction of this hostility was--inevitably and undeservedly--directed against polite and diffident cyclists like me who simply wished to share the edge of the road.
Luckily, I discovered my feet and lots of great trails to walk on.
hi dan, that's one huge amount of cycling. amazing!!! i've been biking since i was four or five but as an adult since 1991 when i started teaching. it was the best way to get to and from in this relatively small town (70,000+) which is not well-served by public transit. i've noticed a huge change in the attitudes of drivers since i started cycling. they are much more respectful and careful. there are bike trails and bike lanes starting to crop up all over town and there's a very friendly cycling community. we wave to each other and say hello - simple things that i really value. my students (and their parents) love seeing their skinny middle-aged teaching booking it along in his tight bike shorts in rain or shine. i'll be riding along and a little squeaky voice will come from a tiny face hanging out of a car window and it makes me laugh as much as them - but for a different reason. happy walking dan!!!! steven
I've popped over from Elizabeth's blog because I've enjoyed reading your comments there.... and I'm so glad I have! First of all - your header - simply stunning. Your bike ride looks gorgeous, the photographs are lovely. Oh, to be able to ride long roads in bright sunshine again. Poor old England is having a very gloomy summer indeed.
I'm off now to read more of your posts and to savour more lovely photographs. Nice to have 'met' you, Steven!
Hi Steven: False alarm - you have been found and the golden fish is duly listed among my favs. Sorry to bother you with my quandries.
hi tessa, thanks for joining us on the ride! the header is a photograph i took a couple of years ago of one of the little areas of our home. there are little heaps of dried flowers, honeycombs, rocks, rocks and more rocks, you name it!! i often wonder what people think when they visit!!!! it's rained a lot here as well this summer. it's really a matter of luck if i get out for a ride and don't get a soaker early on. you see i don't mind a bit of rain once i'm warmed up. but to start soaked - yuck!!! see you again! steven
Steven, I enjoyed your bike tour. It is amazing how quiet it seems where you are. Is it really quiet & gentle? I think it is difficult to find a quiet peaceful place to ride a bike, too much traffic. I'm glad you enjoyed your day.
hi lizzy, i'm glad you could join us all on the ride!!! it really is this quiet here. even when i ride through the city it's not too crazy at all. i'm really close to the countryside anyway i go - check my comment to delwyn (five from the top) to see how really close i am to being entirely on my own on lovely roads through really beautiful scenery. i used to live in toronto - i always promised myself i would return here and i did - nineteen years ago. it was one of the kindest things i did for myself in my life!!! have a lovely day out west!! steven
hi bonnie - it's never a bother to deal with problems! i'm pleased that this one got resolved! thanks for your effort. have a peaceful afternoon. steven
You really do have some beautiful places to ride your bike and your photos show that. I enjoyed my ride today with you.
What a wonderful ride around. Just want to say "hi" while I was glided in in your blogsite.
Cheers...
hey abe, i thought i heard your voice back there!! thanks for coming along. i'm really really blessed with this area. it's hilly but as i said in the entry, that has its own rewards. the scenery and the peacefullness is amazing and during the schoolyear it's a huge relief!!
have a great evening! steven
hey richie 2t thanks for showing up! i'm glad you enjoyed the ride!!! enjoy the gliding!!! steven
Fabulous bike ride! Of course I love the shadow pics, but I'm also soothed and made happier by the pics of the landscape. So serene!
I imagine you whistling, singing or at least humming as you cycle along.
Lovely, thank you!
oh reya, you joined the ride as well! yippee!!! it's so peaceful on those rides to the countryside reya, i love the quiet. you can hear the birds, the trees, the animal sounds, and of course the steven sounds of breathing and spitting and whatever else my body needs to do!!
i hum. yes when i ride alone i hum. i hear music in my head all the time. my own and lots of other peoples. so when i ride i let it out. unless im talking to crows or groundhogs or cows or trees. i'm glad you could come along. steven
What a pleasant ride! Love the no bikes sign, haha. And good to see you're wearing a helmet. Nice shadow shots.
I felt like a little kid being whizzed along on the back of a big brother's bike there! Great photographs, I love wild flower meadows, empty roads, blue skies and shadows.
hi willow, the nicest road and i couldn't go on it!!! the little country roads i go on are pretty sweet, bumpy, a bit cracked up, but it's just me and my bike and the countryside. the helmet - yeah it's a fixture. have a sweet evening. steven
hey eryl, thanks for joining us. i saw lots and lots of other pictures but they got stored in my mind for another ride that way. i have routes all over the place so there'll be all sorts of stuff showing up here. have a lovely evening. steven
that looks like a very nice bike ride, lovely flowers, lovely shadows....
hello juliet, if it's not raining - and this summer that's been about fourty percent of the time - then i take a 25 to 50 km bike ride through the countryside each day. the changes of colour, texture, smells (lots of silage smells these days!!), the different feel of the wind, somedays humid, sometimes not are amazing to me. thanks for coming along on the ride!!! have a peaceful evening. steven
Beautiful photos...makes me want to get a bike and just goooo!
hi noelle, thanks for visiting! the thing with bike riding is that you can zip along or go as slowly as you want. if you live in the city, then you can ride around twice as far as you walk and see all sorts o places and people and smell the smells, hear the sounds, and come home with pictures (in yor mind or on a camera) and stories to tell!! how cool is that? have a lovely day. steven
Great photos. I have really enjoyed reading your blog... and perhaps especially the trees.
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