7-May-99

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The weather was decent for the second time this week, and I bicycled to work again. Monday, Tuesday, and Wedsnesday were grey and drizzly and after the long ride Sunday I didn't mind driving to work, but by Thursday I was ready for some exercise.

I checked the Allerton Street end of the Rogers St. bridge. It's a short block out of my way, but another block was OK. The forms were off the parapet walls, but there are still reinforcing rods showing at the ends of the walls. They need to build more forms and do another concrete pour.

Edmands Park was quiet. I had expected there to be some birds there after the warmer weather, but the wind has been mostly from the southeast and since there's no land southeast of Massachusetts it wasn't a tailwind for any migrants. I thought I heard orioles singing, but I couldn't see any.

The dogtooth violets (trout lilies) are gone by. They are only in bloom for about a week, and I neglected to write about them when I saw them last week. After missing so many days bicycling, I hadn't thought about them. They are a wonderful secret of the park because you only see them if you're paying attention all the time. They are a wildflower with leaves about the size of lily-of-the-valley and a single yellow flower an inch long. There are a lot of them at one corner of the trail, but even there they don't form a carpet of color; you have to bend down and look hard to see how beautiful they are, and if you aren't looking on the right day you can miss them entirely.

I took my bike up another trail that leads away from work to check for the ladies slippers. The leaves are up, and there are a few buds. I'm particularly fond of that trail because I fell on it the first few times I tried riding up it four years ago. I'm an experienced cyclist and don't fall, but that trail is about a 30% grade and the first time I tried it I got stuck on a root and went sprawling. What followed amazed me. I dusted myself off and said to myself, “Way to go, Dean! You're not so old that you're scared to try something like that!” Something else inside me asked, “Wait! Are you sure that's what you thought? Aren't you going to say that was dumb, you could have got hurt?” No, I wasn't. That's what pleased me the most about the incident -- not just that I was glad I had tried the trail, but that my first reaction after falling was being happy that I had.

I kept trying that trail and falling on it and finally bought handlebar extensions for the bike. With them I can lean farther forward and get my weight properly between the bike wheels. Now I can get up that trail (most of the time) and check for the ladies slippers.

Lunchtime I cycled out along the river path. I stopped and listened for birds at a couple of spots and this time saw two orioles. Farther along, by the MDC swimming pool, was a Canada Goose day care center. Six pairs of adult geese were there, each pair with at least four goslings. Between the dogtooth violets, the goslings, and the orioles, it's really spring now.