Riding the Weather Rollercoaster

Dear me, nearly the end of March, and I haven't posted any walk or ride photos for weeks.

(Ride? Did she say ride? She DID!) :D

The weather has been up and down. And up. And down again. We've soared into the 50s and 60s (oh what a glorious week that was), dropped back into the 30s, flirted briefly with the 40s, and tonight are headed into the teens. We've had sun and rain and ice and snow - pretty typical for March in Wisconsin.

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A few Sundays ago, as we were heading into the thaw, I took a walk on a new-to-me trail. The snow was melting rapidly, and the soon-to-be-spring sky was full of scudding clouds behind the bare tree branches:

As always, the dried flowers caught my eye:

A fallen tree trimmed with mushrooms:

Pine needles like brushstrokes on the snow:

A turtle at the end of the trail, saying goodbye to winter:

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A week later I and Tallulah are out again - this time on two wheels:

"Hooray!" sings Tallulah, nose to the wind. "We're on the road again!"

Other creatures are singing too. We pass a tree full of blackbirds calling "Spring! This way!"

While we're taking blackbird photos, someone pulls up behind us. It's Mr. M on Basil the Motorbike, also taking a First Ride of the Year. You can see Mr. M in the upper left corner of the photo, with yours truly in the center:

We exchange a few friendly words, then go our separate ways.

Up the road, the sheep are out. They seem to be enjoying the weather as much as I am:

Shadow shot:

Up hill and down, and around a corner to where this soft-eyed creature watches me through a screen of mullein:

It's great to be on the road again, passing favourite spots like this one:

A good start to the cycling year.

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Our next ride is two days later. Clouds are massing, and a sharp wind blows, so photos are kept to a minimum.

The marshes are radiant with red-twig dogwood that glows against the grey sky:

Tallulah poses in the crook of a branch:

The dogwood's tiny leaf-buds remind us that this mostly-brown world will soon be green again.

On our last mile, the sun comes out - a happy ending to a cloudy ride.

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Tallulah and I took three rides in all before the mercury plunged downwards. But we know that in a week or two we'll be out on the road again. Winter's back is broken, and there's a whole year of riding to look forward to.

Continuing with the weather metaphor, this post is being written in the eye of a crochet storm. The yarn I was waiting for a few weeks back began to show up the day after my blog post on that theme. Two out of four projects are now out the door, two patterns written and emailed off, and I'm still waiting for yarn to complete the other two. Perhaps writing about it tonight will cause it to show up tomorrow....

How are you?

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