A mid-winter gift...

...a glimpse of spring!

I'm not crazy enough to believe it is spring, but the weather today (and yesterday too!) was a wonderful gift from the weather wizard.

I moved a couple of work hours yesterday to make time for my bicycle. That is, I headed home at 2:30, then went on a decent 18-mile ride to use up the remaining daylight. Dry roads, sunshine, and warm temperatures accompanied me. Ah, ride done, sky darkening, I was happy to sit at my computer and replace my missing work hours.

And today? Well, I had a comp day coming to me for working January 2nd, and I promised myself to take it on a good cycling day. If the day hadn't cooperated, I would have headed in to work, but as it turned out that wasn't necessary. Even though the morning temperatures were pretty cold, today promised to be a perfect day to spend wandering on two wheels. I paid no attention at all to the sensible rules about how much it is reasonable to increase mileage when your body is not in prime cycling shape. Wandering along dry roads on a wonderfully warm day, I headed to the north and east, getting as far as West Newbury before heading south and west again. My ride was one of my normal warm weather rides with a couple of extra loops tacked on to it for a total distance of 50 miles! Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I was a very happy (but tired) cyclist at the end of the day.

What a wonderful way to spend a Friday the 13th, sure proof that the day's designation as a bad luck day is totally wrong.

Even though the temperature today is in the high 50s, there is still ice on ponds, and ice covering rocks in this fast moving stream of water. Beautiful...

There's a very small splash of rainbow hiding in this picture. You don't see it? Look on the right side of the cloud hanging just to the right of the tall trees.