Crystal clear skies

The day dawned with beautiful crystal blue skies. I could still hear the wind, and the early morning temperature was cool. It was in the mid-50s by the time I headed out on my bike (and yes, I absolutely did wait for the temperature to climb to that level).

I had been toying with the idea of doing a two-day tour, riding from home to Portsmouth today and then back tomorrow. Somehow that didn't appeal to me this morning with the early morning cool plus the prediction for temperatures to dip to the low 30s tonight. And it's been quite late in the morning before the temperature reaches the mid 50s. I decided to hold my little two-day trip for sometime in the future (hopefully next month); instead, today was a day for wandering in a big loop from home. I didn't repeat yesterday's clothing mistake though. I added the missing layer from yesterday, using my windbreaker with zip-off sleeves as my top layer. The sleeves stayed on the jacket for the first two thirds of my ride. I took them off once early, thinking they were too much. They stayed off all of five minutes, and then I zipped them back to the jacket where they stayed until much later in the ride. It's funny though - the temperature really didn't change that much, staying in the mid- to upper-50s. I think my earlier feeling of too much cool was due at least partially to the strong wind in my face.

The cool weekend weather lately has been getting the best of me as I try to work up to my in-season mileage. But I won today with a ride of 41 miles. Happy...

Periwinkle, a bed of lavender on green, beautiful...

This week brought a noticeable change to the trees, from bare branches to baby leaves. There are still many trees with totally bare branches, but the green is definitely a welcome sight.

As I was standing, absorbing the beauty of these yellow daffodils, the (apparently) young woman who lived there stopped to tell me she was glad I was taking pictures. These beautiful flowers were planted in memory of her sister. A nice gesture of a friend of hers to create this memory garden; I hope that it brings her some peace.