Climbing vine

Do you suppose that the power companies intended for their poles to be a conduit for this very energetic vine?

I didn't think so either!

Off

Wandering off again, that is. I'm headed out on my bike for a two day trip - home to Portsmouth, NH today, back again tomorrow.

You can wander over to my journal titled Short, sweet - Seeking ocean views if you're interested in following along.

White, pink...

Blue...

...or is it really purple?

Relaxing, quiet

Ah, a three-day weekend. I had hoped to do an out-and-back ride this weekend - out one day, and back the next, that is - but the weather forecast called for a rainy middle day. As it turned out, there wasn't any rain on Saturday and I could have done my two-day tour, but I'm just as happy that the weather wizard's iffy forecast stopped me from traveling.

Why? Because I think I needed some quiet time, some relaxing days. Yes, I rode every day. But I also relaxed, read a mystery, added a new Recent galleries page to my (web) site. Relaxed. And it felt good.

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Here are a couple of shots that I grabbed during a photo stop during my ride today. This fountain in a park in the center of Lawrence, Massachusetts was built in honor of Robert Frost.

Yikes!

I was just about two miles from home, rolling down the road on two wheels, when I suddenly felt like I was missing something...

My thoughts... Something feels wrong. What is it? What should I have with me that I don't? Hand to head, yes, my helmet is there, and so are my sunglasses. Something is missing. Something...

It took me a second, and then I realized that I was missing my Road ID. Uh oh!

I could have continued my ride sans ID. I thought about that for all of a second, but I didn't. I couldn't. I looped back home, strapped my ID around my wrist, and repeated the beginning of my ride again. I'm much more at ease knowing that if something happens to me that my emergency information is on me. And luckily forgetting my ID is not something that happens very often.

And if I'm traveling, I just never take it off.

Too many photo galleries?

Sometimes, when my camera has been particularly busy, I wonder if you can find my most recent galleries. I've been featuring galleries (or sets of galleries) on my Kaleidoscope page. And I've been toying with the idea of creating a recent galleries "map". Well, yesterday, I took the time to do just that.

My new Recent galleries page can be accessed from the Kaleidoscope page, or by clicking Recent Galleries in the Links (sidebar) section of my blog. You will see a list of galleries, with the newest galleries at the top of the list. If a gallery interests you, just click on the sample photo or the gallery name to jump directly to that gallery.

Try it out now... click here.

Simple beauty

Pssst... Rover here!

I know that some of you know me. If you read the journals from Denise's trips in June, then we've already been introduced. But for those of you who haven't met me before... I'm Rover. I'm a little red dog, and I travel with Denise. In fact, here's a photo of me on our recent trip to Acadia National Park as we rolled around Park Loop Road:

I convinced Denise that I should write the journals for our trips while she played with her cameras. And in the process of writing those two journals I became addicted to writing. So I figured I'd jump in to Denise's blog every so often to keep up my writing. I hope that you don't mind!

Why am I writing now? First, it's the middle of the night; Denise is sleeping, so I thought I'd jump on and use the computer. And I wanted to let you know that Denise finally finished uploading photos to the journals. Her photo galleries have been done for quite a while, but she also likes to put photos in the journals so that people reading there can be enticed by seeing some of the photos.

Have you read our stories in the journals? And seen the photo galleries?

If not, and if you're interested, just click to see our Acadia journal and photo galleries, or to see our Zion journal and photo galleries. And if you want to talk back to us, there is a guestbook in each journal, and one in the photo galleries too. Feel free to sign it!

And oh, I do like to write!

--- Rover

Oops... wet!

It was supposed to be a riding day. While the weather for most of the week consisted of late day pop-up thunderstorms, today that was supposed to wait until after dark.

But the weather wizard was busy. Changing, changing weather...

I arrived home after work to a light sky if I was looking in one direction, and a very dark sky if I turned around and looked the other way. Hmmm... should I ride? or walk? My decision? Walk!

At the turnaround point of my almost-4-mile walk, the rain started. It was light at first. And then... Waves of water pelted down, bands of raindrops visible as the wind blew. Rivers flowed down the edges of the pavement.

It was a walk that reminded me of the kindness of strangers. A woman in a car with a young child stopped and offered me a ride. I thanked her, but opted to keep walking. A bit later, I passed a house where a woman was standing on her porch with her two young daughters. I smiled at them and waved. In response, the woman asked if I was all right, offering shelter. I kept walking.

I was very wet. And I was laughing!

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It was in the mid-80s when I started my walk, and I left the house without a rain coat or hat. I have both, and both would have been useful on this walk. The air was warm, but oh! the water was cold!

I did choose to walk in my very comforable (and washable) Chaco sandals instead of my normal walking running shoes. So my feet were quite happy, and I had no trashed shoes to deal with when I "dripped" into the house.