Monday, 31 May 2010. About 5:40 AM. Got a relatively late start, but it’s a holiday, after all. The sky was cloudy, the air muggy but surprisingly cool with the bike in motion, heading south on Race Street. Didn't bring the recorder today because rain looked possible. I may quit using it anyway.
Yesterday’s heat seemed to have finished off the irises and most of the peonies. The Perfect Garden (I call it that with nothing but admiration) featured roses of assorted colors, including three very large very white blossoms that I couldn’t be sure until I looked closer were not late peonies.
At Meadowbrook the Tradescantia showed little sign of waning, while the Penstemon seemed to be thickening. More Coreopsis showed in a spot where I’d seen a few last week, near the prairie observation platform. Also saw the first Baptisia (false indigo), like vertebral columns (some with a bit of scoliosis) atop horizontally spreading leaves. Wondered what I might be missing while taking this census and remembered I hadn’t checked to see if the iris back at the cardinal flower site was still blooming, so decided to take another loop around. There still were plenty of iris blooms, though they seemed lower to the ground than the earlier ones.
Headed back north on Vine and east on Washington. Felt a little lazier, a little less excited than the last time I was there. Missed swimming, the aerobics of it. Was excited enough to want to go farther than last time (it’s a holiday!), jogged right, then left on 1525N to 1900E. Wasn’t ready to go straight home as I’d originally planned, so headed north on 1900E until I saw Mount Olive cemetery, which I hadn’t realized was there. Rode along one side of it and saw some names I didn’t know well but did recognize, including at least one person I’d met when he was alive. Saw what appeared to be a white, life-sized (or larger) statue of a baby (actually an angel) sitting to one side of a wrought iron bench.
Back on Washington Street was about to pass Cottonwood Dr., but the north side again beckoned. Turned right, but then felt like I had to stop (between the red stop sign and the yellow “stop ahead” sign, both of which had 2-3 inch, irregular holes blown through the middle of them). Now it was so quiet. Not silent—made a mental list of the sounds: traffic and birds, most conspicuously robin, cardinal, red-winged blackbird, pheasant, goose, rooster. But away from trees, between two fields of young soybeans, all of these sounds were soothingly distant. I stood (kind of defeating the exercise part of the purpose of the trip) looking up at the morning sky and listened a while, grateful to be able to take it in.
Continuing east on Cottonwood Rd., I crossed the I-74 bridge, near which grew a thick stand of wild parsnip (Pastinaca) and the tops of some of which were covered with white mesh bags. Must be someone after swallowtail butterflies. Crossed the Saline Ditch and went on a little way. The road was enticing, pleasantly rolling, but could see houses and didn’t feel like worrying about dogs, so turned back.
Passed Prairie School without checking on the hidden prairie. Would have needed binoculars to see what was going on in the pond, and it was near 7:30. I was ready to be home.
At about the halfway point of my swimming hiatus, I must say that while I have no idea whether this is at all interesting to anyone else, writing about my biking adventures has made them just incredibly enjoyable to me. However, I am disappointed that it takes so long to say what I want to say about it. So for the remainder of this week, I may have to skimp even more on writing quality to let the rest of my family have their fair share of computer time and hope my readers (ha, ha!) will forgive me.
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