Saturday, May 17, 2008
Vacation never ends
Paris - May 12
But don't count on it. Depending on the location there is always so much to indulge the senses and the soul. As I post this blog, Carol shouted,
Saturday, May 17, 2008 - Volga - Syttende Mai for you Norwegians
We are still on a trip. This morning befor sunrise we got on our bicycles and took Miss Nickel to our favorite place along 210th street in Volga Twsp. and found the migratory birds were all there to greet us. Last Saturday we were poking around in organic street market, Marche des Batignolles in Paris. Buying expensive roquefort cheese, fresh French bread and smelling fresh caught fish among the fromage (cheese) of every color and texture, vegetables and flowers, not to mention the most incredible apple strudel or whatever the French call it.
The late spring here in the Dakota is almost a miracle for us although I am sure the locals would beg to disagree. The leaves are popping out, the apple tree in our backyard will blossom in a few days, and the grass and flowers are getting a good start. Tulips in May? All the activities between now and mid June before I go to the Northern Plains Wrting Conference is almost more intense than the past month.
Today was special, so special with the cacaphony of sounds and sights in the prairie wetlands here in the Big Sioux River Valley. Goldsmith Lake is full and the outflow goes right along the road so bicycling is like being on kayak. A kickstand is best piece of equipment I ever bought for my moutain bike, actually I didn't buy it I found it along the road. Stopping and looking at the birds, animals and still life through binoculars is so astounding sometiimes we forget to breathe. Two hours of ecstacy then our special breakfast followed by coffee & Irish cream liquer, it can't get better than that!
But don't count on it. Depending on the location there is always so much to indulge the senses and the soul. As I post this blog, Carol shouted,
"The humming birds are here!"
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Belted Kingfisher on the Big Sioux
Location: 210 Bird Circle on the far east point.
I love the way they announce their presence. For a real treat check out the birds of Sarah Rogers. She may not have the Kingfisher online just now but when you see her work, you will recognize her wonderful style that depicts birds as creatures that cannot be captured in s photo.
I love the way they announce their presence. For a real treat check out the birds of Sarah Rogers. She may not have the Kingfisher online just now but when you see her work, you will recognize her wonderful style that depicts birds as creatures that cannot be captured in s photo.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Why ride fast?
Who cares about drugs? Society with its,that's all of us, hypocritical need to blame someone for something? Everyone is addicted. Society wants to believe its sports heroes are as clean as we delude ourselves into thinking we are. Rubbish!
RAGBRAI was just another venue where riders were trying to beat somebody. If not that they were talking numbers, how fast, how far, how long, wtf is that about?
It is not about speed or numbers, folks. It is a world wide mania teetering on "more."
Complete and unadulterated consumption horseshit.
The alternative: a slow, really slow, ride on a quiet gravel back road. Listen to the birds, stop and count the pebbles in a square decimeter and how long it took you rounded to the nearest hour if you need numbers to talk about, spot a new wild flower, listen to your heart beat when you see something new.
Bicycling is about a tee-totaling different world view.
Don't let speed and flash steal this from you. The criminal capitalistic incarnation of greed is winning now but it will not last. Wake up and sl-o--o---w down. Think subversion! Beat them with their own clubs. It will take some time but the world will thank you even if humans self-destruct!
War is not the Answer
Slow- - -
not just for food anymore
RAGBRAI was just another venue where riders were trying to beat somebody. If not that they were talking numbers, how fast, how far, how long, wtf is that about?
It is not about speed or numbers, folks. It is a world wide mania teetering on "more."
Complete and unadulterated consumption horseshit.
The alternative: a slow, really slow, ride on a quiet gravel back road. Listen to the birds, stop and count the pebbles in a square decimeter and how long it took you rounded to the nearest hour if you need numbers to talk about, spot a new wild flower, listen to your heart beat when you see something new.
Bicycling is about a tee-totaling different world view.
Don't let speed and flash steal this from you. The criminal capitalistic incarnation of greed is winning now but it will not last. Wake up and sl-o--o---w down. Think subversion! Beat them with their own clubs. It will take some time but the world will thank you even if humans self-destruct!
War is not the Answer
Slow- - -
not just for food anymore
Labels: RIDE SLOWLY, slow movement, subversion
Monday, June 02, 2008
Berlin - where proximity fits bicycle culture
Imagine calling a friend in a city of 5 million people and they say, "I am at work and have bicycle. I will meet you for dinner in your neighborhood."
Everywhere you go bicycle lanes are filled with people of ages and all kinds of bicycles traveling at a broad range of speed, everyone less than 20mph. Shops and gathering spots for food & drink are no more than a few 100 meters apart
That's the capital of Germany. When I ran across this post quoting Paul Krugman (NYT) on the Carfree USA Blog comparing Atlanta and Berlin, I was reminded of the great people friendly qualities of this large German capital. As the Krugman quote says,
Cars are like cancer once they move into the vital arteries of a city, take over and kill its ability to serve the needs of the organisms that it was designed to serve in the first place. The big difference is Berlin is a modern city and Atlanta is well, hooked on phony logic, just like most US cities who were deluded into believing "cheap oil meant community doesn't matter."
Think about that, 5M people, going to work on a bicycle. That implies a great deal about how a city manages its people moving responsibilities. I don't know what Atlanta might be doing but the Twin Cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota have made some great strides in the past few years. The Transit for Liveable Communities is the kind of comprehensive set of alternatives to driving that is needed to counteract the diabolical ills of an automobile culture: 3 acre lots, McMansions, SUVs. entertainment news, obesity, strip malls, 2 hour commutes, need we go on?
We visited many carfree areas in European cities and as we traveled through rural Germany by train, everywhere we looked there were people on bicycles riding down country lanes or stopped at places along the trails and paths to enjoy the outdoors.
What a reminder of how so many of us have lost the capacity to enjoy what we have in our own local areas. In a word, proximity.
Proximity is what makes where you live special. What is it that you don't yet know about your place? When we value where we live, we make it better. The slower we go the better it gets. The better it gets, the more we want to make it a better place to live and discover new ways to enjoy what it has to offer.
That is how we discovered birds. Click here and look at the posts below to see what I mean.
Everywhere you go bicycle lanes are filled with people of ages and all kinds of bicycles traveling at a broad range of speed, everyone less than 20mph. Shops and gathering spots for food & drink are no more than a few 100 meters apart
That's the capital of Germany. When I ran across this post quoting Paul Krugman (NYT) on the Carfree USA Blog comparing Atlanta and Berlin, I was reminded of the great people friendly qualities of this large German capital. As the Krugman quote says,
Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.
Cars are like cancer once they move into the vital arteries of a city, take over and kill its ability to serve the needs of the organisms that it was designed to serve in the first place. The big difference is Berlin is a modern city and Atlanta is well, hooked on phony logic, just like most US cities who were deluded into believing "cheap oil meant community doesn't matter."
Think about that, 5M people, going to work on a bicycle. That implies a great deal about how a city manages its people moving responsibilities. I don't know what Atlanta might be doing but the Twin Cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota have made some great strides in the past few years. The Transit for Liveable Communities is the kind of comprehensive set of alternatives to driving that is needed to counteract the diabolical ills of an automobile culture: 3 acre lots, McMansions, SUVs. entertainment news, obesity, strip malls, 2 hour commutes, need we go on?
We visited many carfree areas in European cities and as we traveled through rural Germany by train, everywhere we looked there were people on bicycles riding down country lanes or stopped at places along the trails and paths to enjoy the outdoors.
What a reminder of how so many of us have lost the capacity to enjoy what we have in our own local areas. In a word, proximity.
Proximity is what makes where you live special. What is it that you don't yet know about your place? When we value where we live, we make it better. The slower we go the better it gets. The better it gets, the more we want to make it a better place to live and discover new ways to enjoy what it has to offer.
That is how we discovered birds. Click here and look at the posts below to see what I mean.
Labels: alternatives, bicycle, birds, travel
Thursday, August 07, 2008
How slow is slow enough?
I have not posted for about a month. No good answer except that we are taking a break from the busyness to enjoy the great August weather.
We did travel to the Black Hills via Farm Island and La Framboise Pierre and got in some excellent bicycle rides along the Missouri River and a ride up Spearfish Canyon with our cousins in mid July plus a hike up to the top of Bear Butte. Several things we had not done before although it is right in our home state. They were great times but could not match what happened this morning right here on our favorite bicycling route.
After we got back from the family visits on the western part of the state we embarked on a natural foods diet as it is about this time of year that the garden produce starts to roll in. We can hardly wait for the corn, beans, tomatoes, ..., but this year we decided to go totally vegan, no refined sugar (including high fructose corn syrup that is added to nearly everything), no animal products (that eliminates dairy, eggs & meats), no caffeine (no coffee), no alcohol (no beer?), no gluten (breads, pastas & flour products). Surprisingly, it has not been that hard to do.
The diet has set the basis for our vacation from the busyness. We get out every day for an outing on our bicycles, mainly aerobic but sometimes just to be out there in the fresh air and abundance of flowers and wildlife. We had good workouts yesterday so today was one of those special days.
We took our dog, Nickel, out early for an early run about 6:30. She has been limping a bit lately so it was a short one. Carol had met us on the way back and went ahead. There were raggad, beautiful clouds with the rising sun peaking through here and there, fog was drifting out of the river valley from time to time, and the birds were singing every new song they had learned. We spotted an Indigo Bunting in a shelter belt out by the lake. It was the first one that we have ever seen along our route so it was quite a treat. There were curious little marsh wren fledglings in the ditches to inspect us and a new growth of the mid summer wild flowers everywhere. Butterflies and dragonflies above our heads and all around. A doe and her twins in the bean field and geese browsing in the newly harvested oat stubble by the lake.
The entire ride was most relaxing and rewarding. Neither of us had to verbalize that it was a day for going very slow and stopping often. We just knew. Let me explain what going slow really is, 3-5 mph is approximately the speed, but the important measure is to be going at a rate that virtually eliminates the noise of the tires on the gravel. Nothing but the sounds around you meet your ears.
We were out about 3 hours and when we returned, we fixed a blender full of fresh fruit smoothies. Fresh fruit, that is almost as good as it gets and today it was the refreshment that centered that special time together that around here is called "morning coffee." We found we don't really need the coffee.
Nature taught us another lesson this morning.
posted by HL
We did travel to the Black Hills via Farm Island and La Framboise Pierre and got in some excellent bicycle rides along the Missouri River and a ride up Spearfish Canyon with our cousins in mid July plus a hike up to the top of Bear Butte. Several things we had not done before although it is right in our home state. They were great times but could not match what happened this morning right here on our favorite bicycling route.
After we got back from the family visits on the western part of the state we embarked on a natural foods diet as it is about this time of year that the garden produce starts to roll in. We can hardly wait for the corn, beans, tomatoes, ..., but this year we decided to go totally vegan, no refined sugar (including high fructose corn syrup that is added to nearly everything), no animal products (that eliminates dairy, eggs & meats), no caffeine (no coffee), no alcohol (no beer?), no gluten (breads, pastas & flour products). Surprisingly, it has not been that hard to do.
The diet has set the basis for our vacation from the busyness. We get out every day for an outing on our bicycles, mainly aerobic but sometimes just to be out there in the fresh air and abundance of flowers and wildlife. We had good workouts yesterday so today was one of those special days.
We took our dog, Nickel, out early for an early run about 6:30. She has been limping a bit lately so it was a short one. Carol had met us on the way back and went ahead. There were raggad, beautiful clouds with the rising sun peaking through here and there, fog was drifting out of the river valley from time to time, and the birds were singing every new song they had learned. We spotted an Indigo Bunting in a shelter belt out by the lake. It was the first one that we have ever seen along our route so it was quite a treat. There were curious little marsh wren fledglings in the ditches to inspect us and a new growth of the mid summer wild flowers everywhere. Butterflies and dragonflies above our heads and all around. A doe and her twins in the bean field and geese browsing in the newly harvested oat stubble by the lake.
The entire ride was most relaxing and rewarding. Neither of us had to verbalize that it was a day for going very slow and stopping often. We just knew. Let me explain what going slow really is, 3-5 mph is approximately the speed, but the important measure is to be going at a rate that virtually eliminates the noise of the tires on the gravel. Nothing but the sounds around you meet your ears.
We were out about 3 hours and when we returned, we fixed a blender full of fresh fruit smoothies. Fresh fruit, that is almost as good as it gets and today it was the refreshment that centered that special time together that around here is called "morning coffee." We found we don't really need the coffee.
Nature taught us another lesson this morning.
posted by HL
Labels: bicycle, birds, food, slow, SLOW_bicycling
Friday, June 29, 2007
Goat Hils Glacial Terrain Loop
This is a RIDE SLOWLY route. RIDE SLOWLY is movement to travel by bicycle on gravel and rural back roads taking time to enjoy the sights and sounds of rural areas, stop frequently to observe the flora and fauna, smell the wild flowers, and listen to the birds. SLOW - not just for food anymore.
Mouse over the map and take a quick tour of the route with the pop-up comments.
If you would like the cue sheet, click on the title of this article or the map and it will go to Bikely where you can print out the map and cue sheet and take it with you.
Enjoy a slow and rejuvenating bicycle road.
Oh, when you ride and see some road grader or farm tractor tracks, don't avoid them, enjoy the gentle rumble in your hands and feet.
Labels: bikes, birds, meditation, RIDE SLOWLY
Friday, May 23, 2008
A Life Worth Living
My travel goes beyond business & pleasure
Oh sure I do both when I am in Europe. I am a poet and direct experience is the key to authentic expression, but partaking in the street scenes of the European city is a real part my life. I don't go there to get away from the prairie but to compliment the rich experience of this North American rural setting. European cities are much more to my liking than the sprawling megalopolises that US cities have become.
Use a bike to get around Chicago. Great idea if you are already on Lake Shore Drive but the buses, trams and trains hardly offer the kind of mobility that Berlin does, and Chicago is an exception at that. Davis CA? Hardly a large city. Portland? I love it, but most people still find cars essential for everyday life.
Restuarants that have people sitting outside when it's 52 degrees and slowly sipping a 3oz coffee while watching life in the street and chatting with me in their 3rd language (English) after it is obvious my pidgin is not up to the task. At 21:00 (9:00 pm) in downtown USA, wherever, forget it.
One example of the street life is checking people riding Velib bicycles that are found all over the city of Paris, not just Paris they are in many of the cities. They ride for free or a nominal cost and drop off at some other station near their destination. Let's see it took 20 minutes to go from Shakespeare's Bookstore right across from Notre Dame Cathedral to the Eiffel Tower. What a nice complement to watching migrating shore birds in a flooded soybean field in the Big Sioux River Valley that less than 2 miles on a bicycle from my front door.
It makes me want to push harder for Safe Routes to School so my grandchildren can do it here in he USA without the carbon emissions of international air travel.
Labels: bicycle, Paris, prairie, SLOW_bicycling, travel
