Ride of the Wild Onions

From dirt & dogs

Tiny green sprouts were all around the sides of the trails today! Little spindly round shoots of wild onions, a few with stubby proto-blossoms ready to rocket upward and show their stuff.

We were out there to see stuff, to feel the warm air, to smell the wild onions crushed between our fingertips, and to have fun riding on the beloved linear dirt of our local singletrack. For most of the week, any riding had been on wet streets, in driving sleet, and dodging storms, as the *other side* of Spring weather kicked back through town.

From 2010 Spring

Today, though, it was back to the shiny, sunny, warm as honey kind of Spring weather we selfishly prefer. We spent the middle part of the day digging in the dirt of Trina's garden, moving some fruit trees and getting beds ready for planting.

During afternoon tea we had a botanically talented visitor, bright conversation, and the dogs for entertainment -- all of which put the "paradise" in Trina's walled garden.

The dogs started teaching themselves how to fish -- in the water lily bathtub -- pawing at the water and occasionally snapping toward a goldfish and missing. What they did finally catch wasn't a fish, but a plastic turtle that was floating in the "pond". We took it away, but Sprocket really, really wanted it. So we used it as bait, and soon he'd had his first lesson in ladder climbing. He was a star student, and was climbing up and down the ladder trying to figure out how to get the turtle off the stick where we'd stuck it. (Zeek is an old hand at the ladder, but lost interest in the plastic turtle.)

From dirt & dogs

From dirt & dogs

From 2010 Spring

In the evening, we rode. Took a wide loop on the local trails. Beige is still the main theme out there (as it is most of the year) but there were hints of green filtering in around the edges and the bottoms of the washes. The onions, fresh grasses, and another type of wildflower with little poms of various pinks were sprinkled thinly throughout the canyons.

From 2010 Spring

From 2010 Spring

Trina caught one of me and Zeek.

From 2010 Spring

We do this sort of ride so often that one might wonder if we could become jaded and lose our awareness of the details, the subtle changes that go on out there. But I have to say, it was yet again... A great evening to be out there, immersed in the wonders.

--Greg

From 2010 Spring