Fog and Trees at Leakin Park Behind the Old Backstop at Seminole & Kevin Road

I didn’t ride a bike today, but I did take a walk with my Sunday Morning Hiking Club. We did a repeat walk around Leakin Park, and here are some of the things I saw: a rusted out backstop with the winter remains of ivy climbing up one side, stands of skinny, naked trees, the undersides of giant thrown trees caked with mud, two cupped mushroom caps on stalks poking out of leaves, piles of deer shit, the leavings of experiments and observation, piles of corn, a deer stand, a yellow-green golf ball, the front wheel and pedals of a Big Wheel, a baseball worn down to the threads, a plastic grocery bag, an empty and unmarked brown glass bottle, an old tire, green scaly mushrooms growing out of downed trees, a tiny salamander in his tiny tree bark house, a sledgehammer head, and unidentified scat. There were other things, I’m sure, but I wasn’t taking notes. All in all we maybe tramped around 1/20th of the park. Good thing there are many, many Sundays in Baltimore in my future, eh?

Banana Peel in a Tree at 32nd & St. Paul

Today’s ride took me down the hill in the dark to meet up with R. and D. for dinner. We’re all still kinda new in Baltimore, and it was good to talk to folks who are also trying to figure out how and whether to love this place. You know what makes me love Baltimore? Talking about what I love about Baltimore. And that’s what I did, and I left wanting to cancel everything and ride my bike around everywhere and see how it’s all been since I last saw it. But it was already getting late and some of us have to work tomorrow, so I just rode back up to Charles Village, a quick stop to see the neighbors at the bar, enjoying a football rout. I snapped this picture of a banana peel lodged in a tree on St. Paul Street. I wonder what *that* guy was doing. And then I put the hat back on and pedaled back down the hill to home, learning yet again that even if it feels like you don’t need your gloves if you’re only going a few blocks, you really need your gloves.

Tree Growing Out of a Building on Williams & Clement

Today’s ride took me down the hill, around the Inner Harbor, and up into Federal Hill to  my favorite overdeveloped mini mall, McHenry Row, for a massage, because I am a decadent little thing. I thought today would be the obligatory “it’s fall, look at the colors!” post, but it’s still in the 80s here, warm and muggy, so instead of looking at leaves I thought about how the air felt warm and heavy around me as I flew down the hill, taking extra special care not to put on the brakes–it’s like flying; nobody told me about the downhills when they were complaining about the uphills.

Looking Up at Trees From a Bench on a Trail in Damascus Regional Park

Many moons ago S. asked me to accompany her to her mom’s fundraising party for the MS 100 ride in Damascus, MD, and then it was finally today and time to head that way. Because she is awesome, S. kindly requested I fold up my new Brompton and bring it along for a ride on a park trail. She borrowed a mountain bike, and we were off. The bike is just so much fun to ride, and the gearing lets me keep pedaling while going down some fairly steep hills. I was flying, and damn, it was so much fun. But, as my father always says, what goes up must come down, and that’s true the other way, too. Yeah, I think I need a grannier gear on this thing for sustained climbs, or maybe I just need to get stronger. Overall, though, it was most perfect to be pedaling in the shade offered by trees like these, which we stared up at from a bench near the end of our ride. What a treat.

Lush Trees in Druid Hill Park

Oh, rain, please give it a rest! And it did this afternoon. Sure, there were gray skies and clouds and some spitting, but I managed to sneak in a ride in the relatively dry afternoon after a good day of work. I decided to head over to Druid Hill Park to check out the green, and there was a lot of it.

Fake Flowery Trees at Dinwiddie Hall

Another day, another bicycle commute to work. It was positively lovely out, again, and when I headed home at the end of the day, it was still sunny and the sky was a most brilliant blue. I stopped at the edge of campus near St. Charles to snap a picture of this bright pink flowering trees that recently showed up in front of Dinwiddie Hall (yes, that’s really what it’s called). They seem so out of place in January, and the rest of the trees surrounding it are all limb withered leaves, so what’s the deal?

Yellow Flowering Tree at Constance & Annunciation

Do you ever have those days where you just feel exhausted in the very marrow of your bones? Today was that kind of day for me. Which meant that as much as I wanted to ride my  bike to the Po Boy Fest or the Congo Square Rhythms Festival or out to Chalmette, I walked to brunch and then straight back home to laze about with my cats and The Grapes of Wrath. I can’t believe they let high school kids read this anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-disciplinary state apparatus screed, or that there isn’t a revolution of the working class led by high school juniors every year. Everybody should read this book. Anyway.

Fall Colors at Amelia & Camp Streets

Is this a birch tree? I most assuredly do not know my trees, but today as I was riding downtown after a long work day, I was scoping out the trees. We don’t get fall colors here in New Orleans, because we don’t really have fall like that, and we certainly don’t have a lot of deciduous trees. I saw one tree that looked golden from afar, but when I got closer it turned out the golden was from the sun hitting it just right.

Flowering Tree Near Newcomb Hall at Tulane

It was yet another beautiful early fall day in New Orleans. I hopped on the bike to head to school early, and the air was just a teensy bit cool–perfect. I taught and taught and lunched and taught and by the end of the day I had a really impressive headache lodged behind my left eye. Ugh. I did not feel like doing anything but lying around in the dark, but I got on my bike and headed down to the gym. Then I discovered I’d left work I needed at the office. Sigh. Monday on Wednesday.

Vines and Trees at Freret & Upperline

I don’t usually ride as far as I did yesterday, and today I am feeling it, for sure. Hopping on the bike wasn’t the first thing I wanted to do today, but by 11:00, I had to head up to campus, so off we went. Turns out it helps to just spin around on the bike a bit. After a delightful lunch with a delightful student and some work in this office and that, I headed to the bar to meet folks for drinks. One drink, though, and I knew it was time for a few last pedals home to rest. I snapped this picture at Freret and Upperline of a vine wrapped around a tree and then wrapped around the telephone line. I love how the plants have just decided to act like sure, we can both be in the very same space at the very same time, so what? Nobody’s giving in here. A few bumpy blocks of Freret on my way to the smooth new asphalt on Peniston, and I was on my way home.