Every Night

Sunsets are my favorite....I wait for them almost every night. The colors vary from night to night so that's what I find exciting. Cooler temperatures mean a much more enjoyable evening. Ahhhhh, a three-day weekend. Nice!

I Enjoy Them

I've been enjoying all the butterflies this summer, but that will be changing soon. The end of summer is bittersweet. Looking forward to cooler weather and less humidity this Labor Day weekend.

Feeling Sad

Such a strange day. Cloudy, drizzly, sunny and cloudy again. The sunshine finally returned around 7 pm, but the humidity went crazy. Thought about riding bike, however, I got home later from work so I settled for a nice hour walk.

The sunsets are upon us earlier now and that makes me feel sad! I just want to ride my bike after work, but my trail rides will run into darkness starting in September....8 pm is semi dark now. Maybe I just need to ride harder and faster! Riding closer to home might be my answer for September!!!

Just for your information, the geese are gathering and moving. Lots of geese have been flying over our house and hanging around Tainter Lake. Could this signal fall is approaching?

Good Food & Interesting Conversations

Planned on going for my Monday night trail ride, but ditched that idea and ended up heading over to Caryn's house for a fun night of good food and meeting new people. Bike man and I briefly helped prepare special brochures for our local Sierra Club fundraiser that will be mailed out to each member. The other Sierra Club members arrived before we did, but we got in on the tail end of the helping.

I think I've fallen in love with Caryn's dwellings. She's has the most peaceful and beautiful surroundings. I really love the quietness of her country home.

Just a beautiful day today and I'm glad I could enjoy the late day weather. Guess who got a little taste of freedom this afternoon? Crabby Abby! Somehow Abby (our Maine Coon) managed to nudge her way out the screen door since Bike man didn't close it all the way. Luckily Crabby didn't run away. A taste of freedom.....every indoor cats dream!!!!!

Ride For a Mission

Headed out on the bikes late this afternoon for a little country ride...or maybe I should say a hilly ride! We were on a mission this afternoon. Bike man wanted to look for invasive plants, so he could document what plant it was and then take a GPS of the plants location. Our invasive plant documentation would then be sent on to DNR, where a research program is going on in Madison at the UW.

Oh wait, we had to stop along the way. Bike man spotted a nice apple tree!

These apples were beautiful.....no blimishes! The apples were also sweet and juicy. Just a lonely apple tree out in the country.

So, here's one of our invasive plant finds. Spotted Knapweed. At first it reminded me of Wild Thistle, but just smaller. We found lots of it in one area along the road. There's many other invasive plants that are on the "warning" list. Some of these plants cause skin reactions if you touch them. Wild Parsnip is really bad.....will cause terrible blisters on the skin, especially when your skin comes in contact with both the plant and sunlight. So, I guess Bike man is taking on one more monitoring project, but just a small one. Can't complain, however, since we enjoyed a two-hour bike ride through the country hills and burned up 900 calories. (18 miles)