Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
The winds have changed this past week from north to south. And with this change comes new visitors to the beach. The most obvious are the lines of sea detritus washing up with each successive tide. A mash up of grasses and seaweed lines the beach as would an intricate necklace around the neck of […]
Late in the day, we see osprey and pelicans dive in the ocean looking for their last catch of the day. They are rarely close or still enough to get a good shot. On my bike ride yesterday afternoon, I noticed this osprey perched on a high branch next to the ocean. I backed up […]
The days in the Keys are blissfully the same. We awake at first light as the sun streams through our bedroom window. Initially it is a bit nippy with a touch of wind but the outside soon warms and we head out to the beach for our morning walk. Flocks of birds beat us to […]
Coming to the Florida Keys, I always feel as if we are entering a foreign place with strange and wonderful sights. My years of being a bit of a plant nut and Master Gardener are thrown to the winds as I spot plant after exotic plant that I cannot even begin to identify. This diversity […]
We had an opportunity to visit a local prairie, a special and vanishing ecosystem. They differ from meadows in that they don’t favor the growth of trees and have many more wildflowers and grasses. We have see a few monarch butterflies making their migration toward Mexico, but it is late in the season given the […]
Dodging the rain in the Northeast, we find ourselves in hot and steamy Des Moines for the Iowa Quilt Show. One of Juana’s bucket list items is to attend this exhibition of hundreds of quilts, and the fact that our niece, Lucy, lives nearby makes it so much easier to make the journey. Entering the […]
It’s a bright chilly morning in Augusta. A perfect day to finish our trip to St. Charles. After an excellent breakfast at our B&B and with a couple of trail pastries in my saddlebag, we are ready for our short 27-mile ride to St. Charles. The sun is beaming down warming us as we make […]
Crossing Big Muddy on our bikes for the last time, it is a bright, hazy, temperate morning: perfect weather for the 37-mile ride into Augusta. After an uneventful pedal along the highway, we are back on the trail shaded by a tunnel of trees. A cool, stiff breeze is attempting to thwart our forward progress, […]
It’s cloudy and drizzly. We are not complaining. After three days on the road, our bikes have a fine patina of dust covering nearly every surface and they could use a good washing. We have 48 miles to ride to Hermann, a town founded in the mid 1800s by German immigrants looking to create a […]
There is an unfamiliar chill in the air as we cross the Missouri RIver for the first time on our bicycles. A slight haze emerges from the Big Muddy under a bright, cloudless sky. We have an early start of 8 am today as we want to beat the heat as much as possible for […]