Take a ride with me

What is life but a form of motion and a journey through a foreign world?

Moreover locomotion--the privilege of animals--is perhaps the key to intelligence.

The roots of vegetables (which Aristotle says are their mouths)

attach them fatally to the ground, and the are condemned like leeches

to suck up whatever sustenance may flow to them 

at a particular spot where they happen to be stuck...

In animals the power of locomotion changes all this pale experience into a life of passion,

although we anaemic philosophers are apt to forget it, that intelligence is grafted.

-George Santayana

Sometimes I enjoy going on a bikeabout.  I may have a loose destination in mind, but at least one of the stretches is left completely open for me to wander wherever my senses choose to take me.  This usually works best when alone.  It is then that I don't feel pressure to be back at a specific time, listen to others legs or worry about staying on course.  On these rides, I am usually in search of beauty--not too difficult to find in the driftless area.  I pay more attention to both the big and little picture--sometimes stopping to look more closely at flowers or butterflies and I almost always pause for a moment at the top of a large climb to admire the vista.  Today, my bikeabout journey brought me west through Spring Green and back while winding north prior to hitting Madison again.  I was so acutely aware that it is now August.  The light, the flora and the fauna all told me summer is coming quickly to a close.  I told myself not to get down about this, and instead take it all in.  Here is my ride through my eyes.

The geese are coming back--here to a recently harvested wheat field

Chicory--and to think we made "coffee" out of this.

The short window when bergamot and sunflowers overlap

It's rare to see beef cattle vs. dairy cattle in these parts

I always stop for farm cats

So many old farms still grow old timey flowers--here it is zinnias

A tell tale sign summer is losing its grip--this is the first ride I've seen goldenrod in full bloom

This farmer has a nice sense of humor