F Y I

Scott was doing the dishes yesterday and asked Is that a woodpecker on the backyard tree?

I went over to the window. "Absolutely," I said. "No other bird gets into that position or has that body shape." He was slender and was perched upside down on a tree limb on the only remaining tree in my yard. (The bird, not Scott.)

I'd reluctantly needed to take the other two trees down. They were dying. The previous owners planted them too close together.

At any given moment I can look out the window and find birds and squirrels roosting on that tree. From my second-floor bathroom window I get an entirely different view of the tree, its upper stories, as if it were a skyscraper with different activities.

Point being, I am in love with nature and crave its beauty.

Yesterday, Scott laboriously strapped our bikes onto his car bike rack and we rode off to Lorimer Park, one of Montgomery County's six or so huge parklands, and we rode a couple of miles down old railroad tracks which have been converted to biking and walking trails. We rode for about an hour in the hot sun but you generate such a breeze that you barely sweat. And what a great workout!

You can find Rails to Trails here.

We love our 8-speed bikes which we bought at Wheelwright in Abington, PA. Prominently on the bike it reads Made in China.

We also bought bike stands so we can use them as stationery exercise bikes in the off-season. Whenever I'm on a long phonecall, I'll hop on the bike and pedal, or else go out to the garden and clip weeds with my hand clippers. It's impossible for me not to multi-task. I have a big phonecall coming up later today and will do my weekly cooking while I'm chatting - I'll make my brown rice and hard-boiled eggs for the week. The woman on the other end will hear me clattering as I listen to her tale about her bipolar (fill in the blank).