Did your mother tell you that every cloud has a silver lining?
Well, mine did, and I believe it with all my heart.
So when Russell had some physical challenges and our vacation plans had to change, we decided to make lemonade from those lemons and spend a little cha-ching on bikes for our staycation.
Oh, the fun of one's first new bike since second grade. And yes, I have still been riding that old teal-colored Schwinn coaster bike all these years!
We packed a gourmet picnic and pedaled out through the farmland.
Past fields of potatoes, raspberries, blueberries and spinach.
Past orderly fields of lettuces so perfect and bright it reminded me of a ride at Disneyland, where you rode in boats past tiny gardens that were too tidy and manicured to be real.
We cycled down rural roads lined with orderly barns
and some I would love to rescue.
Past happy farmhouses where children swung on tires and sheepdogs chased us, tails wagging...
and tractors hummed like mechanical bees. What a delicious sound. What a great perfume, even if it did make me sneeze.
We rode along the river, and paused for that picnic on a grassy bank.
"Come on home," called Mr. Wonderful at last. So we did.
Back we cycled, tracing our path down country roads lined with berries and wheat and cows...
Back to our own little garden, where the sun set golden among the hollyhocks...
...proving that every cloud has its silver lining.
