Thursday, September 30, 2010

On With The Show



"I cannot endure to waste anything 
as precious as autumn sunshine 
by staying in the house. 


So I spend almost all the daylight hours 
in the open air."



-  Nathaniel Hawthorne


It’s showtime, folks. Just in the last few days, trees here have raised the curtain on their annual show that will bring us layer upon layer of fall colors to the Willamette Valley.  With the promise of good weather through the weekend, and while we have the sunshine, the clear air, the morning and evening light, we owe it to ourselves to find a bit of time to get outside and enjoy the performance.  There’s not a bad seat in this outdoor theatre; the view from your handlebars will do quite nicely.  Here are three rides I'd suggest:
1. If you don’t care for sharing the road with cars, you’ll love Minto-Brown Island Park. Put the bike rack on, load the bikes, and when you get there you’ll enjoy miles of paved trails for riding.  Lots of trees and great views.
2. If you don’t mind sharing the road with cars, try the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.  Awesome stretches of rural riding, very few cars, and the route is well marked with signs.  Choose your starting place and your distance.
3. If you want scenery plus a bit of a workout, try the West Salem hills. Go west on Highway 22 to Doaks Ferry. Take a right and start climbing. A series of climbs and drops will take you to Wallace Road, where you'll turn left. Take another left on Zena, and then ride back into town on Brush College Road.

Oh, and bring a camera. These performers love having their pictures taken.

4 comments:

bikelovejones said...

Thanks or the beauty shot
(MY favorite autumn verse, below)

*********

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise!
Thy woods this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart, — Lord, I do fear
Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me, — let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

--Edna St. Vincent Milay

Kelly Carlisle said...

Fantastic poetry! I get this strange feeling you like autumn best. Me too.

bikelovejones said...

Yeah. Hopefully, more of it will show up before too long. The trees near the shop have only just begun to turn this week.
See you Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Dear friends,
thank you for beautiful photos and poetry!
I live in Belarus. It's another side of the World :) But I also enjoy autumn nature and Edna St. Vincent Milay's verses. Especially I like this one. But I have some difficalties with the translation. Dictionaries can't help :( Would you, please, help me? Intuitively I anderstand the lines. But I don't want to be mistaken. Could you, please, explain them in simple words?

...this autumn day, that ache and sag...
That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!