The Best of Me

 Strings of pearls line way

clusters at the ends of green wands

alight from within

their luminosity

not

muted by the grey cover

You know, I have not really done a post about the springtime show Out There this year, a show that still has not diminished much, though here we are, late into May already. Oh, some of the show has faded a bit, but as some of the early bloomers turn from bright to pale, others pop out to take their place; even the scatterings of Mexican elderberry have burst forth with their clusters of white. 

This was all set to be that post, but then that sage growing across the trail got the best of me. Funny thing is, I had been debating packing a pair of hand pruners for a few weeks. I watched the trail slowly disappear as those fragrant branches reached across to one another. Too late now, I suppose - a fair job of flattening was done to the plants on one side, however. As pay back the woody portions did a good job of bloodying my leg. Fair is fair, I guess. Or maybe, all's fair in love and mountain biking. It does come with the territory, and anyway, no lasting harm has been done to either side.

good little Finn, looking all concerned

We've got an extra day this weekend, an extra chance to ride, an extra chance to prove our skill set is better than it might appear on rare occasions. 

An extra day to remember, on this Memorial Day weekend, those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of an ideal that was formulated nearly two-hundred and fifty years ago, an ideal that we believe does not apply just to citizens of this one nation, but should be available to people where ever they call home.

crash, bang, boom

a second patch of Chorizanthe, though this one is not quite visible from any trail

not really called pearl plant, but I think the name is apt

and what's left after the pearl plant pops

always like spotting these when they pop up through the brown grass (right along this same bit of trail I spotted the seasons first tarantula hawk - now where is that calochortus?)