General

Redbuds

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The spring weather continues here and lots of things are blooming in Austin. The picture here this time is of a Redbud tree – or so I’m told that’s what these trees are. I got out for a couple of bike rides this weekend and these trees are in bloom everwhere. I had no idea there were so many Redbud trees around here but right now they’re really showy so you can’t miss them. I pulled over at one point and snapped this shot. Not that this is any more full of flowers or beautiful than so many of them. But the foreground plants here were really nice. Looks like some kind of Agave.

Despite the blue skies in the picture, that seemed to be one of the few times the sun was out this weekend. Lots of clouds and plenty of wind – at least it seemed so on a bicycle. The blustery winds often made the cycling slow going. Still though, it was good to get out.

It’s Starting to Seem like Spring

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I snapped this picture on the walk back to the office from lunch today.

It’s probably hard to tell, but like a lot of wildflowers here in Texas at this time of year, this flower is really small. You can get some perspective by noticing the 3-leaf clover just to the upper left of the flower. The whole flower is maybe an inch across. Anyway, this is pretty representative of the types of things you’ll find sprouting around here at this time of year.

We’ve finally gotten some much needed rain around here. In fact, it’s raining here again today and everything is greening up really fast.

This little one had popped up next to the parking garage, along with several others like it. I noticed them on the walk home at lunch and brought the camera with me on the return trip. The same area has Bluebonnets growing but they’re nowhere near flowering yet. I’m bound to snap a shot of them if/when they do emerge.

Spokes ‘n Spurs Bike Ride

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Saturday was the 2007 Spokes ‘n Spurs bike ride in the Liberty Hill area. I did the 60 miler with Kem and Jim Moore. It was ideal weather for cycling. The Spokes ‘n Spurs ride is a benefit ride for the Spirit Reins ranch and was really well attended.

The route takes you from near Liberty Hill to Burnet and is quite nice. Not really all that hilly. Just rolling and pretty countryside. Excellent rest stops with great snacks. Better than average, that is. In general, it’s a well run event.

Would loved to have done a ‘recovery’ ride on Sunday but it’s been off and on rain most of the day. More on than off in the afternoon and this evening.

Cycling from Florence to Salado (Texas, that is)

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I haven’t been doing the best job of keeping this ‘blog up to date. But, I was thinking, maybe I should start keeping track of some of the bike routes I’m doing here.

Here’s a map I snagged from Gmaps Pedometer of a route I did last week. The traffic around Austin is kinda nasty so I try to find rides outside the city. This is just part of a route I did many years ago on an overnight ride to Salado from Austin.

I drove up to Florence and parked in the ‘downtown’ area of Florence. That’s where I started the ride. There’s not much to Florence hence the quoting of ‘downtown’. There’s a handy little grocery store in the main part of the downtown area though (on main street) so a good place to start from. You can pick up water or other stuff there. It’s the kind of grocery store you really only find in really small towns like Florence.

The route from Florence to Salado isn’t very heavily trafficked. Part of it (the part in Williamson county) has a shoulder. But that doesn’t last long. Most of the route is in Bell county and there is no shoulder. But there wasn’t much traffic. About 19 miles out you hit the I-35 frontage and from there can make your way over the overpass and into Salado. Salado‘s a cute little town and when the weather’s hot is a good place to pick up another bottle or two of water.

The ride back to Florence seemed more up hill than I would have expected, but part of that was due to the fact that I had a 10-15mph headwind. At least that’s what it seemed like. By the time you’ve gone over and back and meandered around Salado, you’ll have ridden 40 miles if you do this route. As a someone that used to live in Minnesota, I still marvel I can do this ride in February.

Frozen Rosemary

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Yet another picture of the massive ice-over of Austin. This one of a rosemary bush near my office. Virtually everything was covered with a half inch or more of ice. As of this morning (Thursday Jan 18th) it’s all beginning to come off. Makes a great sound as you walk around. Everything is crumbling… slowly.