When an autumn sky is at your feet
and the low grasses hum,
and the one of you
is the total sum,
and your bike,
faithful steed,
is all the car
you really need,
do you know
this moment’s rite,
this solitary watch,
to hold it tight?
Thanks yet again to photographer S.W. Berg.
Oddments 
September 26, 2021 at 10:45 am
I know that feeling well, and you captured it in your beautiful words. Very nice!
September 26, 2021 at 10:59 am
Thanks, Dan! I look back on my bike days as though they happened in a galaxy far, far away. What a distant time of life!
September 26, 2021 at 6:12 pm
But the feelings remain.
September 26, 2021 at 6:25 pm
Oh, yes.
September 26, 2021 at 11:02 am
This post made me smile for sure. Immediately I thought of the bike I had at my grandparents’ farm during the summer months. It was blue, and her name was Betsy. Oh my goodness, that bike and I put on a lot of miles because I just said I was going out to ride and hit the road. No stranger danger or helmet requirement. I would ride into town which was a couple of miles ‘downhill’ and then catch a ride home. That’s not happening today. 🙂 LOVE the header shot! Thanks for the good memories, Maureen.
September 26, 2021 at 11:34 am
Your bike had a name? I never heard of naming a bike, but it makes perfect sense because our bikes were so personal a part of life. As I was staring at this photo that Bill sent, I was transported to the days of bikes and all the fun had on them. You are so right: no helmet, no anxieties except for skinned knees (my specialty). To have a bike AND a grandparents’ farm would really be the ultimate luxury.
September 26, 2021 at 7:21 pm
It makes you wonder how our generation survived. We rode bikes with no helmet, walked barefoot outside, drank from a hose, and most summer days went home to eat. 🙂
September 26, 2021 at 7:29 pm
And we ate raw cookie dough! (My grandchildren would say that that explains a lot.) I do wonder how we survived, but we sure had some good times!
September 27, 2021 at 12:41 am
Oh, thank you for the hearty laugh. I remember visiting a great aunt who was making me chocolate chip cookies to take home. My grandmother got there early so she gave me the bowl with the cookie dough. Yep, I sat in the back seat and ate raw cookie dough all the way home. LOL Your grandchildren may be right, but let’s not tell them. 🙂
September 27, 2021 at 12:52 am
Oh, absolutely: it’s our secret, and our grandchildren must never know they might be right!!
September 27, 2021 at 12:52 am
p.s. Boy, that sounds good! I remember that raw dough — what a great!
September 26, 2021 at 2:09 pm
“If only I could walk on water…”
September 26, 2021 at 2:20 pm
Then you would walk right over to your bike?
September 27, 2021 at 8:15 pm
I’d walk across the waterway to that stately white house.
(I can’t ride a bike :D)
September 28, 2021 at 12:15 am
Ah! Of course! It’s a handsome one, isn’t it?
September 29, 2021 at 5:50 pm
My sister is the bicycle enthusiast in the family. My most memorable bike rides have been in company – on two different tandems, and also once on very wobbly self-powered ride along the Mississippi Levee.
September 29, 2021 at 7:34 pm
A wobbly self-powered drive along that levee does not sound like the best bicycle experience ever. A tandem would be fun, I think, though I cannot speak first-hand. I’m pretty sure I’d be wobbly myself if I tried it now, but in my head I’m sitting tall and sure.