anything but winter

today was (and still is) a beautiful day: it's 45-46 degrees according to the various thermometers outside my kitchen window. i've been at home for the last two days because we don't have school and yesterday i didn't go out much except for a little frolic outside with the animals about a half hour before sunset. today i felt like a walk, but the prairie road i usually walk is now fenced in and occupied by cows and i didn't know how they and my dog would get along. then i remembered tim talking about a nature trail that runs through this area. it starts in council bluffs and runs through mineola, silver city and malvern, all of which are within easy driving distance, so i grabbed the leash, put the dog in the back seat and headed to silver city.

i was going to take the trail south towards malvern, but i could see that if i went north i'd get to walk across a bridge, and who can resist a bridge? there's something irresistible about them. they're quaint. it's fun to look over the edge. they're a kind of novelty i guess, a break from the ordinary. so i went north. (i kept the first for another day.) on the way i met another girl about my age walking her dog, odie. we chatted a bit about our dogs and how nice the trail was and went on our separate ways. she was very nice.

i walked for about an hour. it was so refreshing to be outside walking briskly and feeling my heart beat and my muscles move. i felt tall, i felt strong, i felt energetic, and very content. i wish i felt like that every day of my life.

i passed a field with cows grazing. i saw a grain cart parked on the edge of a field of corn stubble. i saw a flatbed truck ready to be loaded with some freshly cut wood. i heard a cardinal and searched until i spotted it, and spotted another later on. for a while i was on the level path with only a shallow ditch on either side. then i came out into the open with terraced fields and blue sky to my left and right. a little while later the ditches became deep with huge trees at the bottom growing up and soaring above my head (trees that will in summer wear a nest of robins in their hair). then the trail turned upside down with steep hills on either side so i was walking in a valley. it will be beautiful in the summer and fall. it's beautiful now, even with no leaves on the trees and "stubble in the furries."

it was so warm in the sun that i could take my stocking cap of, and later on unzip my coat. the temperature felt like spring, the sky looked like summer blue, and on the way back i smelled wood smoke which reminded me of fall. it was anything but what it is, which is winter.

i have plans for the summer, though. i think i'll have a biking party at our house one weekend when the weather is supposed to be about 70 degrees. everyone can go to first church in lincoln and come out here in the afternoon, bringing their bikes. we can take the pickup and drop everyone and their bikes wherever they want to start (depending on how far they want to ride) then we could pick them up in malvern or silver city and come back to our house and we can have a picnic supper and bonfire. it's a great trail. no hills as far as i walked, and nice dirt. it's like gravel, but finer and smoother. you wouldn't even need very knobby tires. you're all invited.

that's all i wanted to tell you.