Summer Happened

The sun came out in Olympia yesterday and suddenly it was full, green, leafed-in summer. Or so it seemed. Foliage and flowers have been budding for weeks now but the gray rainy weather made summer's advance far less obvious. Yesterday, summer was very obvious with a high temperature around 69 and LOTS of sunlight. It. Was. Glorious.

Certainly, it was a perfect day for a bike ride. Some clouds but mostly open, bright skies. I rode out to The Evergreen State College and took the long way home. That's when summer truly became obvious. Vistas formerly visible through bare branches are now wholly obscured with foliage. Grasses and vines are overgrown in many vacant areas of the city. The air has a moist, fecund smell. Everything is green, green, green. I caught a few glimpses of Mount Rainier and the Olympics along the way. The snow capped peaks sparkled in the distance. About as perfect a day as can be had.

Today is cloudy with showers. Last weekend was pretty much the same but I still rode twice. The Saturday ride was dry but overcast. Sunday's ride was unexpected. The day started out with showers but lightened up around noon. I took off, figuring that I might dodge any rain or that I could tolerate what I encountered. The day smelled wet, the landscape bathed in a soft gray light. Light rain began just after I reached the turn around point about eight miles out. I got wet but it was still pleasant enough.

Well into my third year in Olympia, I am one happy cyclist. Olympia is an easy town for riding a bicycle. Plenty of trails, bike lands and drivers who are not only aware (mostly) of bikes and courteous (also mostly). Despite the Pacific Northwest's reputation for rainy weather and gray skies, I've been able to ride every week this year.

Yesterday's clear skies also brought out a couple of Hueys. They flew over my place earlier in the morning and were on station south of Olympia much of the day. I saw and heard them, a couple of times at treetop level, during my ride. The sound of those rotors always command my attention.