Seen from the garden - winter cyclists

By Guest Essayist Ed Cullen, from the collection "Letter in a Woodpile."  Here's the link to Ed's very own (very Southern) reading of the piece on All Things Considered.

Girls on new bicycles approach in late afternoon winter light. The riders are oblivious to the pale wash of blue sky, cool air and patches of still-green grass. The girls are fixed on the gear shifters inside the handlebar grips on their Christmas bikes.

"I'm in gears 3 and 7," a rider says.

"Try 1 and 4," says the girl on her wingtip. "That's where I am."

The bicyclists glide by as I turn compost and dirt into beds for romaine lettuce, arugula and mustard greens. I pause to listen to the cockpit chatter.

The girls cruise in squadrons of three or four. Children on the verge of young womanhood, they are beyond the pull of parental gravity when they ride bicycles. They have graduated from piloting machines with foot brakes and one gear to mountain bikes with cantilevered brakes controlled by hand and 21 speeds.

That's 20 more speeds than bicycle riders in Baton Rouge need.

There are no hills in Baton Rouge, only small rises from land to higher land. At 30 feet above sea level, increased pedal pressure conquers most elevations. The riders passing my front yard garden are feminine Chuck Yeagers, girls drawling that test pilot talk. Try 2 and 4."

"Four's too easy. Go to 6."

The girls move by, their wrists sending messages to derailleurs, chains slackening to tighten again in new configurations. My shovel's blade exposes white grubs to the buttery sun as I follow the girls' progress down our dead-end street.

A few minutes later, back they come. The girls are riding faster now. They've found just the right gears. Up the street they go, leaning into the wind, hair flying, ears tuned to a private frequency.

They are free – until suppertime.

Comments

[Plantanista]

Lovely piece.

[Renate (Town Mouse)]

Of course I do wish they were wearing a helmet...
(lovely piece, though, I agree)

[countrypeapie]

beautiful

[Karen]

I noticed the no-helmet too! Over-concerned parent that I am, it always freaks me out... I know it's good to be free and all, but brain injury is no picnic.

[Susan Harris]

What, no complaints about the photo not looking like winter?
People who go begging for blog photos take what they can get, helmit or no.

[Ginny Stibolt]

Susan,
While it was 80 degrees on Christmas here in northern Florida, for the last 3 days the lows have been in the 20s! Brrr! The cold feels colder when the temperatures are so variable and those semi-tropical plants will all need to be cut back to the ground this year...

I was going to post a photo of my grandkids pulling carrots on Christmas day in their bare feet, but I don't see how to add a photo here. So here's a link to my article, which includes that photo: http://sky-bolt.com/veggies-kids.htm

[Jenn]

Looks like winter here.

(Phoenix AZ)