Portland - city of flowers

There are so many flowers around this town that I can’t ride slow enough to take them all in. Every way I turn my head is a show – from a bike, that is. From a car, you’re all boxed in. I’ve spent so many springs and summers peering through my car windows while trying not to have a wreck, thinking, wow, look at all these gorgeous flowers, I gotta get out more, gotta go for some walks, gotta spend some time OUTSIDE so I can enjoy all this. But the season would be over before I knew it and I’d have missed the whole thing.

Riding my bike, I’m absolutely wallowing in the outdoors all the way to work and all the way home. If the season zips by without my planning any major expeditions, I don’t feel that I’ve missed life itself. The smells alone are a whole nother realm besides the colors.

I would like to publicly thank anybody in this town who’s responsible for a flowering anything, because I’m out here reaping the benefits without having put in a lick of the work. Even at home, Lindi’s the one who’s made all the flowers happen. (I do other things, ok?)

The beautiful petals burst out of their buds, then, after a few weeks of entertaining us from their stems, fall through the air like --- Ha! You thought I was going to flog the over-used ‘snow’ analogy, didn’t you? No, the petals are not like snow, they are much, much better. Besides being toasty warm, they are soft and don’t turn into slush. When I come upon these scenes of fallen petals, I want to throw myself down and roll in them. Sometimes, if I find them on a dry grassy area and no one's looking, I do.