Cox Arboretum

Thursday
With the promise of a fine day, we headed up to Cox Arboretum in Dayton, which we had visited last year for the first time. It was just wonderful to be surrounded by the beauty of Spring bursting forth in all its glory, see the turtles sunning themselves in the sun, and hear the birds singing away in the trees. The tulips were particularly beautiful. We haven’t been able to grow tulips in our garden, since the deer are very partial to them, and have no difficulty scaling our split rail fence at the bottom of the garden! Having got my fill of photographs, we set out on a trail through the woodlands.
We had taken our tandem along, thinking we would go for a bike ride on one of Dayton’s numerous bike trails once we were finished at the gardens. However, while we were at the gardens, Roger received a message to say that my new bike (to replace the one that was stolen from the back of the car on our way down to Florida in February) was ready for pick up. So we adjusted our plans, and returned home, exchanged the tandem for Roger’s bike, went to the bike shop to collect my bike, and after a trial ride around the car park to make sure all was OK, loaded it on the car, and went to the bike trail in Milford for a short ride. It is lighter than my last one and rode well, and the gear change was nice and smooth. However, I was used to my last one, and the position is a bit different somehow, and the saddle is obviously different, and I think that was part of the problem, it wasn’t quite adjusted right. I still have the saddle from my old bike so when we have more time I can try that one, but for today, time was limited since we had choir in the early evening. Another problem, unrelated to the bike, was that the wind had really got up, so coming back we were against the wind. So it was just 10 miles return today, and even that was a bit of a struggle toward the end!
We returned home just in time to heat up some left overs, and get out to choir - an important practice this evening, practicing with brass and timpani for Easter Sunday!