Sunday, February 26, 2012
“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.” 
Holly was making one of my favorite meals…well…at least it used to be.  Baked chicken, delicious gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, noodles, corn and Jell-o.  I knew it was coming and developed a plan.  I’d take a chicken thigh and break it up over a tossed salad of spinach, mushrooms, craisins and almonds and eat that instead.  I got my food last and came to the table to watch seven others enjoying their fatty, cholesterol-laden meals.  Bummer.  And to make it worse, there was Patterson’s Dutch Apple Pie in the kitchen and Breyer’s All-Natural Vanilla Ice Cream with bean specks a couple of feet away in the freezer.  I ignored them both…for awhile.

I’d done a long hike through four inches of snow earlier in the day.  Bruce and I had met at the North Chagrin Reservation with the objective of doing the marsh perimeter hike.  We spent almost two hours on our trek and when we reached the marsh, Bruce wanted to go out as far as we could to observe the new beaver lodges.  Once there, we stood quietly for some time scanning the treetops for the eagles…and any other birds that cared to join us.  There were many.  A large red-tailed hawk soared overhead while the red-winged blackbirds sang their songs.  Pleated Woodpeckers were drumming too, and the echo resonated across the marsh. 

“I could just stand here for an hour and listen and watch,” Bruce said.  I felt the same…and often did just that when I came here alone.  It reminded me of a quote from the movie ‘The Last Samurai’ by Katsumoto… “The perfect blossom is a rare thing.  You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”  Some days, I cannot draw myself away fearing that as soon as I turn, I will miss something special happening behind me.

I managed another long ride on the trainer when I returned home while watching another couple of National Geographic specials.  One was on the adventures of Lewis and Clarke during their historic exploration of the Louisiana Territory and beyond to the Pacific Ocean and the other a fascinating effort to restore a portion of the American Serengeti on the Great Plains of Montana.  Scientists are working with conservationists and others to try and recreate an ecosystem destroyed so many years ago…following Lewis and Clarke…as farmers and settlers moved into this land and molded it to suit the needs of civilization.

Hike duration: One hour and 45 minutes.  Bike duration: 93 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 80 hiking and 120 for the bike.
Calories burned:  400 hiking, 1300 for the bike.