I finally got a Fitbit last November for my birthday. I had never carried my phone with me in the mornings when I ran until a couple of months ago when I got the Fitbit, and I would often kick myself because of the beautiful sunrises I wasn’t getting photos of. Well, now that’s changed. Here was a recent early-run sunrise, …
Biking in unheard-of February weather
We took advantage of the beautiful mid-60s temperatures and headed out for about 15 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail. We started at the West Newton trail head and turned around on the other side of Van Meter. The bench outside the West Newton train station visitor’s center. Texture texture texture. You never know when it will come in …
Zen Garden
A zen garden! We have a new addition to our back yard, and my husband gets all the credit. He did all the work; all I did was point and nod and sit back and admire. Among other mediums, he works in clay, and a few years ago he had an exhibit showing his tabletop clay zen gardens. He hand …
The Iron Worker by Gerrit Albertus Beneker
On a recent visit to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg (Pennsylvania), I found myself drawn to The Iron Worker, an oil painting from 1905 by Gerrit Albertus Beneker. Drawn to it as in, I would walk away, and then walk back and stare. Several times. I studied the brush strokes maybe a little too closely; I backed away …
Sunrise walk
My ankle hasn’t recovered yet from the sprain back in June, so some mornings I need to walk my route instead of running it. I don’t bring my phone with me when I run, but I do when I walk. There’s been many, many times over the years when I wish I had my phone while I’m running to capture the beautiful sunrises that …
Faces in Things
Nom nom nom (Sleeper stone used to seat railroad lines on the Allegheny Portage Railroad near Johnstown, PA)
Path of the Flood Trail in Johnstown
For our latest adventure, we wanted to immerse ourselves in a little history and headed to Johnstown and the Path of the Flood Trail. It was a short ride, but we made plenty of stops to read interpretive signs, go off-trail to see an old culvert, and get lots of tunnel photos. This is the village of South Fork as …
Look Up Once in a While
Because…clouds. Salisbury Viaduct clouds. Farm clouds. Shadow-making clouds. Cloudy clouds.
Pine Creek Bike Trail (day 2)
Of course, I might have overdone things this time with my ankle, but we needed just one more day on the trail before we headed home. We decided to walk the trail in the opposite direction from where we had just biked the day before, which meant better opportunities for photos since we weren’t moving quite as fast. Looking down Pine Creek from …
Pine Creek Bike Trail Anniversary
For our anniversary this year, we decided to head to Slate Run, Pennsylvania, and do a little biking on the Pine Creek Rail Trail. We started at the Slate Run trail head and rode about 10 miles north to Blackwell with the incentive of ice cream at Miller’s before we turned to head back. And we enjoyed yet another beautiful day. …
Taking the Ankle to the Bike Trail
Looks like I won’t be running for a while (or hiking, for that matter), so it’s off to the bike trail for me. (Did you see my last post about the stupid thing I did to my ankle?) Otherwise, I would need to stop eating completely because, you know, calories don’t burn up much from writing blog posts. And although …
Away from my desk (and on my bike)
This week’s “Get the Stink Blown Off You” outing took us to Confluence and the Great Allegheny Passage. We rode southeast to a little past Fort Hill before we turned around to head back to reality. Our chaser was lunch on the porch at the River’s Edge Cafe. Again, another gorgeous day. Look at all that green! Here’s a little …