Scenes from the Rail Trail: August 5, 2014

The weather in Lewisburg has been sublime the last few days. Cool. Not terribly humid. It's been that beautiful sort of "makes you want to go outside and do something hearty and robust" weather, even if you've been working your tail off trying to get ready to teach your first Zumba class while brushing up on Silver Sneakers routines, and you really should take opportunities to sit or drive or relax because you've literally been dancing for three or four hours a day.For the record? It takes a staggering shit-ton of work to get ready to teach a class at a gym, especially early on when all the routines are brand new. Never mind prepping for two different ones. Moving on.One of these recent glorious mornings--Tuesday, if all y'all must know--I hit the ol' Buffalo Valley Rail Trail and pedaled my way off to work for the best commute ever. It's summer, so mostly everything is lush and green.Far as they eye can see. This. Green green green. Fecund is, actually, the word that leaps to mind, and I'm fairly certain that that word has never readily leapt to my mind until now.Do I sound jaded? Like, "oh, lorrrrrrrrrd, everything was all verdant and...yawn...greeeeeeen...". If that's the case, I apologize, because it's pretty fantastic to ride through. I felt like I was in The Shire, or something. (LOTR nerds: represent!). While a prolonged tunnel of greenness doesn't necessarily make for the most dramatic pictures, I did manage to click one or two... :)Like this one, of a morning glory, complete with some kind of bug having its way with the flower.Or this, with the tops of the corn against the bright blue sky. Power lines stretching overhead gave a bit of an interesting perspective.And, city folks, have you ever really looked at the roots of a corn stalk? No wonder they're so easy to make horror movies about.I came upon this fuzzy thingie sticking out into the trail and really liked how it caught the light.A tangle of pokeberry bushes... Wait, what? ***A*** tangle? These things are everywhere. The berries are inedible, and more than inedible, they're poisony. The mature berries make great ink. Legend (i.e., Wikipedia) has it that the Declaration of Independence was written in pokeberry ink; the National Archives puts the kibosh on that tall tale (it was iron gall ink, which was apparently the ink of choice for centuries). But the bushes sure are pretty.The pokeberry bushes intertwined with the delicately-flowered orange touch-me-not. I'll have to go back and look to see if there's a mature fruit capsule hanging there, because they apparently burst on contact, hence the name.Then I found the leaf where bugs were making with the love. Avert the children's eyes.And remember, fecund? And finally...A little bit of everything. Some sun, some sky, some green, a barn, a cow, and some early-turning leaves already sporting their fall color. Despite it being the height of summer, autumn is just around the corner.See you on the Rail Trail!