the good news ... the bad news

The good news -- today was an absolutely gorgeous day, 
 perfect for a long ride on the country roads north of town. 

I rode about 53 km.

I forgot my camera, so I had to use the wholly inadequate camera on my BlackBerry to record what I saw. Most of the photos are even worse than this one, so they will not make an appearance. 

This partially thawed pond, with the sun shining on the open water and on the varied colours of bare trees, was a breath-taking sight. 

It looked like an oil painting.

 

 A little later, as I was riding along the Muir Lake Park road, I heard a noise in the woods beside the road. A dog, I thought, and turned to look. 

But no, there were four deer!

Before running for cover into the denser wood, 

they stood for a while and watched me, 

no doubt impressed with my bright pink cycling jacket.

My phone camera didn't come close to taking a decent pic, 

but they were spectacular, as deer always are. 

And then, as I was riding back to town, 

I saw a thawing slough covered in geese, 

with more and more geese landing every minute.

Looks like spring, right?

Ah yes, that brings me to the bad news:

More snow is in the forecast!

A snowfall warning, in fact -- about 15 cm expected tonight and tomorrow.

Sigh...