Bike season and the sharing of freedom

Although there are many signs of spring, the true measure of the season in our household is when the mornings get warm enough that my hubby’s bike comes out! From early spring to mid fall, my husband goes to work by bike. It is an amazing green initiative, terribly cost efficient and great exercise. Did I mention my husband’s work is 26 kilometers (16 miles) from our home? That is a lot of biking up and down hills, against river winds and with an ever-increasing weight strapped to the back : Our Little Miss. Her preschool is about midway there so she gets to enjoy the ride every morning and every night.

This morning was their first ride in and everybody was just tickled!

But this year, it also meant something for Little Man and me : A little bit more freedom. When I was on maternity leave with Little Miss, we lived in the city so everything was close, within walking distance or simply a city bus ride away.  We live in the suburbs now, and although our nice residential area has plenty of lovely paths and streets to walk down, going anywhere is very hard without transportation. Not that I’m saying I’ll start taking the car out everyday, but having the freedom to leave our little neighborhood a few times a week to explore with my ever-more-mobile Little Man will be a new world for both of us indeed.

This morning, we headed to our local botanical garden : Les Jardins Van Den Hende.

The botanical gardens belong to our local university, Université Laval, and are kind of special. They have a very important research vocation because they are one of the few governmental testing sites for hardiness classification for newly introduced perennial horticultural and agricultural species. Before plants are sold on the market, they are sent to Van den Hende to spend a few years being studied and observed as they go through our seasons. So you get to experience a number of plants that have never been seen before.

Walking around the garden as it is waking from the long winter slumber, knowing it as well as I do, I can see it for what it will be a few weeks from now. The above shown pergola will soon be lined with 2 dozen or so rhododendron and azaleas varieties. The buds have already started to swell and it will be a magnificent site.

 

The beds themselves are already blooming with life, with new varieties of anemones, helleborus and crocus, brightening up the otherwise gray background.

Soon the roses will come, the apple trees will bloom, the cherry trees will shower petals on the unsuspecting passerby. I’m looking forward to coming back often.

Enjoy the sunshine everyone!