Bike Ride 4, a Sunset Ride

I went for a very short, half hour sunset ride last night.  I had to wait that long because it was extremely hot and humid yesterday (and again today).  When I left the house at 9 last night, it was still 90 degrees F with lots of humidity, but there was a nice breeze on the bike.

 I've been having lots of fun reliving my childhood by riding up and down streets I haven't visited (until recently, with Mac and the stroller, and now my bike) since childhood.

 The above photos show the childhood homes of some of my close childhood friends.  Stella, Christine, and their little brother and sister, Frankie and Carla, lived in the grey house with the siding (I believe it used to be green but I could be wrong), and Beverly, Karmen, and Rennie lived in the brick house.  When I was little I'd go for bike rides and walks and stop in to visit, and always got treated to juice and ice cream by Bev's Mom, Carla, and to Italian cookies and milk (and sometimes sausages!) by Stella's Mom.  Stella was my best friend in school, from kindergarten to 8th grade.  Bev was my older friend by 5 years, and her family cottage was next door to ours so she was mostly my summer and after school friend.  She also used to babysit me and my brother, lol.  I haven't seen Bev in years, but we used to be close when I lived in the Toronto area.  We drifted apart after i moved home again.  I haven't seen Stella in years but we recently reconnected on Facebook.

As an adult I dearly miss knowing people I can drop in on, but at least I can carry my own water while walking/biking now. 

St. Veronica's Church

When we were very little, Laurie and I sang in the choir at St. Veronica's Church, with her Mom.  When we were old enough to join the youth choir, our friend Maria joined us, along with Maria's older sister, Rose. We thought we were cool because we had a tambourine and guitars in our youth choir, as opposed to the organ in the "old" choir, lol.  I loved singing in the choir, and I especially loved when we went on bus tours to sing in other places. I remember having a great time going on a tour to some place in the USA...I want to say Marquette, but I'm not sure if I really remember that right. The church used to look different; that whole front part with the dark glass was not there. It was a traditional looking church, with steep steps leading to the big front doors.  The glassed in area has a wheelchair ramp now.

 Laurie and I were both city kids who yearned to live in the country.  Because of this, we were completely in love with these creeks and eagerly walked alongside them to see where they went, whenever we came across them.  Laurie grew up and got her wish; she now lives on a winding gravel country road outside of Indian River, in Michigan.  I'm back home in my childhood home wishing for the country and ready to explore creeks and side streets again, lol.

 The water in these creeks is pretty awful, filled with algae and weeds, and surprisingly, little fish.  The graffiti is worse than when we were kids, but at least there aren't old shopping carts in the creeks now; when we were kids, there always were a few.

 None of these pictures show how dark it was getting because I used flash, which brightened up the photos significantly.  It was actually sunset, and getting dark.

 The left side of East Balfour still has a woodlot and field, which is lovely and looks so nice and rural. It is for sale and I hope it never, ever sells...or that the people who buy it leave it as is.  There used to be a woodlot on the other side of the street as well.

 When I got home it was quite dark, and I had to use my main lights and the cute flashing lights on the basket.  The pictures don't show how dark it really was.

 This last picture almost shows how dark it was, but it is still brighter than it should be, because of the flash.  It was dark enough that I was worried about waking into spider webs when I cut under the maple tree to put my bike in the garage.