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Things I Love Thursday: My Picks for Best Bikes of 2015

I was at the store recently and a shiny Schwinn caught my eye. I pointed it out, a sexy blue number; my husband made eyes at its neighbor in a glossy red. Jeff has a trike that he rides at the beach, and now that it’s springtime I couldn’t help but picture myself leisurely cruising along on a new bike of my very own.

Once I got home I fell down a rabbit hole window-shopping some of the most beautiful things on two wheels. When I was a kid we rode bikes all the time, but I stopped getting in the saddle once I was pregnant with Jacob. When my parents died someone broke into their house and stole all the bikes, and while the kids have their two-wheelers I’ve never replaced mine.

I miss biking. I miss whipping along entirely too fast, a speed of my own making. I miss riding along bumpy forest paths. I miss the clank of the gears changing and the sound made when coasting along a quiet road.

(I don’t miss jerk city drivers that don’t share the road.)

A few years ago I was in Boulder Colorado and tried out their bikeshare. It’s the only time I’ve been on a bike in 18 years and while it was tough— biking hills or in this case mountains was no joke— it was wonderful. It only took a few minutes to feel comfortable riding again and I felt so free.

Biking is, of course, one step we can take towards a healthier world. Biking doesn’t just save the fuel we’d use and the emissions we’d otherwise produce, though. The more people we get out there, the more involved they tend to become in the community and with protecting their local environment. More efforts are made to make roads bike friendly. Bikeable areas improve property values, increase the number of customers at smaller retail stores, lower crime rates (since more people are visible on the streets), and enhance the sense of community among neighbors— it’s a lot easier to get to know people when they’re on bikes, rather than zipping past in their cars.

Plus, riding a bike is just plain good for the body and good for the soul.

Here are the bicycles I’d most love to hop onto this year, but really any one I find will do!

Isn’t this beauty an Instagram moment waiting to happen? It just screams sunshine and sherbet. I feel like everyone needs to have one of these Schwinn Slik Chiks to ride at the beach at dawn; on one of those bright, cool mornings that precede a scorcher day in the ocean.

You could also ride it alongside a fiercely green field of corn, or to the market to buy berries and flowers, or to sit outside and have a latte at a cozy coffeehouse. Basically, this bike makes me want to do beautiful things and document them all for posterity.

The Schwinn Slik Chik is a cool $360.

Along the same lines, this pretty one speed is meant for just cruising around on flat terrain… a little more of an urban feel. The PUBLIC C1 is on sale right now for just $299.

With its curved, open, step-through frame design, it is often referred to as a Dutch bike. It’s a time-tested classic metropolitan cruiser bike design seen commonly throughout Europe for decades.

This genteel 3-speed bicycle is from Brilliant Bicycles. It’s the Mayfair and it looks perfect for easy breezy rides through city parks or from the library. It comes in a number of summery colors, but I’m smitten with this stately urban look.

Brilliant bikes are 100% handmade and shipped free directly to you (meaning no middleman). They start at $399 and are really just lovely— check ’em out.

Brilliant Bicycles are hand-crafted at a state-of-the-art, wind-powered manufacturing facility in Taiwan. We took great efforts to find manufacturing partners focused on ethical labor. All of our partners pay responsible wages with benefits in safe, clean working conditions.

The attention grabbing EcoForce 1 from Greenstar Bikes has a frame made of bamboo: sturdy as steel, lightweight, sustainable. A hybrid is available this summer, but there aren’t details about that one on the site yet. This conversation kickstarter goes for $499.

The EcoForce 1 is a single speed bamboo road bike with a reversible rear hub that easily converts it to a fixed-gear bicycle or “fixie”. This affordable bamboo bike is super light: the frame weighs less than 4 pounds thanks to bamboo and our recycled 6061 aluminum lugs. The entire bamboo bicycle only weighs about 20 pounds.

This bike is the most similar to the one I shared with my dad. It’s from Diamondback and suitable for both trail and road riding, but this one is designed for women. Calico Sport, $650.

If I had the budget, I’d opt for this sexy beast and start triathlon training in earnest. Isn’t it beautiful? The Trek Lexa is an 11-speed road bike suitable for tris and designed for women. It’s listed at $1650 so I would HAVE to get my miles’ worth out of it.

When was the last time you were on a bike?

Where do you ride?

April 2, 2015
Don’t Kick Your Christmas Tree to the Curb! Repurpose or Recycle It.

To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice
as well as its feature.

―Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

The ball has dropped, it’s after New Year’s and time to undeck the halls and untrim the trees. Every year I see tons of trees sitting curbside waiting to be picked up with the trash and taken to the landfill; it makes me sad that they had purpose for such a short time. While I do think real trees are better than fake (especially if you buy one from a local, family owned business!) we can do better, people.

Get more out of your Christmas tree: repurpose or recycle it by giving it back to nature.

Gimme shelter

Birds and other wildlife need shelter from the elements and any stray cats or other predators that may be lurking. Simply drag your tree out to the yard rather than the curb, or make a brush pile with the branches. A simple family family project if you’re feeling festive is to hang some pine cone “ornaments” rolled in peanut butter and rolled in sunflower seeds to decorate your gift to your feathered and furry neighbors. (More edible ornament ideas for wildlife here.)

Mulch much?

Insulate your flower beds against cold temps with your pine needles. They’ll also suppress weeds, help retain moisture without allowing the soil to become compacted and are especially good around acidic-favoring plants like roses. Pine needles are soft to walk over, and just look more natural and woodsy than your typical store bought mulches— you’re not going to get a ton out of your one tree, of course; consider asking your neighbors if you can have theirs too.

If you’re local (upper Delaware), you can drop your tree off at a DNREC site where they’re recycled with other yard waste and ground into mulch. I believe this mulch is available periodically for New Castle County residents for free.

Worm Food

If you’re a composter, pine needles will keep your pile nice and fluffy so it stays aerated and “hot.” They can take a while to break down though, so it’s recommended that you either run them over with a lawn mower before adding or use the needles that have already spent a season pulling mulch duty. Keep pine needles to about 10% of your total compost pile at any given time.

Donate

Check around for local restoration efforts or animal sanctuaries that are asking for tree donations. In Louisiana they use them to restore the wetlands; in other places leftover Christmas trees preserve sand dunes. Locally, the Tri-State Bird Rescue adds trees to the birds’ cages for “cover, perches and warmth” and to make them more natural, less stressful; you can take evergreens there from 9-5 seven days a week. Some zoos and animal sanctuaries will accept trees for animal enrichment (drop off to the main lot of the Plumpton Park Zoo in Maryland, locals).

I’ve also heard that people hang on to the pine needles, sealed tight in the freezer, and simmer on the stovetop or pack into sachets for natural air freshening. I’ve not tried this so I don’t know how effective it is, but it can’t hurt to try.

Any other ways to repurpose or recycle your Christmas tree? Let me know!

January 2, 2015
Light It Up.

Why do you go away?

So that you can come back.

So that you can see the place you came from
with new eyes and extra colors.

And the people there see you differently, too.

Coming back to where you started
is not the same as never leaving.

―Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

So, I was having some issues behind the scenes here— basically, I was locked out of my blogs. I’d click the link to be sent a new password, but I’ve been blogging so long now that the password was going to a now-defunct email address. It was frustrating and sort of scary while also being sort of freeing; I didn’t feel that constant guilt about not posting as frequently as I would like.

Well, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and in a short time I had an impressive list of things I really did want to write about. I harassed my hosting service with pathetic pleas for help and they did their magic. I’ve spent a few weeks cleaning up some messes in the backend, and today here I am again.

And again, I feel like my focus for this blog has shifted since the last time I really gave it some thought, but one thing I know for sure: I want to partially return to where I began, with photography and stories and mindfulness and introspection. (Even if, as least for a while, I am stuck with what I can manage to capture through the lens of my aging iPhone.)

Too many hours spent multi-tasking on a computer screen and being always a step behind, an hour beyond deadline, running late for important dates, has left me feeling stressed and scatterbrained. I crave finding connections and sharing really deep thinking, no matter how trivial it may seem.

Blogging for me began as an outlet and quickly became a job, then an obligation, then a chore.

Now? Now I hope it will be a spark. I want to get all fired up about things again.

Certain bodies… become luminous when heated.

Their luminosity disappears after some time,

but the capacity of becoming luminous afresh through heat

is restored to them by the action of a spark.

― Marie Curie

Light it up.

September 14, 2014