Spring mounting to King's Park

                  

After what seems like a long winter, spring is finally here. This early part of spring is probably the best as we still get wintery nights (it was 4c yesterday) but with lovely sunny and cool days, of 16-18c. This is also a great time to see wildflowers here in Western Australia and today, we set off to do just that. Witness the wildflower bloom at King's Park.

It was great to meet up again with Frank and Carolen under Mt Henry Bridge for the 12km ride to KP via excellent bikepath that runs along the Kwinana Freeway. When I left home it was under 10c and a bit nippy but the weather settled to a cool 15c morning with blue sunny skies. It was wonderful to ride with a strong tail wind and we were flying at 27-28km/h without any effort. It was amazing that we got to the turn-off at Mount Street in 30 mins flat!

                                               

For those who know, Mount Street is named so appropriately because it is one of the steepest hills in Perth. Many roadies come here to train and my young friend Lance, a top class competitive roadie was here with his mates earlier. There is even a video made called "Chain Breaker"...

We had to gather ourselves and prepare mentally to climb this chain breaker hill. It did not help when a young lady on a roadie pulled up where we were, took a look at the hill, got discouraged and wanted to turn back. I told her "Let's do it together!" and so off we went. Frank on his KHS T3 went off first, followed by Ms Roadie, then I on my humble 7 speed Giant with Carolen also on a KHS T3 taking the rear.

Frank charged up like a rocket and it was discouraging to see him so far. It helps when you have age or the lack off, on your side. But when it comes to climbing, it is always best to do so at your own pace. I was very skeptical that my coffee-mug carrier could do this climb as the gearing was meant for cafe rides but moments like this, I had to draw from my experience to make this work.

I started off fast to get the Giant Momentum to live up to it's name and settled at a steady pace. This worked well until half way up when no amount of pedal pushing could propel the bike forward. No wonder granny gears were invented for such a time like this and the KHS foldies had them! Just like sailing against the wind, tagging a hill can be helpful and I used this technique to go up. Ms Roadie meanwhile who was left behind caught up with me and panted her way up.

It was so satisfying to finally make it to the top and it was great to see that Carolen was still chugging up. She had a serious injury 9 months ago and to see her recover, so determined and making the climb was heart warming. We celebrated with a drink from out water bottles and cruised up easily the rest of the way to King's Park where Frank was waiting for us, looking a bit bored.

                     

Well deserved coffees all around at the cafe and I brought along some special Grapefruit Butter Cake which my friends Ray and Caroline baked for me, to celebrate our achievement. It is always special to catch up with good friends over a cycling coffee break like this.

                     

Indeed, the flowers at King's Park were at full bloom and I was worried my Hay Fever would attack with a vengeance. Thank God it behaved itself somewhat and I managed to shoot these lovely pics.







Returning was much harder as we had to battle the headwinds but after climbing Mount Street, headwinds were relatively easy. We stopped to admire the Pelicans basking in the sun before heading home.





Truly one could not ask for a better Spring day to cycle and mount Mount Street, in the company of good mates! Days like these are given to us by our Creator to enjoy and seeing all these beautiful flowers really lifts up the soul. More importantly, they serve as a reminder of God's great love and care for all of us.

                               

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never ever seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Matt 28:30-33  The Message