A Bookworm Takes a Bike Ride

Posted on July 19, 2013 | 2 comments

I went on a country bike ride this evening.

It was the Magic Hour, so of course there was splendor to be seen: Walls of willows. A gazebo. Tree-lined streets. A quaint log cabin gloriously out of place next to a modern house, in front of which three goats grazed.

Somewhere along the way, I had a thought that made me grin… and I’ve an inkling you’ll agree with it.

The thought?

There is taking a bike ride… and then there is taking a bike ride with a bundle of books in your past.

Because when I breathed in the spice of those summer willows, I was on the White Way of Delight with Anne.

When I passed the tree-sentinels, I couldn’t help sizing them up to see which might house Margaret Dashwood’s treehouse, or where Mandy’s shell cottage might be hiding in their midst. Or perhaps which ones might protrude into the back of the wardrobe and lead from Narnia back to the Professor’s house. I didn’t think about the Ents of Middle Earth, or Pollyanna’s tree of doom, but I probably should have.

(Goodness, but trees are wonderful story devices!)

When one of the goats moved just enough to make a bell around its neck jingle (and yes, there really was a bell jingling. I did the auditory equivalent of a double-take and stopped my bike to make sure), I was watching Peter tend his goats on the Alm, The Grandfather’s mountain.

And when I spotted the gazebo tucked perfectly away behind green hedges, before I knew it the evening had coaxed a melody from me and I was singing “For the Beauty of the Earth”, giving sound to the scene that played in my head of Jo, Amy, Beth and Marmee circling the gazebo that held the new Mr. and Mrs. Brooke. (And of course I mentally gave Jo a talking-to for refusing Teddy’s proposal in the woods… in the movie. But then I remembered I felt better about it in the book.)

Oh, and the dear log cabin! I hardly need say it. I could almost taste the maple candy Ma and Pa and Laura and Mary would make in a pan full of snow come Christmastime.

And then my thoughts began to spin with story threads of my own, so that is where I shall leave off for today.Especially since my language seems to have gotten progressively more archaic over the course of this blog, and if I don’t put a stop to this we may very well end by conversing in Olde English.

When have you been swept through space and time by the unexpected bookish memories? Or am I alone in this? Please say something. I fear I may simply be off my rocker and have the chirping of crickets for company in the comment section… but no. I just know you have stories to tell and beloved childhood books to share. Right?

In any case, fare thee well, my friends!