Winter Solstice - A Christmas Missive

And my world has shifted yet again.

Yesterday I learned Norse tradition celebrated Christmas on December 21, as Yule, on Winter Solstice, and the sky was burning a beautiful red over the James River at sunset.

Evergreens pervade my thoughts, the very air glows with a softness you can almost touch, lips kissed beneath a clutch of mistletoe, a cheek that brushes past all too fast.  

Tall green Christmas trees embrace the heart of home, they fill the void, left by the last light of the old Mother Sun, their branches holding up the blaze.

An expansive presence, they twinkle and they smile with delight and warmth.

They can never stay for long, but while they are here it’s like time stands still, leaving the earth spinning inside, releasing butterflies and robins and other winged dreams to flight once more.

For in the heart of the winter solstice, the laying in of firewood, the planning by the hearth is the promised pulse of birth; that of our Christ child, His passion, the waited-for rebirth of spring.

For the Norse it meant the rebirth of the Sun Goddess.

“A daughter
is birthed by the Sun goddess
after she is swallowed by the wolf
She shall ride
as the gods are dying
the old paths of her mother.*”

— *Source: Freyia Volundarhusins, LadyoftheLabyrinth’s Old Norse Mythology Website

And so this spring, I shall ride.  And I hope you will come along and ride with me.  Remembering the paths of our mothers and charting our own.  Remembering our age old call to be stewards of this bold beautiful earth.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, How lovely are your branches.  How evergreen. 

Merry Christmas!  

Anne Poarch • Founder • Basket & Bike

Glide

Fall feels like the perfect time to glide.  Maybe we are stepping out into a brilliant crisp day wearing cognac suede boots, or riding bikes along leaf littered paths, a satisfying crunch reverberating beneath tires that flatten acorns, foliage, and send butterflies fluttering in their wake.  The day opens wide before us, an endless promise with baskets of sunshine to collect before the retreat to winter.  Just now, if you bike past the cotton fields near Shirley Plantation and Upper Shirley Vineyards all will appear as snow on the distant horizon or clouds on the ground.  October is a month of profound change in Virginia.  We see it on trees, giving off the last of their fruits as leaves start to turn, on doorsteps giving shelter to pumpkins and gourds, and shoulders layering the fresh sweater or favorite scarf.  We feel it in the air as cool mornings give way to the rich warmth of a sunny afternoon.  October has also given me the opportunity to think about discovery and exploration, and to share the story of Virginia's land and the James River on our Signature Tour, A Journey Along the James.  Biking 14 miles along the Virginia Capital Trail, ending with lunch and a wine tasting at Upper Shirley Vineyards, riders hear stories of our collective history and learn how science is making a difference at VCU Rice Rivers Center, where we make a stop, listening for the sounds of nature, and learning how environmental science is being practiced right along the banks of the James River.  

In another brush with that exploration the Liaison Committee of The Science Museum of Virginia invited me to speak to their group about Basket & Bike; as a creator, an entrepreneur, and a business owner.  As I thought about the best way to deliver my message I turned to my journal, and to that spark that so often finds place on my pages, for inspiration.  Here follows some of what I shared with the committee.  I am looking forward to taking 15 of these women on their own bicycle excursion along the Virginia Capital Trail followed by lunch at Upper Shirley Winery Restaurant in November, and giving $225 to science, the James River Association and The Science Museum of Virginia.

Photo courtesy Felicia Shelton

Science, to me, is how we understand our world - all that’s in it, how all the pieces fit together, our place in the wider cosmos. It’s about asking questions, searching for answers and then sharing with each other what we’ve learned.  It’s a journey, really, because we’ll always have more questions to answer, more knowledge to share.  We’ll always have more to learn.

That, in a nutshell, is how I came up with the idea for Basket & Bike.  My bike opened new worlds to me - new places to discover, so much to learn.  And, as I pedaled my way across each little journey, there was so much I wanted to share. I believed others would want to come along for the ride.  And, since it’s all about discovery, the basket seemed somehow important to me.

It’s a symbol of the things we take with us - a snack, some cold water, a journal and pen, a scarf - as well as the things we might bring home.  A pine cone from a roadside picnic stop at the edge of the forest on a summer’s day.  A clutch of colorful leaves in autumn.  A book about life on a Virginia plantation four centuries ago on the James. A scallop shell, the Chesapeactan Jeffersonious - our state fossil (did you know we had one?), the size of a dinner plate, found by the shore.

Basket & Bike is a chance for recreation, exercise and good times with friends.  It’s also something more.  It’s a new way of looking at the beauty around us.  A new way of looking at the history that shaped our Commonwealth, and our nation. A new way of looking at ourselves. 

Rolling along quietly at twelve miles per hour, you see things you might miss from the car. The laughter of children playing in the schoolyard.  A bevy of wild turkeys picking at a freshly cut field of corn.  A great blue heron arcing across the sky with the grace of eternity beneath her wings.  Our minds are made to ask questions, and to probe for understanding and thought.

Our hearts, though, long to touch places that speak to us as people.  To gain the insights of the soul.  To feel the rain on our parka, the wind in our hair and the sunshine across our face. We want to be out there, don’t we?  We want to glide deeper into beauty and awe. That, to me, is what Basket & Bike is all about.

It’s about reaching a little deeper into the landscape, becoming a bit closer to this place we call home, traveling that great journey of discovery that has the power to enrich our lives, riding through our shared history, savoring the now and connecting us through a courage to build the future together. 

Tonight, as pumpkins glow and the earth stirs up her haunted howls, our temperatures will dip into the 40s, and our inner clocks will turn the page to a deeper fall.  The November sun will rise upon our saints, across the river, and along our paths. It really is the perfect time to reach for that fresh sweater or favorite scarf, hop on our bicycles, and head out for that last adventure or two, before days shorten our stride.  Fall feels like the perfect time to glide. 

Anne Poarch • Founder • BASKET & BIKE                                                RIDE • SAVOR • CONNECT 

Cotton

Cotton Blossom after self-pollinating

Friday morning, I led a family visiting from Seattle, Washington on our Signature Bicycle Excursion, "The River Where America Began" with lunch at Upper Shirley Vineyard's Winery Restaurant.  After a 14-mile bike ride on the Virginia Capital Trail, as we were returning to the vineyard for lunch, I was asked about the deep green plants, dotted with white and bright pink flowers.  Did I know what they were?  I knew from days spent biking last fall, when I saw the sea of white exploding across the fields, and later wrapped into giant rolls with flamingo pink cellophane after harvest, that it was cotton.  But, I was still unsure.  These verdant plants looked nothing like the stalks of snow white powder puffs I recalled.  I remembered hearing Shirley Plantation keeps cotton planted in some of the fields as a reminder of the hours long sacrifice that many of our ancestors gave, sweating under a warm autumn sun to harvest by hand.  But, maybe it is something else?  Do they practice crop rotation?  I decided then I had to have more confidence and assurance in my answer.  My guest riders are looking to me, and all our guides, to be knowledgeable about the history of the area and the interesting things we are seeing in pastoral Virginia.  When I led another group on a picnic ride Sunday morning we were delighted by the pretty pops of color that were peeking out from the shiny sea of emerald leaves.  And I was even more delighted to say with confidence yes, it is cotton.  For the next few weeks you can see cotton blossoms by the James River near Shirley Plantation and Upper Shirley Vineyard.  Whether you are there for one of our signature bicycle excursions, to tour the plantation, or to sample a bit of wine and lunch with impressive views of the James River at the vineyard (all of which you can do one one of our rides!) look for these fields dotted with creamy white, yellow and fuschia flowers.  Cotton starts with a bud or "square" then opens with a creamy white flower, which once self-pollinated turns this lovely pink before deepening to red, withering as flowers do, and falling off.  This makes room for the young boll, shaped liked a tiny football, which matures, turns dark brown and hardens, as fibers grow inside forcing it to crack open to reveal the bright tufts of white that most of us recognize as cotton.  Fibrils woven into the magic mystery of a baby's blanket, a summer dress, or just that favorite white t-shirt to which you gravitate, time and again.  Watching the fields change with the seasons in Charles City County has been a fascinating part of biking these Virginia country lanes and the Virginia Capital Trail.  Come along with us on a bicycle ride, ask us some questions, and we'll find the answers and watch the seasons unfold together!   

Anne Poarch

Ride • Savor • Connect

Vibrant green leaves in the cotton fields

Opening out of the bolls 'mini footballs'.

Cotton in Charles City County after the harvest

Breakfast on the Farm benefitting Capital Trees

July 20 - Start your morning with a bike ride and breakfast on an organic farm.  @capitaltreesrva takes you from the Low Line along the @virginiacapitaltrail to @victoryfarmsinc for a delightful breakfast made with the fresh flavors of a Virginia summer.  Email mnclinard@comcast.net to reserve of for more info.  Also check the Basket & Bike Facebook page or info@basketandbike.com.

Wednesday, July 20

7:45am-noon

Great Shiplock Park to Victory Farms