A Beautiful Breezy Sunday Ride, with Pictures and the Three Great Things

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Cornfields looking as if they'd been combed
Sandhill cranes walking in stately file
Swallowtails dancing on thistle bloom

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We had pouring rain this morning (yes! Another few days of not having to water my plants!), which cleared to a beautiful blue-and-white-and-green-and-gold day. Temperatures were in the mid-80s, and a lovely dry wind was blowing from the northwest.  A good afternoon for a ride.

The fields and ditches are taking on that summer-on-the-wane look. The pink and lavender wildflowers are nearly gone. There are still plenty of Queen Anne's Lace blooming, and a good sprinkling of orange daylilies, but these yellow flowers (Heliopsis I think) are definitely predominating.

There are telltale signs of autumn's imminence. Dry stalks, glimpses of turning leaves...

...and goldenrod. (Sigh. I'm not ready for summer to be over.)

I saw birds galore today. Sandhill cranes everywhere, including these three (and two more behind them) stalking solemnly through the grass:

And, perched in a treetop and no doubt looking for a teatime snack, this unidentified raptor:

I Googled "Wisconsin hawks" and "falcons" for all I was worth but couldn't find a match. Anybody out there have a name for this bird?

Down the road, my favourite giant clover field. That smudgy blur in the middle of the picture is a wild asparagus gone frothy.

A few hundred yards on, and a shadow fell over the field. Looking over my shoulder, I saw this very Cecil B. DeMille-ian cloud looming up behind me, dark around the edges but gilded by the sun in the middle. It soon passed overhead.

Here are the cornfields looking as if they'd been combed:

And some of the tallest, best-groomed soybeans I've ever seen. Such a lush green. Soon they'll start turning yellow too.

Another cornfield, much more accessible from the road. I like the tunnels between the rows.

Bug's eye view.

A lovely old barn foundation.

And further on, someone is trimming the verge.

I passed some giant thistles, at least 6 feet tall, covered with thistledown and goldfinches. (I wish that just once I could get a shot of goldfinches, but the little guys are too fast for me.)

Giant power lines buzzing overhead. Where is all that power going? Someone's life support machine, perhaps. A fan cooling a hot room. A freezer full of green beans. A computer on which a great novel is being written.

Around a few corners, I see the moon cradled in aspen leaves.

And a few miles further on, something earthier. Round hay bales all wrapped up in plastic...

...and Steerforth the steer eating a lonely supper. (At least I think it's a steer. I can never quite tell.)

A flag in someone's front yard. Long may she wave, though the stormclouds gather and credit ratings be downgraded!

More clouds piling up in the east. The small dark spots in the stubble field are sandhill cranes.

And just down the road, a glorious long stretch of thistles simply jammed with goldfinches and swallowtail butterflies. Of course the goldfinches got away, but the butterflies weren't so shy.

Grass seed head shining red in the westering sun.

And a final bucolic scene before I put away the camera.

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