A Partly Cloudy Ride With Pictures and the Three Great Things

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Faded old barns full of yesterdays
Shimmering cry of a hawk overhead
Long-legged pines reaching up to the sky

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Another postcard day today. The sun was quite warm, but when a cloud got in the way, the air temperature dropped noticeably.

Just had to take this picture on my way out of town.  Look at that blue sky.

A few miles out, I pass this empty barn. It's sad to see old farm buildings falling down, but I have to admit they're picturesque.

There are at least a dozen birds swooping and criss-crossing over this stream (although they don't show up very well in the photo). Looking for a snack, perhaps?

These trees never recovered from the 2008 tornado, but I think they look striking against that sky.

Around the corner and down a mile, and what do I spy in someone's yard? It's WAY too soon for this! Must be some kind of mutant tree. Or a very stressed one.

The zoom on my little digital cam was working well today. This wind turbine is at least 2 miles off (a mere speck on the horizon to my eyes) - the far-flung outpost of a wind farm going up in our county.

Around the next corner, a large shadow sweeps over me - a hawk swooping down out of the trees to my right. Its cry rings out just above my head. (An eerie sound, reminding me of the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings.) And of course my camera is in my back pocket.

Utility pole on steroids - or pylon, to my friends across the pond. (I never used to take pictures of these - must be Anne's influence. Check out her beautiful cycling pictures here.)

This has been an amazing year for Queen Anne's Lace. Here's one blossom head that's retiring for the summer. (Click to enlarge, and you'll see it holding little green hands to its face in horror at the thought of approaching autumn).

A spacious view. I love the green of the clover and those puffy little clouds floating in the deep, deep blue of the sky.

Now here's an old silo I never noticed before, although I've ridden down this road dozens of times. There are no houses nearby - just a crumbling barn foundation and a tumbledown, grapevine-covered shed. Once there was a farm here, and this is all that's left.

Miles later, in a small town, a rustic bridge on the far side of a marsh.

The clouds have rolled in. Suddenly the fields look a lot less green! But I can't resist taking a picture of these round bales. They remind me a bit of Shredded Wheat.

Although many of the thistles have gone to seed, I pass a thriving patch, mingling with heliopsis and these as-yet-unidentified but ubiquitous little white blossoms. I love this colour combination.

Wait a minute. Have I strayed into last week's post? No, I just got lucky again - a freshly gravelled road with a hill ahead (but only a small hill this time). They say that Wisconsin has only two seasons: winter and road construction. I'll give you one guess which season we're in now.

Around the corner and down a road I usually travel only once a year, these very tall pine trees reach for the sky. I'm on my way to check out some shorter ones...

...and here they are. This is the Christmas tree farm where we get our tree every year. The place is almost unrecognizable in summer. I'll be back here four months from now, trudging around in the snow, looking for the perfect tree.

Just a few miles from home now. As you can see, the sun has come back out. I turn into our driveway, and there it is, blazing forth from behind the last of the clouds.

Even the picture is almost too bright to look at!

A beautiful day and a very pleasant ride.

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