Summer Rides and a Yarn Swap

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!

Today I enjoyed the freedom of riding past well-decked barns:

The freedom to stop and photograph flowers by the roadside:

Heliopsis

Common Milkweed

Hoary Vetch

Soapwort or Bouncing Bet

Wild Bergamot

The freedom of the road:

And the freedom to hang colourful laundry out to dry:

(Hanging out laundry may not seem very exciting, but clothesline-banning is shockingly widespread in the Land of the Free. I'm grateful to live in a village that lets me air my clean laundry.)

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Here are more ride photos, all taken in the last couple of weeks:

Fleabane

Rough-Coated Cinquefoil

Baaaaa.....

A favourite tree

Turkey feather caught in the grass

Wild roses

Hay bales stored in what a friend used to call "the big barn" 

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Two Sundays ago I rode over to the Wisconsin River....

Tributary stream crossed on the way

The Wisconsin River, showing the effects of recent heavy rain

Tallulah trying to get a drink

 Fascinatingly terse sign glimpsed on the way home

Crown Vetch, corn, wooded hills, and blue skies

Isn't Wisconsin beautiful? :)

Tallulah riding point

Noble trees

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And from last week:

Wild daylilies

Noontime shadow

Amish buggy with interesting shadows of its own

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Kathy B of compassionknit recently hosted a fun swap. Participants were to exchange a button, something red-white-and-blue, and yarn.

Kathy drew my name, and here's what she sent me:

A cool eagle button, a fun patriotic dishcloth...

... and a GORGEOUS sock blank!

Thanks again Kathy! I've never worked with a sock blank before. It will be fun to see what I can make from it.

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Though my photos all look sunny and bright, we've had plenty of thunderstorms, grey cloudy days, and rain. (Lots of rain.) But that's how summer goes in Wisconsin.

How's your summer going so far?

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