Just a couple of quick shots off my phone from last night. I was in the cornfields waiting for my daughter to finish her horse ride and the weather was so perfect, the skies so calm with a little wisp of clouds.
I took pictures with my big camera too, but I haven't had any time to download them. The kids' homework has started in earnest now, and last night was a little crazy.
Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday.
We've added a new element to our visits to the stable - trail riding.
The stable owner pointed us down the county road, where the grass grows between the rows of corn and beans. These grassy areas are where the field drainage tiles are laid, providing a path for water overrun during heavy rains. This prevents the planting areas from being flooded. I think the farmers use these paths during planting and harvest time - a way to get their combines in and out of the fields.
In the spring, these areas are swollen with water from the rains, but in the summer and fall, the grass grows lush and green:
A picture from my archives, September 2010
We walked the horses down to the entrance to the grassy path and then the girls took off with their horses, through the corn:
We couldn't keep up with the horses, so we let them go ahead around the bend.
The trail only goes for about a mile and a half before dead ending in a field. The girls know better than to go riding through a farmer's field, so they turned around and came cantering back.
You know those scenes in the movies where the horse and its rider gallop along the beach, the wind blowing the girl's hair like a flowing mane? Picture that scene, except with corn instead of the beach. The girls and the horses looked so free and happy.
So that makes me happy, too.
I must have yellow on my brain - my last post from a week ago featured a yellow flower and today it's a sea of yellow.
Life has been crazy, hence the lack of posts. With all the end of school field trips, concerts, promotion ceremonies added on to the routine stuff, I haven't had the time. Things will settle down after this week, thank goodness!
I took these pictures last week - as the sea of yellow in the fields only lasts until the farmers plow them away to plant soybeans or the yellow flowers fade away.
I know the flowers are weeds, but they are so pretty to look at when driving down the country roads.
No Team Up Thursday this week - Lee is visiting her sister in warm, sunny Arizona.
But in the spirit of Team Up Thursday, I prepared a diptych - scenes from the fields in Spring.
The daffodils are fairly common, but the purple haze only appears in the cornfields until the farmers plow them away. I'm sure they are weeds, but they transform the brown fields into fields of purple ripples. Then, like the sunny daffodils, they are gone. Such is the fleeting of Spring.
This swath of grass resembles a river cutting through the prairie. It's less pronounced in the winter and growing season, but now, with the beans ripening to a golden hue, can't you see it?
Due to a warm April, wet May, and hot, hot, hot June, July and August, harvest has come early this year. Especially when compared to last year, with its colder than normal summer.
Most of the farmers rotate crops each year - if they plant corn in a field, the next year, they will plant soybeans in that same field. I remember this field was filled with corn last year.
Summertime, and the inevitable road construction.
What? No orange cones or road work signs? That's because they are off to the right, and I chose to look out to my left to take some pictures. Because I was completely stopped.
I might have to take the local highway instead of the Interstate Highway tomorrow. Then again, I might get caught behind a big combine then....
I see these yellow flowers in the fields every spring. I'm pretty sure they are weeds, but when you drive by these large swaths of bright yellow, it's hard to consider them as such.
Because of the super warm April, many farmers have planted their corn and are working on the beans. Contrast this to last year, when many of the crops didn't go in until June.
We didn't see rows like this so early.
Every Tuesday, as I travel to violin lessons, I pass by this cornfield that still has standing corn in it. I think that next week, it won't be there. But here it is, the last week of January, and the corn still stands.
The sky is completely "faked" - a gradient fill layer because I blew out the sky with my ISO 800 and F2.8 aperture settings with the SUN shining through the clouds. I was so happy to see the sun that I couldn't delete the photo. Because 30 minutes later, the sun was gone again.
I tried to capture the corn that is still standing in the fields*, but didn't get a decent shot, so this stubbly field will have to do today. 
*yes, there are fields out there with corn that hasn't been harvested yet, and I wonder when they'll get to it, or if it will just hang around all winter long
A little closer than my typical "drive by shots" of the cornfield. These stalks are less than a 0.25 mile from the house.
So ready to be sucked in by that combine:
I read that this has been a very late harvest, with work that will continue into mid December!
And working hard. Freshly harvested corn is fed into a grain truck. Next stop, the grain elevator, where business is brisk these days.
I took the picture above while stopped at an intersection. Once I turned and headed west, I shot into the sunset:
I travel these roads once a week to take my daughter to horse riding lessons. But with the time change, the perspective has drastically changed today.
Harvest, in full swing now, and the most common color is "John Deere Green".
Golden stalks of corn swaying in the wind. Yellow soybeans withered in the fields. Combines and grain trucks in the road. Signs of the impending harvest.
As I drove down this country road, I marveled at the blue sky, cottony clouds and golden fields.
I am often asked questions and comments about my photography - what location, what camera, what settings, etc. The camera question aside (i...
A chemical engineer working in IT, Wife to Scott, Mom to two great kids + two cats, one horse and numerous fish. Photographer, marathoner, musician, yogi and gourmet cook. I don't think there is time for more, but I'm sure I missed something!
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