Wide Open Spaces

I live in the country and that's all I've ever known.

I can only imagine living in town

and I hope that's all I ever have to do--imagine it!

I need our wide open spaces...

whenever I've gone to any large city

I can't help but think, "how do people live in places like this?"

Houses so close to one another, cars everywhere, crowds, traffic--

no thanks, not for me!

While on my walk one day this week, I brought my camera along to take some pictures.

 from the bean field, looking across the road I walk on to the corn field opposite.

 just a bit further down the road, the slough where my boys hunt geese and ducks.

 further yet on my route, a close-up of more corn as the sun was peeking up on the horizon.

 This isn't ours;

I walk a mile away so that I get two miles of distance.

Nearly ever day as I approach this slough, a pair of deer bound away from the water's edge

and several ducks fly up and away.

 Opposite the slough I just mentioned,

the one on this side of the road is usually rather still.

I almost always hear splashes as I walk by but I can never see what it is that's making the splash.

I suppose some beaver or muskrat?

 This is the highway we live on.

I took this picture on my return route.

Every day I'm thankful for these wide open spaces!

I pretty much have the road to myself in the mornings;

I usually meet a school bus (and thank God my kids aren't on it)

and maybe a car or two.

A busy day might bring 10 cars past me, many days it's completely quiet.

I love the colors of every season.

When I walk by in the spring, the black earth is a stark contrast to budding trees.

As summer passes, everything is green and lush--the trees, the grasses, the crops.

In this season of early fall, the trees are still green but the corn and beans are a golden yellow.

The sumac's red and orange stand out brightly.

Soon enough, the trees will be changing and Dennis will plow the fields, returning them to black as they were in early spring.

I'm glad my kids get to grow up rurally,

with room to run, ride bike, or tromp in the woods--

and I'm glad I've got that room, too.