Backroads of Morrow County Update:
The last harvest has begun. There are several harvest times here in the country. The first one starts in late spring and is, in a sense, perpetual. Hay. Whenever the grass in a field gets high up, the hay bales appear. I love them. Sitting on the hillside, complimented by a cloudless blue sky, beautiful. Restful even. The symbol of the serenity of the backroads. A second harvest occurs mid-summer. And I don't like it. Wheat. I lo...ve the golden fields of wheat reflecting the sunlight. But, alas, they disappear. Usually, the stubble is turned into hay as well. I wish the gold fields rippling in the country breeze never needed harvesting. The third and last harvests at times overlap. Soybeans and corn. They, too, are more beautiful in the summer. The tall green corn reaching for the sky is particulary lovely. But they both dry out and need gathering. Usually the beans go first. Nightime harvests this week. In the morning it's as if the fields never had a thing on them. Magic. Flat contours reaching for the horizon. The corn, which has just started to be harvested, will leave a stubble--often through the winter. I do enjoy cruising the backroads watching the monster machines devour the harvest. And I love the emptiness they leave behind. The world grows larger in the fall. The backroads now have hills with bales of hay, empty land that once held soy beans, and the stubble of old corn fields. And except for the monsters at work, i love the beauty of it all. And in the night, even the monsters have an eerie beauty of their own. Backroads. Remember, drive slow.
