Mark belongs to a book group that meets the last Sunday morning of the month. I join in when the book interests me and I'm willing to give up time in the garden. I went along this week as the garden is too wet to work in. The drive was absolutely lovely and reminded me again of what I love about where I live.
Drive ten minutes outside of Madison and you're in the country. We saw fields and terraced hills of corn as far as the eye could see.
This natural area, however, was almost as far as our friend's house about an hour from town.
The roads were lined with Queen Anne's lace and Chicory, a site that says summer in Wisconsin to me.
We also saw some low lying fields that were water-logged and the crops planted there had rotted away. A very sobering site. I may complain about my wet garden but it's not my livelihood like these crops are for farmers.
We could also see where the high winds had come through in the recent storms. Lots of huge branches and big old trees were down by the roadsides. There were a couple of downed trees where I hoped the vibrations from our truck driving by would not cause them to fall onto us.
It made driving on twisty and hilly roads with tree canopies meeting overhead a little disconcerting this time instead of its usual charming.
But our journey proved safe and uneventful. We arrived home to discover a little rainstorm had visited while we were gone. And we ended the day with a turkey play date in the garden. We've discovered the turkeys are nesting in the black walnut tree in the neighbor's yard.
A pair of moms (yes, two of them!) came for an evening stroll in the garden with a hoard of little ones. I guess that's what happens when you spend twenty years creating a beautiful habitat around your house — there are always visitors stopping by.
