Yes, I took advantage of some alone time and loaded up my car with camera, power-ade, and lots of cds to play on my car stereo. It was very hot today, but wasn't so humid so the air was less hazy and I could get a few photographs without all the light refracting in such a way as being hard to capture the chosen image. I just drove around the curvy endless road that are spilled across this valley in what seems like no rhyme or reason. It's frustrating because it seems as if every turn has a killer semi, pulling lumber or something else heavy just hauling down the ribbons of quiet country lanes like they are on the damn autobahn.
The roads I traveled were lovely, as usual, and while there are times where you are suffocated by heavy brush and vine thickets on each side of the road, you can also just turn a corner and you are presented with a scene right out of a travel magazine with horse farms, with neatly trimmed meadows filled with magnificent horses scattered across the property. These wonderful little farms, villages, and horse ranches really give the valley here a comforting feeling of solace to me....a break from my overwhelming stress over life as I will see something maybe just in a glance and will back my car up, get out and shoot the photograph.
I spent a couple of hours driving through the valley, but every few minutes I would catch a view of the mountain range rising from the land to the east like sentinels keeping guard over this precious valley.
I love how many of the old farmsteads are still up and standing despite years of abuse from the wind, rain, sleet, and snow.... It really helps to lend a nice country air to the proceedings.
One of my favorite things to come across are the little creek and stream crossings.....these bridges range from fully up to date concrete spans to these little crossings under the shade of massive and ancient oaks and pines, where you have to line up your tires to the two wooden slats thrown down for your wheels, and as I pass over I will stop, roll down my window and admire a crystal clear stream or brook that has come directly down from the mountain ridges into the valley on it's way to the big rolling river that flows just a short few miles distance to the west.
I did get some pictures and I really loved getting out and doing what I love best.......to explore the endless tangle of roads winding through the knobs and hills scattered across the valley. Wild turkey and deer are usually out in abundance, but I didnt see any today as the full heat of the afternoon has forced the animals into the cool hollows and glens of the deep forest which still are nearly impenetrable and rugged, and so spared from the "progress" of how our little community was carved out for it's growth.
I had a great time today and it was nice to be out doing what I love.... exploring and shooting landscape photography.
