Friday, August 24, 2012

Come Take a Ride With Me

My buddy, Catherine, who I take photo jaunts with, has been out of town on vacation for a couple of weeks.  I just happen to run into her yesterday when I stopped to get a smoothie (that was absolutely delicious by the way).  She had returned the evening prior and when she spotted me the first thing she asked was if I was ready to take another trip to the country to capture one of our favorite subjects....barns.  Yep, always ready for a trip to the country.  But this time not only is Catherine coming with me but so are you.  Ready?

First on the agenda is a stop at McDonald's...Catherine orders a large iced tea, no ice, unsweetened with a 1/2 inch of sweet tea on the bottom.  Took me awhile to remember all that, but I've got it down pat now.  I usually get an egg burrito...easy to eat and just enough to get me through until lunch...wherever that might be.  And then we are off.  Where we are going or what we may see, we never know.  We usually head west and then turn down whatever road that might look interesting and then the fun begins.

Today we found some wonderful treasures....let me show you a few.  The first barn we came across was this beauty with it's grey siding, white trim and red roof....isn't this just about perfect?!


We continued down the road, turning at an interesting gravel road and came upon a field of horses, grazing silently in the fields.  The golden rod is now in bloom which has turned the countryside to a golden yellow.


The purple blooming thistle is a welcome brightness among the brown dried heads....


With Fall is beginning to make an appearance .....


It is pretty darn flat in Illinois, but we do have a few rolling albeit small hills....well, I guess you could probably just call them bumps and not rolling hills.


As we drove we saw more and more horses and it became obvious that this area was horse country.  There were several horse farms for boarding and training in the area....Beautiful horses and all very well cared for. 


You know the proverbial "grass is always greener"...obviously this horse seemed to think the grass must taste greener on the other side.


Another couple of barns we stopped to enjoy.


This one looked like it had just been freshly painted...it was such a bright red.


And to put icing on the cake on this wonderful drive in the country...we came across a small field of sunflowers.  Oh do I love sunflowers.  The sky had become quite blue and the sunflowers were absolutely glorious.  Nothing says summer quite like red barns and bright golden sunflowers.  



I hope you enjoyed our ride in the country.  Catherine and I do this quite often in all kinds of weather. We never seem to take the same path twice, although sometimes I wish we could find some of the barns we have seen in the past in different seasons. (note to self, take notes)

Do you enjoy taking off to places unknown, not knowing exactly where you are headed?  Treasures await...you just have to find them.

Our month of "barns" is almost over.  I encourage you to post on our flickr page any barn you find on your adventures, you just may be featured here as our "photo of the week".  Thanks!!  And don't forget our linky party that posted yesterday.  Come join and play.

"While the right friends are near us, we feel that all is well.  Our everyday life blossoms suddenly into bright possibilities."  ~  Helen Keller

Until next time......

16 comments:

greenthumb said...

Hi I just found your lovely Blog I adore your photos I will follow along and see what you get up to.

Karen Lakis said...

Thank you for such a fun, refreshing ride! Lovely images!

terriporter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
terriporter said...

Spectacular photos! I love looking at the first photo in a post and trying to guess who's turn it is to write today. (I still don't have the schedule memorized after almost eight months!) This is one I knew right off the bat. Your photography is so distinctive and your writing so "you". I feel like I've been on this adventure right along side you. I remember way back in one of the Picture classes when I began to recognize your photos from the thumbnails. I think it's wonderful to have a style that is so distinctive! And one of these days I'm going to come and go on one of these jaunts with you and Catherine!

hootnonny said...

Thanks for ride through the countryside. The ride was very fruitful; the images are lovely!

Viv@Thoughts from the Desktop said...

Thanks so much for taking me with you on your drive what lovely photos . We don't have the same sort of barns in the UK and not so pretty either...

Claudia said...

Simply breath taking. Like Terri said, your style is so fantastic! Each one of these photos is study worthy! And I will do just that. I am going to take a jaunt with you some day. You know I am hunting you down :)

Hugs my friend.

Claudia

Dotti said...

Beautiful drive through rural midwest scenery! You do barns beautifully, my friend! But, oh, the sunflower farm really was the icing on the cake, wasn't it? This month has allowed us all to go traveling both virtually and in our real lives and on Monday I'll be taking us on a little tour, too. How much fun we've had!!!

:-D

Kim Stevens said...

Holy cow batman! I always just adore your drives through the countryside and as they said above me, you do barns beautifully!! But one thing I have noticed in all our searches for barns, it seems that the settings they are in don't give away what state we are all in...rural is rural. And as for me, well I would go on an adventure everyday if I had enough gas money! lol

Linda said...

I felt like I was along for the ride! Great writing! What a nice trip you had and sharing it with a friend makes it even better. Fantastic pictures (as always!)

xo,
Linda

janice said...

how fun to have someone that loves to get lost with you in the countryside... beautiful captures Deanna!

heyjudephotography said...

Thanks for taking us all along with you and Catherine. Your day sounds wonderful, your photos prove that it was!

radish38 said...

This was a terrific post. Good pictures, good barns.

Carol said...

Every day gets better and better. These barn shots are just gorgeous in composition , color, texture. I just love this post and wish I was there for your day. Oh wait a minute, I was!

Ahayes1225 said...

Very nice photos. I really like the double sunflower photo. I have so many bent heads in my garden now.

stephmull said...

I love that you took me along with you on your adventure through your story and your beautiful photos! Such a fun way to end my week! Thank you!

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